Simpson, M J
Entry updated 24 November 2025. Tagged: Author, Critic.
(1968- ) UK author, journalist and critic, initially active in Fandom, who began to publish work of genre interest with reviews and event reports in the British Science Fiction Association newsletter Matrix from October 1989. He was a staff writer for SFX magazine from its launch in June 1995 to 1998, contributing numerous book and Cinema reviews in its first year and becoming deputy editor before his departure.
Simpson's first book-length work was The Pocket Essentials Hitchhiker's Guide (2001; rev 2001; exp rev 2005), a nonfiction study of Douglas Adams and The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He also wrote Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams (2003). Later works are studies of UK horror films beginning with Urban Terrors: New British Horror Cinema: 1997-2008 (coll 2012) and continuing with the ambitious self-published sequence 21st Century British Horror Films [see Checklist below], covering its subject matter in considerable detail up to his self-imposed cutoff year of 2019. [DRL]
Michael John Simpson
born Basford, Nottinghamshire: 17 February 1968
works
nonfiction
series
21st Century British Horror Films
- Dog Soldiers and Doghouses (2000-2011) (place not known: for the author, 2020) [nonfiction: coll: 21st Century British Horror Films: pb/photocollage]
- White Settlers and Women in Black (2012-2015) (place not known: for the author, 2021) [nonfiction: coll: 21st Century British Horror Films: pb/photocollage]
- Killer Clowns and Demonic Dolls (2016-2019) (place not known: for the author, 2022) [nonfiction: coll: 21st Century British Horror Films: pb/photocollage]
- Addendum: Unreleased and Incomplete (2000-2019) (place not known: for the author, 2023?) [nonfiction: coll: 21st Century British Horror Films: pb/photocollage]
nonfiction: individual titles
- The Pocket Essentials Hitchhiker's Guide (Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials, 2001) [nonfiction: chap: pb/photographic]
- The Pocket Essentials Hitchhiker's Guide (Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials, 2001) [nonfiction: chap: rev of the above: pb/photographic]
- The Pocket Essentials Hitchhiker's Guide (Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials, 2005) [nonfiction: much exp rev of the above: pb/photographic]
- The Pocket Essentials Hitchhiker's Guide (Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials, 2001) [nonfiction: chap: rev of the above: pb/photographic]
- Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Official Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (London: Titan Books, 2003) with David K Dickson and Neil Gaiman [nonfiction: rev of 1993 edition by Gaiman solo and 1995 edition by Dickson and Gaiman: hb/]
- Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2003) [nonfiction: hb/photographic]
- Urban Terrors: New British Horror Cinema: 1997-2008 (Hailsham, East Sussex: Hemlock Books: 2012) [nonfiction: coll: pb/]
links
- M J Simpson: Cult films and the people who make them
- British Horror Revival blog
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Internet Movie Database
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