Guy N. Smith
| Guy Newman Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1939 Hopwas, Staffordshire |
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality | English |
| Genre | Horror fiction, Fantasy, Children's literature, Non-fiction |
Guy Newman Smith (born 1939, Hopwas, Staffordshire) is a prolific English writer best known for his pulp fiction-style horror fiction, though he has also written non-fiction, softcore pornography, and children's literature.
Smith wrote his first horror book, Werewolf by Moonlight, in 1974. It spawned two direct sequels. He is probably best known for a series of six Crabs books, the first of which, Night of the Crabs, was published in 1976. The series chronicles invasions by giant man-eating crabs of various areas of British coastline. In 1980 a film adaptation, Island Claws, came out.
The pulpish nature of Smith's concepts and writing are legendary in the horror fiction world and have been spoofed by the award winning comedian and writer Matthew Holness in his Garth Marenghi persona.
Smith has had over a thousand short stories and magazine articles published. He has written a series of children's books under the pseudonym Jonathon Guy, two thrillers under the name Gavin Newman, and a dozen non-fiction books on countryside matters. However, he is best known for his 70 or so horror books. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural considers Smith's horror novels "endearing, imbued with lively storytelling and the tacky brilliance of the horror and science fiction cinema of the 1950s". On the other hand, the horror critic R.S. Hadji included Smith's novel The Sucking Pit on his list of the worst horror novels ever written.
Smith's work mixes sex, violence, gore and self-conscious humour. Despite his reputation in some quarters as being a hack writer, Smith's novels enjoyed considerable popularity in Poland in the early 1990s, having been cheaply translated and published as pocket editions by the Phantom Press publishing house.
A lifelong pipe smoker, he won the British pipe smoking championship in 2003. He collects pipes and smoking ephemera and has also written a book on tobacco, Tobacco Culture: A DIY Guide. He is also an active pro-smoking campaigner. He is married to Jean and they have four adult children.
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Wikipedia