Alan Mahar (born 1949) is an English author and publisher.

Biography

Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, Mahar studied at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

before moving to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

in 1976, working at

Solihull College Solihull College & University Centre, formerly called Solihull Technical College, is a further education college located in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands, England. The College has two main campuses; the Blossomfield ...

and living first in

Sparkhill Sparkhill is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, situated between Springfield, Hall Green and Sparkbrook. Historically part of Worcestershire, Sparkhill once existed as a rural area with its main industry being agriculture until the 18 ...

and then in

Moseley Moseley is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants. The area also has a number of boutiques and ot ...

. He was a founder of the Tindal Street Fiction Group in 1982, and of the

Tindal Street Press Tindal Street Press was a Birmingham-based independent publisher of contemporary literary fiction, with a particular focus on writers born, or living, in Birmingham and the West Midlands. According to its website, it was "a publicly funded organis ...

, where he is now the Publishing Director, in 1998. His 1999 novel ''Flight Patterns'' told the story of a French parachutist in

in 1957, while his 2002 second novel ''After the Man Before'' concerns

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

in 1980s Birmingham. Mahar has had short stories published in journals including the ''

London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

'' and ''

Critical Quarterly ''Critical Quarterly'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by Wiley (publisher), Wiley. The editor-in-chief is Colin MacCabe. The journal notably published the Black Papers on education starting in 1969. Hi ...

''.

Published works

* ''Flight Patterns'' (Gollancz, 1999) * ''After the Man Before'' (Methuen, 2002)

References

Living people 1949 births Publishers from Liverpool People from Birmingham, West Midlands Novelists from Liverpool English male novelists English male short story writers English short story writers 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers {{publish-bio-stub