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Britton, David
(1945-2020) UK publisher and author, founder with Michael Butterworth (and briefly Charles Partington) of Savoy Books in 1976 in Manchester, whose early list included works by Michael Moorcock, Charles Platt and Jack Trevor Story. With Butterworth, he edited The Savoy Book (anth 1978) and Savoy Dreams (anth 1984), which attempted with some success to demonstrate the anti-establishment ethos of the house, an ethos that brought both Britton and Butterworth into conflict with the UK obscenity laws, Britton himself being jailed for twenty-eight days in 1982. Several years later, copies of his first novel, Lord Horror (1989) with Michael Butterworth (uncredited), a scatological examination of Nazism and the UK traitor Lord Haw-Haw which made use of pornographic imagery upsetting to the Manchester police, were seized. Although a police-incited ban on the novel was lifted, the Manchester police force instigated Britton's arrest in 1993 for selling through the Savoy bookshop books "deemed" obscene, though from other publishers; on this occasion he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment. A Graphic Novel version of some of the same material, Lord Horror (graph in 14 parts 1990-2000), was also produced [for details see Checklist]. The novel – which depicts the survival in Burma of Hitler and Lord Haw-Haw – was clearly, if very offensively, a Satire; and the destruction order on remaining copies of the text was duly and properly lifted by a UK court in July 1992 – although the confiscated copies were not in fact returned and the book remains difficult, but not impossible, to find; the Hard Core Horror miniseries remains banned. Though it is difficult to fix the reality level of the fever dreams of an insane Hitler who has survived the world, the overall tale clearly flirts with Hitler Wins material, but is more properly an Alternate History in which World War Two, the attendant Holocaust and its consequences are seen in terms of extravagantly distressing burlesque japes (see Holocaust Fiction).
The next two Lord Horror sequels – Motherfuckers: The Auschwitz of Oz (1996) and Baptised in the Blood of Millions: A Novel of Fucking Holocaust Terror (2001), all sequels being edited by Butterworth – were almost certainly just as offensive to officialdom in their tracing of the career of Britton's Lord Haw-Haw, with excursions backwards into the Holocaust itself, but no further actions were taken to attempt to defend UK citizens from the violence of Britton's feelings about the obscenities of Nazism. The next volume of the sequence, La Squab: The Black Rose of Auschwitz (2012), refocuses its satire on English children's fantasies – including The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) – as Lord Horror leads the way down the Thames to a Steampunk London conceived in Urban Fantasy terms [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], where a version of Auschwitz is discovered in deep waters; Invictus Horror (2013) and Razor King (2017) perhaps less intensely further the action, and the final volume, Old Death (2022), explicitly drafted while Britton was dying, is indeed a dying fall into silence. The sequence as a whole is an exemplary demonstration of the range and impact of contemporary horror (see Horror in SF) at its most intense. [JC]
David Britton
born Manchester, England: 18 February 1945
died Manchester, England: 29 December 2020
works
series
Lord Horror
- Lord Horror (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1989) with Michael Butterworth (uncredited) [dated 1990 but published 1989: Lord Horror: hb/Harry Douthwaite]
- Motherfuckers: The Auschwitz of Oz (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1996) [Lord Horror: hb/based on William Blake]
- Baptised in the Blood of Millions: A Novel of Fucking Holocaust Terror (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2001) [Lord Horror: hb/John Coulthart]
- Horror Panegyric (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2008) with Keith Seward [nonfiction: Lord Horror: hb/]
- La Squab: The Black Rose of Auschwitz (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2012) [Lord Horror: illus/Kris Guidio: hb/John Coulthart]
- Invictus Horror (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2013) [Lord Horror: illus/hb/Kris Guidio]
- Razor King (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2017) [Lord Horror: illus/Kris Guidio: hb/John Coulthart]
- Old Death (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2022) [Lord Horror: illus/Kris Guidio: hb/John Coulthart]
graphic works (selected)
series
Lord Horror
- Lord Horror 1: Born-Again-Atomic-Bomb-Horror (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1989) with Kris Guidio [graph: Lord Horror: pb/Harry Douthwaite and Kris Guidio]
- Lord Horror 2: Romance of Sword and Book (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1989) by Kris Guidio [graph: art and text are by Guidio: Lord Horror: pb/Harry Douthwaite and Kris Guidio]
Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror
- Lord Horror 3: Hard Core Horror 1: The Romance of Lord Horror and Jessie Matthews (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1990) with Kris Guidio and Harry Douthwaite [graph: Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror: pb/Harry Douthwaite]
- Lord Horror 4: Hard Core Horror 2: Churchill's Tick-Tock Men (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1990) with Kris Guidio, Harry Douthwaite and John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror: pb/Harry Douthwaite, Kris Guidio and John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror 5: Hard Core Horror 3: Horror Time for Hitler (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1990) with Kris Guidio and John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror: pb/Kris Guidio and John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror 6: Hard Core Horror 4: Entropy Going Down Slow (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1990) with Kris Guidio [graph: Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror: pb/Kris Guidio and John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror 7: Hard Core Horror 5: King Horror Zero (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1990) with John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror: pb/John Coulthart]
Lord Horror: Reverbstorm
- Lord Horror 8: Reverbstorm 1: Our Lord of Fuck Off (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1994) with John Coulthart and Kris Guidio [graph: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/John Coulthart and Kris Guidio]
- Lord Horror 9: Reverbstorm 2: The Land of Love-It-To-Death (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1994) with John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror 10: Reverbstorm 3: The Big Beat of Apes (Bo Diddley Meets William Hope Hodgson) (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1994) with John Coulthart and Kris Guidio [graph: William Hope Hodgson: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/John Coulthart and Kris Guidio]
- Lord Horror 11: Reverbstorm 4: The Auschwitz of Oz (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1995) with John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror 12: Reverbstorm 5: The Running Dogs of Anthony Powell (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1996) with John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror 13: Reverbstorm 6: The Razor Kings on Mars (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1997) with John Coulthart and Kris Guidio [graph: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/The Inimitable Miss M]
- Lord Horror 14: Reverbstorm 7: Juden Wars l (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2000) with John Coulthart [graph: Lord Horror: Reverbstorm: pb/John Coulthart]
- Lord Horror: Reverbstorm (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2012) with John Coulthart [omni of the above seven: graph: rev plus additional material: illus/hb/John Coulthart]
works as editor
- The Savoy Book (London: Savoy Books, 1978) with Michael Butterworth [anth: pb/from Holman Hunt]
- Savoy Dreams: The Secret Life of Savoy Books (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 1984) with Michael Butterworth [anth: hb/]
about the author
- Keith Seward. Horror Panegyric (Manchester, England: Savoy Books, 2008) [nonfiction: plus excerpts from Lord Horror texts: hb/John Coulthart]
links
Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 13:34 pm on 16 February 2025.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/britton_david>