Graham Masterton (born 16 January 1946, in Edinburgh) is a British author known primarily for horror fiction. Originally editor of Mayfair and the British edition of Penthouse, his debut novel, The Manitou, was published in 1976. This novel was adapted in 1978 for the film The Manitou. His 1978 novel Charnel House and 1983 novel Tengu garnered positive critical reception, the former receiving a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America and the latter being awarded with a silver medal by the West Coast Review of Books. Masterton was also the editor of Scare Care, a horror anthology published for the benefit of abused children in Europe and the United States.
Masterton's novels often contain visceral sex and horror. In addition to his novels, Masterton has written a number of sex instruction books, including How to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed and Wild Sex for New Lovers.
In 2002, Masterton wrote the crime novel A Terrible Beauty, featuring the character Katie Maguire, an Irish detective. The novel was republished in 2013 under the title White Bones, and spawned a number of other novels by Masterton featuring the Maguire character. In 2010, Masterton published Rules of Duel, a short novel that he co-wrote with William S. Burroughs in the early 1970s.
Career
Masterton is a former editor of Mayfair and the British edition of Penthouse. His first novel, The Manitou, was published in 1976, and adapted in 1978 for the film The Manitou. Further works garnered critical acclaim, including a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for Charnel House and a silver medal by the West Coast Review of Books for Tengu. He is also the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger for his novel Family Portrait, a reworking of the Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Masterton was also the editor of Scare Care, a horror anthology published for the benefit of abused children in Europe and the U.S.
In 2002, while living with his wife in Cork, Ireland, Masterton added crime fiction to his repertoire with A Terrible Beauty featuring Irish Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire. This was republished in 2013 as White Bones and sold 100,000 ebook copies in a month. It was followed by further Katie Maguire adventures, Broken Angels (2013), Red Light (2014), "Taken For Dead" (2014), "Blood Sisters" (2015), "Buried" (2015), Living Death" (2016), "Dead Girls Dancing" (2016) and "Dead Men Whistling" (2018). In 2010, Masterton published Rules of Duel, a short novel from the early 1970s that he wrote in collaboration with William S. Burroughs (Burroughs has co-author credit).
In 2017, after a visit to Wolow, the maximum-security prison near Wrocław in southern Poland, Masterton set up the Graham Masterton Written in Prison Award (Nagroda Grahama Mastertona W Wiezieniu Pisane) for the inmates of all of Poland's penal institutions to enter a short story contest. The contest is now an annual event and is supported by the Polish Prison Service, the Wrocław Agglomeration for Culture and Sport, both Rebis and Albatros publishing houses and the Wrocław Library.
The Prix Graham Masterton is organized annually in Belgium by the publisher Marc Bailly for the best French horror novel and short story of the year. The first prize is a sculpture of a demon.
In 2019, Masterton was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writers' Association. In 2021, he was honoured by the city of Wrocław in Poland by having a bronze dwarf representing himself with a copy of his horror novel The Manitou placed on the pavement outside the Art Hotel on Kielbasnicza Street—one of nearly 600 dwarves which are a major tourist attraction.
Masterton is co-authoring short horror stories with Dawn G Harris and these have appeared in a collection "Days Of Utter Dread". He is also writing short horror stories based on Slavic mythology with a Polish psychologist Karolina Mogielska and the first of these "Mr Nobody" was published in "Phantasmagoria magazine 22."
Masterton won the Złoty Kościej Award for the best horror novel of 2023 "Szpital Filomeny" ("The House at Phantom Park").
Personal life Masterton lives in Surrey, England. His wife and agent Wiescka died on 27 April 2011, aged 65.
