Best-known pseudonym of UK writer Reginald Alec Martin (1908-1971), whose Kemlo sequence of Children's SF novels – beginning with Kemlo and the Crazy Planet (1954) and ending fifteen volumes later with Kemlo and the Masters of Space (1963) – had a powerful emotional impact on many of their youthful UK readers, shaping the thoughts of an entire generation towards sf. Kemlo and his friends, living with their parents in Space Habitats, are young adolescents of the first generation to be born in space, and can therefore breathe vacuum. Despite this staggering implausibility, the tales of the children's adventures are reasonably enjoyable for their type and vintage. The space-station settings, with families and above all children routinely Up There, were innovative, at least for children's sf; the characters seemed real, rather than being grim-jawed adult male heroes or indestructible precocious superbrats; and the books as a whole are comparable in quality with those being produced at about the same time by, for example, Captain W E Johns, or – at a more adult level – by Charles Chilton. A second, much shorter series, the Tas books, stopped after Tas and the Space Machine (1955) and Tas and the Postal Rocket (1955), set – as was much 1950s British sf about spaceflight – in the wide open spaces of Australia. Martin also wrote adult sf as Rafe Bernard (who see for details), and non-fantastic tales as by Rex Dixon. [JC/DRL]

see also: Juvenile Series.

Reginald Alec Martin

born 11 January 1908 [often wrongly given as 1900]

died Cuckfield, Sussex: 1971

works as by Rafe Bernard

• The Wheel in the Sky (London: Ward Lock, 1954) [hb/]
• The Halo Highway (London: Corgi, 1967) [tie: Invaders: pb/]
  • Army of the Undead: An Invaders Adventure (New York: Pyramid, 1967) [tie: vt of the above: Invaders: pb/]

works

The publisher occasionally re-spelled the pseudonym as Eliot; we do not register these variations below.

Kemlo

• Kemlo and the Crazy Planet (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1954) [Kemlo: illus/hb/R J Jobson]
• Kemlo and the Zones of Silence (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1954) [Kemlo: illus/hb/R J Jobson]
• Kemlo and the Sky Horse (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1954) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Martian Ghosts (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1954) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Craters of the Moon (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1955) [Kemlo: illus/hb//Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Space Lanes (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1955) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Star Men (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1955) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Gravity Rays (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1956) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Purple Dawn (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1957) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the End of Time (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1957) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Zombie Men (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1958) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]
• Kemlo and the Space Men (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1959) [Kemlo: illus/hb/George Craig]
• Kemlo and the Satellite Builders (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1960) [Kemlo: illus/hb/George Craig]
• Kemlo and the Space Invaders (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1961) [Kemlo: illus/hb/George Craig]
• Kemlo and the Masters of Space (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1963) [Kemlo: illus/hb/Bruce Cornwell]

Tas

• Tas and the Space Machine (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1955) [Tas: illus/hb/A Bruce Cornwell]
• Tas and the Postal Rocket (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1955) [Tas: illus/hb/A Bruce Cornwell]

links

Previous versions of this entry

• 20/10/2011