Michael John Harrison (born 26 July 1945), known for publication purposes primarily as M. John Harrison, is an English author and literary critic.
[Kelley, George. "Harrison, M(ichael) John" in Jay P. Pederson (.ed) ''St. James guide to science fiction writers''. New York: St. James Press., 1996. (pp. 422-3).] His work includes the
Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories (1971–1984), ''
Climbers'' (1989), and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, which consists of ''
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
'' (2002), ''
Nova Swing
''Nova Swing'' is a science fiction novel by M. John Harrison published in 2006. It takes place in the same universe as ''Light''. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick Awards in 2007.
Overview
''Nova Swing'' takes place lo ...
'' (2006) and ''Empty Space'' (2012).
He is widely considered one of the major stylists of modern
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
and
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
, and a "genre contrarian".
[ Robert Macfarlane has said: "Harrison is best known as one of the restless fathers of modern SF, but to my mind he is among the most brilliant novelists writing today, with regard to whom the question of genre is an irrelevance."] The ''Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to '' The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' described him as "a singular stylist" and the ''Literary Review'' called him "a witty and truly imaginative writer".
Life and career
Early years
Harrison was born in Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby is a market town in eastern Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon. In the 2021 census its population was 78,125, making it the second-largest town in Warwickshire. It is the main settlement within the larger Borough of Rugby whi ...
, in 1945 to an engineering family. His father died when he was a teenager and he found himself "bored, alienated, resentful and entrapped", playing truant from Dunsmore School (now Ashlawn School
Ashlawn School (or simply Ashlawn), is a large partially selective secondary school located in the Hillmorton area of Rugby, Warwickshire, England that specialises in science, computing and leadership. It is one of only five bilateral schools ...
).[ An English teacher introduced him to ]George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
which resulted in an interest in polemic.[ He ended school during 1963 at age 18; he worked at various times as a groom (for the Atherstone Hunt), a student teacher (1963–65), and a clerk for the Royal Masonic Charity Institute, London (1966). His hobbies included ]electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
s and writing pastiches of H. H. Munro.[Jacket blurb, M. John Harrison, ''The Committed Men''. London: New Authors Limited, 1971]
His first short story was published during 1966 by Kyril Bonfiglioli at ''Science Fantasy'' magazine, on the strength of which he relocated to London. He there met Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
, who was editing ''New Worlds'' magazine.[ He began writing reviews and short fiction for ''New Worlds'', and by 1968 he was appointed books editor.][ Harrison was critical of what he perceived as the complacency of much genre fiction of the time. During 1970, Harrison scripted comic stories illustrated by R.G. Jones for such forums as '' Cyclops'' and ''Finger''.] An illustration by Jones appears in the first edition of Harrison's ''The Committed Men'' (1971).
In an interview with ''Zone'' magazine, Harrison says "I liked anything bizarre, from being about four years old. I started on Dan Dare and worked up to the Absurdists. At 15 you could catch me with a pile of books that contained an Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, incl ...
, a Samuel Beckett, a Charles Williams, the two or three available J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass med ...
's, ''On the Road'' by Jack Kerouac, some Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...
, some Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
, maybe a Thorne Smith
James Thorne Smith, Jr. (March 27, 1892 – June 20, 1934) was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two ''Topper'' novels, comic fantasy fiction involving se ...
. I've always been pick 'n' mix: now it's a philosophy."
1968–1975: ''New Worlds'', ''The Committed Men'', ''The Pastel City'', and ''The Centauri Device''
From 1968 to 1975 he was literary editor of the New Wave science fiction
The New Wave was a science fiction (SF) style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of trendy non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis ...
magazine '' New Worlds'', regularly contributing criticism. He was important to the New Wave style which also included writers such as Norman Spinrad
Norman Richard Spinrad (born September 15, 1940) is an American science fiction author, essayist, and critic. His fiction has won the Prix Apollo and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo Award and multiple Nebula Awards.
Pe ...
, Barrington Bayley
Barrington J. Bayley (9 April 1937 – 14 October 2008) was an English science fiction writer.
Biography
Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force during 19 ...
, Langdon Jones and Thomas M. Disch. As reviewer for ''New Worlds'' he often used the pseudonym "Joyce Churchill" and was critical of many works and writers published using the rubric of science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
. One of his critical pieces, "By Tennyson Out of Disney" was initially written for ''Sword and Sorcery Magazine'', a publication planned by Kenneth Bulmer but which was never published; the piece was printed in ''New Worlds'' 2.