Bibliography
Horror The Manitou, 1976 (adapted as the 1978 film The Manitou) The Djinn (featuring Harry Erskine of The Manitou series), 1977 The Sphinx, 1978 Charnel House, 1978 The Devils of D-Day, 1978 The Hell Candidate, 1981 The Heirloom, 1981 The Wells of Hell (loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space"), 1981 Tengu, 1983 The Pariah, 1983 Picture of Evil (based on Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray; also published in the U.K. as Family Portrait), 1985 Death Trance, 1986 Mirror (referencing Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass), 1988 Ritual (published in the U.S. as Feast), 1988 Walkers, 1989 Master of Lies (also published in the U.K. as Black Angel; mentions Harry Erskine as a fictional character), 1991 The Burning (also published in the U.K. as The Hymn), 1991 Prey (based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Dreams in the Witch House"), 1992 The Sleepless, 1993 Flesh & Blood, 1994 Spirit (referencing Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen), 1995 The House That Jack Built, 1995 The Chosen Child, 1996 House of Bones, 1998 The Doorkeepers, 2001 Hair Raiser, 2001 Trauma (also published in the U.K. as Bonnie Winter), 2001 The Hidden World, 2003 The Devil in Gray, 2004 Unspeakable, 2004 Descendant (the first book of a proposed series called Vampire Hunter), 2006 Edgewise, 2006 The 5th Witch, 2008 Ghost Music, 2008 Fire Spirit, 2010 Panic (also published in the U.K. as Forest Ghost), 2013 Community, 2014 Scarlet Widow, 2015 The House of a Hundred Whispers, 2020 The Soul Stealer, 2022 The House at Phantom Park, 2022
The Manitou/Harry Erskine series The Manitou, 1976 The Djinn, 1977 Revenge of the Manitou, 1979 Burial, 1991 "Spirit Jump" (short story in Faces of Fear), 1996 Manitou Blood, 2005 Blind Panic, 2009 Plague of the Manitou, 2015
Night Warriors series Night Warriors, 1987 Death Dream, 1988 Night Plague, 1991 Night Wars, 2006 The Ninth Nightmare, 2011
Rook series Rook, 1997 Tooth and Claw, 1997 The Terror, 1998 Snowman, 1999 Swimmer, 2001 Darkroom, 2004 Demon's Door, 2010 Garden of Evil, 2012
Sissy Sawyer series Touchy and Feely (also published as Ill Fortune, loosely based on the Beltway snipers), 2005 The Painted Man (also published as Death Mask), 2008 The Red Hotel, 2012
Nathan Underhill series Basilisk, 2009 Petrified, 2011
Katie Maguire series 1. White Bones (also published as Katie Maguire and A Terrible Beauty), 2003 2. Broken Angels (also published as Voice of an Angel), 2012 3. Red Light, 2014 4. Taken for Dead, 2014 5. Blood Sisters, 2015 5.5 "Eye for an Eye" (short story), 2015 6. Buried, 2016 7. Living Death, 2016 7.5 "The Drowned" (short story), 2016 8. Dead Girls Dancing, 2016 9. Dead Men Whistling, 2018 10. Begging to Die, 2019 11. The Last Drop of Blood, 2020 12. Pay Back the Devil, 2024
Patel & Pardoe Series
Ghost Virus, 2018 The Children God Forgot, 2021 The Shadow People, 2022 What Hides in the Cellar, 2023 House of Flies, 2025
Historical fiction Heartbreaker (published as by Katherine Winston), 1978 Rich, 1979 Railroad (also published as Man of Destiny), 1981 Solitaire, 1982 Corroboree, 1984 Maiden Voyage, 1984 Lady of Fortune, 1984 Headlines, 1986 Silver, 1987 Lords of the Air, 1988 Empress, 1990
Thrillers Fireflash 5 (also published as A Mile Before Morning), 1977 Plague, 1977 The Sweetman Curve, 1979 Famine, 1981 Ikon, 1983 Condor, 1984 Sacrifice, 1985 Genius (also published as Kingdom of the Blind), 1998 Holy Terror (also published as Plague of Terror), 1999 Innocent Blood (also published as Outrage), 2004 Chaos Theory, 2007 Rules of Duel (co-credited to William S. Burroughs), 2010 (written between 1964 and 1970) Drought, 2014
Confessions series Confessions of a Wanton Waitress, 1975 Confessions of a Racy Receptionist, 1976
