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Smith, Guy N

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1939-2020) UK author and book dealer best known for his prolific output of horror novels, generally rough-hewn but with a Pulp-ish or B-movie vigour that gained him a considerable cult following. His novel debut was the Werewolf tale Werewolf by Moonlight (1974) as Guy Smith, with two sequels following. He first achieved real commercial success with Night of the Crabs (1976; exp 2009), introducing what was to become his trademark Horror in SF trope of giant man-eating crabs; in this and subsequent volumes of the Crabs sequence these Monsters attack various UK coastal areas, causing mayhem and general alarm, though not without lapses into bathos as in the first book's invasion of a seaside holiday camp: "The crabs were spoiling everybody's holiday...."

This author's numerous variations on the monster theme include Bats out of Hell (1978) and Locusts (1979), in which Britain is afflicted with the respective titular plagues of bats (here disease-carrying Mutants) and devouring insects. Also of sf interest is Thirst (1980), in which a tanker-load of implausibly virulent (and flammable) weedkiller Poison enters the water supply of Birmingham and – amid widespread agony and death – there is a race to develop an antidote. Warhead (1981) features a Technofantasy interaction between advanced Weapons Technology and voodoo gods (see Gods and Demons).

In the twenty-first century Smith republished much of his earlier work, with new additions, through his Small Press Black Hill Books, named for his second-hand book dealing operation. [DRL]

see also: Nexus.

Guy Newman Smith

born Hopwas, Staffordshire: 21 November 1939

died Clunton, Shropshire: 24 December 2020

works (selected)

series

Werewolf

Pit

Slime Beast

Crabs

Death Bell

  • Death Bell (London: Hamlyn Books, 1980) [Death Bell: pb/]
    • Deathbell (New York: Pocket Books, 1981) as Guy Smith [vt of the above: Death Bell: pb/]
  • Demons (London: Arrow Books, 1987) [Death Bell: pb/Terry Oakes]

Thirst

  • Thirst (London: New English Library, 1980) [Thirst: pb/David McAllister]
  • The Plague (London: New English Library, 1987) [Thirst: pb/]

Sabat

Sergeant John Mayo/Black Fedora

  • The Black Fedora (London: Sphere Books, 1991) [Sergeant John Mayo/Black Fedora: pb/Luis Rey]
  • The Knighton Vampires (London: Piatkus, 1993) [Sergeant John Mayo/Black Fedora: hb/Luis Rey]
  • Satanic Armageddon (no place given: Sinister Horror Company, 2021) [Sergeant John Mayo/Black Fedora: pb/Mike McGee]

Jason Ford

  • The Eighth Day (Clunton, Shropshire: Black Hill Books, 2011) [ebook: Jason Ford: na/]
  • Psalm 151 (Clunton, Shropshire: Black Hill Books, 2013) [Jason Ford: pb/]

individual titles

collections and stories

  • The Cadaver (Clunton, Shropshire: Black Hill Books, 1991) [coll: chap: pb/Tara Hill]
  • The Decoy (place not ascertained: Ghostwriter Publications, 2009) [story: chap: pb/]
  • The Doll (place not ascertained: Ghostwriter Publications, 2009) [story: chap: pb/]
  • Hangman's Hotel and Other Stories (Clunton, Shropshire: Black Hill Books, 2015) [coll: pb/]
  • From the Dark Hours (no place given: Sinister Horror Company, 2021) [coll: pb/Mike McGee]

nonfiction (highly selected)

links

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