Amongst his works of that period are three stories utilising the Jerry Cornelius
Jerry Cornelius is a fictional character created by English author Michael Moorcock. The character is an urban adventurer and an incarnation of the author's Eternal Champion concept. Cornelius is a hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphous ...
character invented by Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
. These stories do not appear in any of Harrison's own collections but do appear in the ''Nature of the Catastrophe'' and ''New Nature of the Catastrophe.'' Other early stories published from 1966, featured in anthologies such as ''New Writings in SF'' edited by John Carnell
Edward John Carnell (8 April 1912 – 23 March 1972) was a British science fiction editor known for editing '' New Worlds'' in 1946 then from 1949 to 1963. He also edited ''Science Fantasy'' from the 1950s. After the magazines were sold to anoth ...
, and in magazines such as ''Transatlantic Review
Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to:
Film
* Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950
* Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s
* ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...
'', ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...
'', ''New Worlds'' and ''Quark''.
A number of Harrison's short stories of this early period remain uncollected, gathered neither in his first collection ''The Machine in Shaft Ten'', nor in his later collections.
The novel ''The Committed Men'' (1971) (dedicated to Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
and his wife Hilary Bailey) is an archetypal British New-Wave vision of a crumbling future with obvious debts to the work of Michael Moorcock and J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass med ...
. It is set in England after the apocalypse. Social organisation has collapsed, and the survivors, riddled with skin cancers, eke out a precarious scavenging existence in the ruins of the Great Society. A few bizarre communities try to maintain their structure in a chromium wilderness linked by crumbling motorways. But their rituals are meaningless clichés mouthed against the devastation. Only the roaming bands of hippie-style "situationalists" (presumably a reference to the then contemporaneous situationist
The Situationist International (SI) was an Proletarian internationalism, international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and Political philosophy, political theorists. It was prominent in Eu ...
group) have grasped that the old order, with its logic, its pseudo-liberalism and its immutable laws of cause and effect, has now been superseded. Among the mutants are a group of reptilian humans – alien, cancer-free but persecuted by the 'smoothskins'. When one of them is born of a human mother in Tinhouse, a group of humans sets off to deliver it to its own kind – a search of the committed men for the tribes of mutants. David Pringle called the novel "brief, bleak, derivative – but stylishly written."
Harrison's first novel of the Viriconium sequence, ''The Pastel City'' was also published during 1971. Harrison would continue adding to this series until 1984. During 1972, the story "Lamia Mutable" appeared in Harlan Ellison's anthology '' Again, Dangerous Visions''; while this tale forms part of the Viriconium sequence, it has been omitted from omnibus editions of the Viriconium tales to date.
During 1974 Harrison's third novel was published, the space opera '' The Centauri Device'' (described prior to its publication, by ''New Worlds'' magazine, as "a sort of hippie space opera in the baroque tradition of Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, incl ...
and Charles Harness). An extract was published in ''New Worlds'' in advance of the novel's publication, with the title "The Wolf That Follows". The novel's protagonist, space tramp John Truck, is the last of the Centaurans, victims of a genocide. Rival groups need him to arm the most powerful weapon in the galaxy: the Centauri Device, which will respond only to the genetic code of a true Centauran.
Harrison himself has said of this book:
I never liked that book much but at least it took the piss out of sf’s three main tenets: (1) The reader-identification character always drives the action; (2) The universe is knowable; (3) the universe is anthropocentrically structured & its riches are an appropriate prize for the colonialist people like us. TCD tried to out space opera as a kind of counterfeit pulp which had carefully cleaned itself of Saturday night appetite, vacuuming out all the concerns of real pulp fiction to keep it under the radar of the Mothers of America or whatever they called themselves. Pulp’s lust for life was replaced, if you were lucky, by a jaunty shanty & a comedy brawl. Otherwise it was lebensraum & a cadetship in the Space Police (these days it’s primarily low-bourgeois freedom motifs & nice friendly sexual release).
