Garry Douglas Kilworth (born 5 July 1941 in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is a British science fiction, fantasy and historical novelist, and a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

cryptographer Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More gen ...

Early life

Kilworth was raised partly in

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

, the son of an airman. Having an itinerant father, he travelled widely, both in Britain and abroad, and attended more than 20 different schools before the age of 15. Kilworth is a graduate of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

Career

Kilworth went to military school and served in the

for 18 years as a

. After demobilisation he joined Cable & Wireless, an international telecommunications company, quitting them to become a full-time writer in 1981. His science fiction and fantasy does not have any regular formula, being more interested in the enigmatic and strange. He states that his great passion is short stories, at which he is most adept. However, as an eclectic writer he has produced novels of several genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror, historical, children's fiction, war and literary novels (his novel ''Witchwater Country'' was longlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

). He has also written several books of short stories and two volumes of poetry (the second with the novelist and short story writer,

Robert Holdstock Robert Paul Holdstock (2 August 1948 – 29 November 2009) was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction. Ho ...

, with whom he shared a lifelong friendship and collaboration). Kilworth continues to produce novels and short stories, and released an autobiography, ''On My Way To Samarkand'', detailing, among other things, his vast travelling experiences over the globe. He has published one hundred and seventy-four short stories and more than eighty novels. His most recent books are ''Dragoons'', a historical war novel set in South Africa, and ''Attica'', a dark quest set in an attic the size of a continent which was purchased by

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...

's movie company, Adfinitum Nihil. A new collection of stories was published with the title ''Blood Moon''. His latest novel is ''The Wild Hunt'', an Anglo-Saxon Saga.

Awards

Kilworth has been twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction and won the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award for his short novel ''The Electric Kid''. Kilworth's novel ''Rogue Officer'' won the 2008

Charles Whiting Charles Henry Whiting (18 December 1926 – 24 July 2007), was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Duncan Harding, I ...

Award for Historical War Literature. ''The Ragthorn'', a novella co-authored with

, won the

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

in 1992.

Personal life

In 1962, he married Annette Bailey, the daughter of an RAF Catalina aircraft pilot.

Bibliography

Non-fiction

* ''On My Way To Samarkand – Memoirs of a Travelling Writer'' (2012) * ''Rookie Biker in the Outback'' (2014)

Poetry

* ''Poems, Peoms and Other Atrocities'' (with Robert Holdstock) (2013) * ''Alchemy in Reverse'' (2017) * ''A Rural 1950s Boyhood'' (2017) * ''Poems from my Youth'' (2017)

Novels

Zulu War novels

* ''Scarlet Sash'' (2010) * ''Dragoons'' (2011)

Angel

* ''Angel'' (1993) * ''Archangel'' (1994)

Navigator Kings

* ''The Roof of Voyaging'' (1996) * ''The Princely Flower'' (1997) * ''Land-of-Mists'' (1998)

Welkin Weasels

* '' Thunder Oak'' (1997) * '' Castle Storm'' (1998) * ''Windjammer Run'' (1999) * ''Gaslight Geezers'' (2001) * ''Vampire Voles'' (2002) * ''Heastward Ho!'' (2003)

Knights of Liöfwende

* ''Spiggot's Quest'' (2002) * ''Mallmoc's Castle'' (2003) * ''Boggart and Fen'' (2004)

'Fancy Jack' Crossman

* ''The Devil's Own'' (1997) * ''The Valley of Death: Sergeant Jack Crossman and the Battle of Balaclava'' (1998) * ''Soldiers in the Mist'' (1999) * ''The Winter Soldiers'' (2002) * ''Attack on the Redan'' (2003) * ''Brothers of the Blade'' (2004) * ''Rogue Officer'' (2007) * ''Kiwi Wars'' (2008)

Stand-alone novels

* ''In Solitary'' (1977) * '' The Night of Kadar'' (1978) * ''Split Second'' (1979) * ''Gemini God'' (1981) * '' A Theatre of Timesmiths'' (1984) * ''Tree Messiah'' (1985) * ''Highlander'' (1986) (as Garry Douglas) * ''Witchwater Country'' (1986) * ''Spiral Winds'' (1987) * ''The Wizard of Woodworld'' (1987) * ''Cloudrock'' (1988) * ''The Street'' (1988) * ''Abandonati'' (1988) * ''The Voyage of the Vigilance'' (1988) * ''The Rain Ghost'' (1989) * '' Hunter's Moon'' (1989), published in the US in 1990 as '' The Foxes of Firstdark'' * ''Midnight's Sun'' (1990) * ''Standing on Shamsan'' (1991) * ''

The Drowners "The Drowners" is the debut single of English rock band Suede, released on 11 May 1992 on Nude Records. It was later included on the band's debut album, ''Suede'' (1993). "The Drowners" charted at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart. Background ...

'' (1991) * ''The Third Dragon'' (1991) * ''Frost Dancers: A Story of Hares'' (1992) * ''The Raiders'' (1996) * ''Billy Pink's Private Detective Agency'' (1993) * ''The Electric Kid'' (1994) * ''The Phantom Piper'' (1994) * ''The Bronte Girls'' (1995) * ''House of Tribes'' (1995) * ''Cybercats'' (1996) * '' A Midsummer's Nightmare'' (1996) * ''The Gargoyle'' (1997) * ''The Drummer Boy'' (1998) * ''Epix: Heavenly Hosts v. Hell United'' (1998) * ''The Lantern Fox'' (1998) * ''Monster School'' (1999) * ''Hey, New Kid!'' (1999) * ''Shadow-Hawk'' (1999) * ''The Icehouse Boy'' (2001) * ''Soldier's Son'' (2001) * ''Comix: Monster School'' (2002) * ''Nightdancer'' (2002) * ''The Silver Claw'' (2005) * ''

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

'' (2006) * ''Jigsaw'' (2007) * ''The Hundred-Towered City'' (2008) * ''The Iron Wire'' (2014) * ''The Sometimes Spurious Travels Through Time and Space of James Ovit'' (2017)

Short story collections

* '' Let's Go to Golgotha!'' (1975) * ''Hogfoot Right and Bird-Hands'' (1984) * '' The Songbirds of Pain'' (1984) * ''In the Hollow of the Deep-Sea Wave'' (1989) * ''Dark Hills, Hollow Clocks'' (1990) * ''In the Country of Tattooed Men'' (1993) * ''Moby Jack and Other Tall Tales'' (2005) * ''Tales From A Fragrant Harbour'' (2010) * ''The Fabulous Beast'' (2013) * ''Elemetal Tales '' (2019) * ''The Best Short Stories of Garry Kilworth'' (2019)

Novels as FK Salwood

* ''The Oystercatcher's Cry'' (1993) * ''The Saffron Fields'' (1994) * ''The Ragged School'' (1995)

Novels as Kim Hunter

* ''Knight's Dawn'' (2000) * ''Wizard's Funeral'' (2002) * ''Scabbard's Song'' (2003)

Novels as Richard Argent

* ''Winter's Knight'' (2012)

References

External links

*
Author's web site

Story behind The Fabulous Beast by Garry Kilworth – Online Essay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilworth, Garry 1941 births Living people 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Alumni of King's College London British cryptographers British fantasy writers British historical novelists British male novelists World Fantasy Award–winning writers Royal Air Force airmen Military personnel from York