Movie tie-ins Inserts (as Anton Rimart), 1976 Phobia (as Thomas Luke), 1980
...of Fear—short story collections Fortnight of Fear, 1994 Flights of Fear, 1995 Faces of Fear, 1996 Feelings of Fear, 2000 Festival of Fear, 2005 Figures of Fear, 2014
Short stories "Absence of Beast" "Anaïs" "Anka" "A Polite Murder" "A Portrait of Kasia" "The Ballyhooly Boy" "Beijing Craps" "Beholder" "Bridal Suite" "The Burgers of Calais" "Camelot" "Changeling" "Cheeseboy" "Cold Turkey" "Cutting The Mustard" (with Dawn G Harris) "Dog Days" "Eau Noire" "Edgewise" (also published as "Night of the Wendigo"; short story not directly related to the novel of the same name, although it features the character of John Shooks, serialized in issues #3, 4 and 5 of The Horror Express magazine, edited by Marc Shemmans) "Egg" "Eric the Pie" "Ever, Ever After" "Evidence of Angels" "Fairy Story" "5A Bedford Row" "Friend in Need" "The Grey Madonna" "Grease Monkey" "Grief" "Half-Sick of Shadows" "The Heart of Helen Day" "Heart of Stone" "Heroine" "The Hungry Moon" "Hurry Monster" "I, The Martian" "J.R.E. Ponsford" "Jack Be Quick" "The Jajouka Penis-Beetle" "Laird of Dunain" "Lolicia" "Making Belinda" "Men of Maes" "Mother of Invention" "Mr Nobody" (with Karolina Mogielska) "National Balance" "Neighbors From Hell" "On Gracious Pond" "Out of Her Depth" "Picnic at Lac Du Sang" "Pig's Dinner" "Roadkill" "The Red Butcher of Wroclaw" "Rococo" "The Root of All Evil" "Rug" "Saint Joan" "Saving Grace" "The Scrawler" "The Secret Shih-Tan" "Sepsis" "Sex Object" "The Sixth Man" "Son of Beast" "Spirit Jump" "Spirits of the Age" "St. Bronach's Shrift" "Stranglehold" (with Dawn G Harris) "Suffer Kate" "The Sympathy Society" "The Taking of Mr. Bill" "Underbed" "Voodoo Child" "Will" (Cthulhu Mythos pastiche; features Yog-Sothoth) "The Woman in the Wall"
Sex instruction books Acts of Love (published as by Dr. Jan Berghoff), 1971 Your Erotic Fantasies (published as by Edward Thorne), 1971 Girls Who Said Yes (published as by Edward Thorne), 1973 How a Woman Longs to be Loved (published as by Angel Smith), 1974 How to be the Perfect Lover, 1975 Isn't It Time You Did Something Kinky? (published as by Angel Smith), 1975 Sex is Everything (published as by Edward Thorne), 1975 How to be a Good Bad Girl (published as by Angel Smith), 1976 Women's Erotic Dreams (and What They Mean), 1976 1,001 Erotic Dreams Interpreted, 1976 How to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed, 1976 How to Drive Your Woman Wild in Bed, 1987 The High Intensity Sex Plan, 1977 More Ways to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed, 1985 Sex Secrets of the Other Woman, 1989 How to Drive Your Lover Wild in Bed (a combination of How to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed and How to Drive Your Woman Wild in Bed), 1989 How to Make Love Six Nights a Week, 1991 Wild in Bed Together, 1992 Drive Him Wild, 1993 Single, Wild, Sexy...and Safe, 1994 How to Drive Your Man Even Wilder in Bed, 1995 How to Make His Wildest Dreams Come True, 1996 Secrets of the Sexually Irresistible Woman, 1998 The Seven Secrets of Really Great Sex, 1999 The Secrets of Sexual Play, 1999 Wild Sex for New Lovers, 2001 Up All Night, 2004
Awards Year Award Category Work Result Ref. 1979 Edgar Allan Poe Award Paperback Original Charnel House Nominated 1996 Bram Stoker Award Short Fiction The Secret Shih Tan Nominated 1996 International Horror Guild Award Short Fiction Underbed Won 1997 World Fantasy Award Short Fiction Underbed Nominated 1999 World Fantasy Award Collection Manitou Man: The Worlds of Graham Masterton Nominated 2003 Edgar Allan Poe Award Paperback Original Trauma Nominated 2018 Bram Stoker Award Lifetime Achievement Award - Won
References
External links
Graham Masterton official website Official Polish website by Piotr Pocztarek Internet Movie Database entry for Graham Masterton