Harrison's first short story collection ''The Machine in Shaft Ten'' (1975) collects many (but not all) of his early short tales, from such sources as ''New Worlds Quarterly'', ''New Worlds Monthly'', ''New Writings in SF'', ''Transatlantic Review'' and others. "The Lamia and Lord Cromis" is an early Viriconium tale. The moody "London Melancholy" features a ruined future London haunted by winged people. None of the stories, with the exception of "Running Down", (a psychological horror tale about a man who is literally a walking disaster area), have been reprinted in his subsequent short story collections. "The Bringer with the Window" features Dr Grishkin, a character also appearing in ''The Centauri Device'', seemingly in Harrison's recurring fictional city of Viriconium.
Harrison's early novels ''The Committed Men'', ''The Pastel City'' and ''The Centauri Device'' have been reprinted several times. The lat-named was included in the SF Masterworks
''S.F. Masterworks'' is a series of science fiction novel reprints published by UK-based company Orion Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Hachette UK. The series is intended for the United Kingdom and Australian markets, but many editions are dis ...
series.
1978–1985: ''Manchester Review'', ''The Ice Monkey'', more Viriconium
Harrison later relocated to Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and was a regular contributor to ''New Manchester Review'' (1978–79). David Britton
David Britton (18 February 1945 – 29 December 2020) was a British author, artist, and publisher. In the 1970s he founded ''Weird Fantasy'' and ''Crucified Toad'', a series of small press magazines of the speculative fiction and horror genres. ...
and Michael Butterworth of Savoy Books employed him to write in their basement (where he did so "amidst stacks of antique ''Eagles'', ''Freindz'', ''New Worlds'' and ''Styng''. A basement that reverberates with indecent exposures of stolen sound, bootlegs sucked from hidden mikes, stacked in neat piles."). The commissioned work, originally announced in Savoy publications as ''By Gas Mask and Fire Hydrant'', eventually became the novel ''In Viriconium ''In Viriconium'' is a novel by M. John Harrison published in 1982.
Plot summary
''In Viriconium'' is a novel in which a city suffers from a metaphysical langour.
Reception
Dave Pringle reviewed ''In Viriconium'' for ''Imagine'' magazine, and sta ...
''.
During the decade of 1976–1986, Harrison lived in the Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...
. In 1983, he published his second short story collection, ''The Ice Monkey and Other Stories'', containing seven tales which capture the pathos, humour, awe, despair, pain and black humour of the human condition. ''The Ice Monkey'' was praised by Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...
, who stated "M. John Harrison is the finest British writer now writing horror fiction and by far the most original".[ Lane, Joel. "Harrison, M(ichael) John", in David Pringle, (ed.) ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers''. Detroit: St. James Press/Gale, 1998, (pp. 252-4)] In "The Incalling", a story of seedy suburban magic which in some ways foreshadows his later novel ''The Course of the Heart'', an editor is haunted by an author's attempts to cure himself of cancer by faith healing. The "Incalling" is one of the few of Harrison's tales (aside from "Running Down") in which a male character is physically ill; though many of his stories feature male characters who are psychologically unwell, in many of his fictions, it is women who are damaged - either physically or emotionally ill or both. "The New Rays" here exemplifies this tendency.
In 1980 Harrison contributed an introduction to Michael Moorcock's early allegorical fantasy, written by Moorcock at age 18, entitled ''The Golden Barge'' and published by Savoy Books.
Harrison's enduring fantasy sequence concerning the fictitious city of Viriconium consists of three novels and various short stories and novels written between 1971 and 1984. Viriconium is known as the Pastel City. Both universal and particular, the city has a shifting topography and history, and is sometimes known by similar names, such as "Uroconium".
The first book, ''The Pastel City'' (1971), presents a civilization in decline where medieval social patterns clash with the advanced technology and super-scientific energy weapons that the citizens of the city know how to use but have forgotten how to engineer. The more complex second novel is ''A Storm of Wings
''A Storm of Wings'' is a novel by M. John Harrison published in 1980.
Plot summary
''A Storm of Wings'' is a novel in which an invasion of alien locusts brings a worldview incompatible with that of humanity.
Reception
Dave Langford, reviewing ...
'' (1982). It is set eighty years later than ''The Pastel City.'' and stylistically it is denser and more elaborate. A race of intelligent insects is invading Earth as human interest in survival wanes. Harrison brilliantly depicts the workings of civilization on the verge of collapse and the heroic efforts of individuals to help it sustain itself a little longer. A third novel, entitled ''In Viriconium ''In Viriconium'' is a novel by M. John Harrison published in 1982.
