Rare essays, shorts stories, reviews and even the complete novel, 'Lying In State'. Julian Rathbone has published over thirty novels in sixteen different languages, been shortlisted (twice) for the Booker, won a Crime Writers' Association dagger and his thrillers have won prestigious prizes in Germany and Denmark. Reviewers have compared him - to his advantage - with Graham Greene, Eric Ambler, John Updike, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, John le Carre and William Burroughs. On top of that he's an accomplished reviewer and essayist, and has written successful film screenplays.
Julian Christopher Rathbone was born in 1935 in Blackheath, southeast London. His great-uncle was the actor and great Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone, although they never met.
The prolific author Julian Rathbone was a writer of crime stories, mysteries and thrillers who also turned his hand to the historical novel, science fiction and even horror — and much of his writing had strong political and social dimensions.
He was difficult to pigeonhole because his scope was so broad. Arguably, his experiment with different genres and thus his refusal to be typecast cost him a wider audience than he enjoyed. Just as his subject matter changed markedly over the years, so too did his readers and his publishers.
Among his more than 40 books two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Both were historical novels: first King Fisher Lives, a taut adventure revolving around a guru figure, in 1976, and, secondly, Joseph, set during the Peninsular War and written in an 18th-century prose style, in 1979. But Rathbone never quite made it into the wider public consciousness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_R...
A huge tome of a book dealing with the writing and witticisms of the author Julian Rathbone. From personal experiences and anecdotes to his writings for papers and short stories to excerpts from his novels this has it all. A great introduction to the author if you are not familiar with his work. From snippets of his thoughts, to a quite gruesome horror tale, a mini work of erotica, memoirs and even historical chapters this has something for all readers with diverse tastes. Well worth reading though to me I hate the whetting of my appetite with chunks of stories and wish a lot more "full" work had been included though there was one full length novel "Lying in state." All in all a must for fans of Rathbone.