Plot summary
''In Viriconium'' is a novel in which a city suffers from a metaphysical langour.
Reception
Dave Pringle reviewed ''In Viriconium'' for ''Imagine'' magazine, and sta ...
'' (1982) (US title: '' The Floating Gods''), was nominated for the Guardian Fiction Prize
The Guardian Fiction Prize was a literary award sponsored by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. Founded in 1965, it recognized one fiction book per year written by a British or Commonwealth writer and published in the United Kingdom. The award ran for 33 ...
during 1982. It is a moody portrait of artistic subcultures in a city beset by a mysterious plague.
The short story "A Young Man's Journey to Viriconium" (1985, later retitled "A Young Man's Journey to London") is set in our world and concerns the idea of escape from it.
1985–1989: ''Climbers''
Harrison's interest in rock climbing resulted in his semi-autobiographical novel '' Climbers'' (1989), the first novel to receive the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is an annual prize of £3,000 awarded by the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust to an author or authors for "an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature". The pr ...
. Harrison also ghost-wrote the autobiography of one of Britain's best rock climbers, Ron Fawcett
Ron Fawcett (born 6 May 1955) is a British rock climber and rock climbing author who is credited with pushing the technical standards of British rock climbing in traditional, sport, bouldering and free soloing disciplines, in the decade from the ...
(''Fawcett on Rock'', 1987, as by Mike Harrison). Harrison has repeatedly affirmed in print the importance of rock climbing for his writing as an attempt to grapple with reality and its implications, which he had largely neglected while writing fantasy. The difference in his approach pre- and post-''Climbers'', can be observed in the extreme stylistic differences between the first novel of the Viriconium sequence ''The Pastel City'' and the second, ''A Storm of Wings
''A Storm of Wings'' is a novel by M. John Harrison published in 1980.
Plot summary
''A Storm of Wings'' is a novel in which an invasion of alien locusts brings a worldview incompatible with that of humanity.
Reception
Dave Langford, reviewing ...
''. Around the time of writing ''Climbers'', he declared that he had abandoned science fiction forever.
Robert Macfarlane wrote an introduction to the 2013 reissue of ''Climbers''. Writing about the book in ''The Guardian'', he said: "...it is surely the best novel about rock-climbing ever written – though such a description drastically limits its achievement".
1990s: ''The Course of the Heart'', ''Signs of Life'', and Gabriel King novels
Subsequent novels and short stories, such as ''The Course of the Heart'' (1991) and "Empty" (1993), were set between London and the Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...
. They have a lyrical style and a strong sense of place, and take their tension from characteristically conflicting veins of mysticism and realism.
''The Course of the Heart'' deals in part with an experiment in ritual magic
Ceremonial magic (ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an e ...
gone wrong, and with an imaginary country which may exist at the heart of Europe, as well as Gnostic
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
themes such as the Pleroma
Pleroma ( grc-koi, πλήρωμα, literally "fullness") generally refers to the totality of divine powers. It is used in Christian theological contexts, especially in Gnosticism. The term also appears in the Epistle to the Colossians, which is t ...
. It weaves together mythology, sexuality, and the troubled past and present of Eastern Europe. The origin of the narrative lies in the occasion when three Cambridge students perform a ritualistic act (never shown or fully described) that changes their lives. Years later, none of the participants can remember what exactly occurred; but their vague memories can't rid them of an overwhelming sense of dread. Pam Stuyvesant is an epileptic haunted by strange sensual visions. Her husband Lucas believes that a dwarfish creature is stalking him. Self-styled sorcerer Yaxley becomes obsessed with a terrifyingly transcendent reality. The narrator, the seemingly least affected participant in the ritual (who is haunted by the smell of roses) attempts to help his friends escape the torment that has engulfed their lives. Joel Lane has described ''The Course of the Heart'' as "a brilliant use of supernatural themes to explore humanity mortality and loss." The novel incorporates versions of several other Harrison stories including "The Great God Pan", "The Quarry" and "The Incalling".
The novel '' Signs of Life'' (1996) is a romantic thriller which explores concerns about genetics and biotechnology amidst the turmoil of what might be termed a three-way love affair between its central characters.
Beginning with ''The Wild Road'' during 1996 and concluding with ''Nonesuch'' (2001), Harrison coauthored four associated fantasies about cats with Jane Johnson, under the joint pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
of "Gabriel King".
Harrison has collaborated on several short stories with Simon Ings
Simon Ings is an English novelist and science writer living in London. He was born in July 1965 in Horndean and educated at Churcher's College, Petersfield and at King's College London and Birkbeck College, London.
Ings has written a number o ...
, and with Simon Pummel on the short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
"Ray Gun Fun" (1998). His work has been classified by some as forming part of the style dubbed the New Weird, along with writers such as China Miéville
China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic. He often describes his work as '' weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called '' New Weird''.
M ...
, though Harrison himself resists being labelled as part of any literary style.
Harrison won the Richard Evans Award during 1999 (named after the near-legendary figure of UK publishing) given to the author who has contributed significantly to the SF genre without concomitant commercial success.
2002–2012: The Kefahuchi Tract trilogy and other works
Harrison continued to publish short fiction in a wide variety of magazines through the late 1990s and early 21st century. Such tales were published in magazines as diverse as Conjunctions ("Entertaining Angels Unawares", Fall issue 2002), ''The Independent on Sunday
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published ...
'' ("Cicisbeo", 2003), the ''Times Literary Supplement'' ("Science and the Arts", 1999) and ''Woman's Journal
''Woman's Journal'' was an American women's rights periodical published from 1870 to 1931. It was founded in 1870 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Browne Blackwell as a weekly newspaper. In 1917 it was purchased by ...
'' ("Old Women", 1982). They were collected in his major short story collections '' Travel Arrangements'' (2000) and '' Things That Never Happen'' (2002).
During 2007 Harrison provided material for performance by Barbara Campbell (''1001 Nights Cast'', 2007, 2008) and Kate McIntosh (''Loose Promise'', 2007).
During 2002, ''Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
'' marked a return to science fiction for Harrison and marked the beginning of the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. ''Light'' was co-winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2003. Its sequel, ''Nova Swing
''Nova Swing'' is a science fiction novel by M. John Harrison published in 2006. It takes place in the same universe as ''Light''. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick Awards in 2007.
Overview
''Nova Swing'' takes place lo ...
'' (2006), which contained elements of noir, won the Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...
in 2007 and the Philip K. Dick Award in 2008. The third novel, ''Empty Space: A Haunting'', was published in August 2012.
2012–present: ''You Should Come with Me Now'' and ''The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again''
Harrison published two short stories on Kindle: ''Cave and Julia'' (2013) and ''The 4th Domain'' (2014).
In 2014, Rhys Williams and Mark Bould organised a conference on Harrison's work at the University of Warwick, UK, called "Irradiating the Object: M. John Harrison". The keynote speakers were Fred Botting (Kingston University) and Sara Wasson (Edinburgh-Napier University). The conference papers, including the keynote address by Tim Etchells
Tim Etchells (born 1962) is an English artist and writer based in Sheffield and London. Etchells is the artistic director of Forced Entertainment, an experimental performance company founded in 1984. He has published several works of fiction, ...
, was published as ''M. John Harrison: Critical Essays'' edited by Rhys Williams and Mark Bould.
In 2016, he received an honorary D. Litt. from the University of Warwick, UK.
A collection of short stories, ''You Should Come With Me Now'', was published in November 2017
2020 saw two new books: a novel, ''The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again'' and ''Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020''. ''The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again'' won the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize
The Goldsmiths Prize is a British literary award, founded in 2013 by Goldsmiths, University of London, in association with the ''New Statesman.'' It is awarded annually to a piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of ...
, and was longlisted for the 2020 BSFA Award
The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...
.
Reviewing, judging and teaching
For Harrison's work in '' New Worlds'' magazine, see above. The bulk of his reviews were collected in the volume ''Parietal Games'' (2005; see below).
Since 1991, Harrison has reviewed fiction and nonfiction for ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', the ''Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to '' The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' and ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''.
During 2003 Harrison was on the jury of the Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is a film festival that runs for two weeks in June each year. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all ti ...
.
He has taught creative writing courses in Devon and Wales, focusing on landscape and autobiography, with Adam Lively and the travel writer Jim Perrin.
During 2009, Harrison shared (with Sarah Hall and Nicholas Royle
Nicholas Royle (born 20 March 1963 in Manchester) is an English novelist, editor, publisher, literary reviewer and creative writing lecturer.
Literary career
Author
Royle has written seven novels: ''Counterparts'', ''Saxophone Dreams'', ''The Mat ...
) the judging of the Manchester Fiction Prize.
Style
His work has been acclaimed by writers including Angela Carter
Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
, Neil Gaiman, Iain Banks
Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies (). After the success of ''The Wasp Factor ...
(who called him "a Zen master of prose"), China Miéville
China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic. He often describes his work as '' weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called '' New Weird''.
M ...
, William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...
, Robert Macfarlane and Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...
, who has referred to him as "a blazing original". Olivia Laing
Olivia Laing (born 14 April 1977) is a British writer, novelist and cultural critic. She is the author of four works of non-fiction, ''To the River'', ''The Trip to Echo Spring,'' '' The Lonely City'', and ''Everybody'', as well as an essay colle ...
has said of him: "No one alive can write sentences as he can. He’s the missing evolutionary link between William Burroughs and Virginia Woolf". In a ''Locus'' magazine interview, Harrison describes his work as "a deliberate intention to illustrate human values by describing their absence."
Many of Harrison's novels include expansions or reworkings of previously published short stories. For instance, "The Ice Monkey" (title story of the collection) provides the basis for the novel ''Climbers'' (1989); the novel ''The Course of the Heart'' (1992) is based on his short story "The Great God Pan". The story "Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring" is expanded as the novel ''Signs of Life'' (1996); the short story "Anima", first published in ''Interzone'' magazine, also forms one of the central thematic threads of ''Signs of Life''.
In interviews, Harrison has described himself as an anarchist, and Michael Moorcock wrote in an essay entitled "Starship Stormtroopers" that, "His books are full of anarchists – some of them very bizarre like the anarchist aesthetes of ''The Centauri Device''."
Critical response
China Miéville
China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic. He often describes his work as '' weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called '' New Weird''.
M ...
has written: "That M. John Harrison is not a Nobel laureate proves the bankruptcy of the literary establishment. Austere, unflinching and desperately moving, he is one of the very great writers alive today. And yes, he writes fantasy and sf, though of a form, scale and brilliance that it shames not only the rest of the field, but most modern fiction."
David Wingrove
David Wingrove (born September 1954) is a British science fiction writer. He is well known as the author of the '' Chung Kuo'' novels. He is also the co-author (with Rand and Robyn Miller) of the three ''Myst'' novels.
Biography
Wingrove worked ...
has written of Harrison: "Making use of forms from sword-and-sorcery, space opera and horror fiction
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...
, Harrison pursues an idiosyncratic vision: often grim, but with a strong vein of sardonic humour and sensual detail. Typically, his characters make ill-assorted alliances to engage in manic and often ritualistic quests for obscure objectives. Out of the struggle, unacknowledged motives emerge, often to bring about a frightful conclusion, which, it is suggested, was secretly desired all along. Harrison's vivid, highly finished prose convinces the reader of everything."[David Wingrove, '' The Science Fiction Sourcebook''. Prentice Hall Press, 1984, p. 162]
Bibliography
;Fiction
;Graphic novels
;Nonfiction
References
;Critical essays
* Leigh Blackmore. "Undoing the Mechanisms: Genre Expectation, Subversion and Anti-Consolation in the Kefahuchi Tract Novels of M. John Harrison." ''Studies in the Fantastic''. 2 (Winter 2008/Spring 2009). (University of Tampa Press)
* Various hands. ''Parietal Games'' (2005), edited by Mark Bould and Michelle Reid, compiles Harrison's reviews and essays from 1968 to 2004 as well as eight essays on Harrison's fiction by other authors. Foreword by Elizabeth Hand.
* Mark Bould and Rhys Williams, eds. ''M. John Harrison: Critical Essays''. Gylphi, March 2019. ISBN 9781780240770
External links
the m john harrison blog
(since June 2008)
Uncle Zip's Window
(Harrison's blog, December 2006 to April 2008)
*
with David Mathew
Podcast of interview with M John Harrison during the Irradiating the Object conference on Harrison's work at the University of Warwick on 21st of August 2014
* John Coulthart
''Covering Viriconium''
M. John Harrison profile
from The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, M. John
1945 births
English fantasy writers
English science fiction writers
English horror writers
English short story writers
Science fiction critics
British speculative fiction critics
Boardman Tasker Prize winners
People from Rugby, Warwickshire
Living people
English male novelists
Weird fiction writers
Pulp fiction writers