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John Whitbourn
English author From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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John Whitbourn (born 1958) is an English author of novels and short stories focusing on alternative histories set in a 'Catholic' universe. His works are characterised by wry humour, the reality of magic and a sustained attempt to reflect on the interaction between religion and politics on a personal and social scale. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) says he "writes well, with dry wit".
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In 2014 a new housing development in the village of Binscombe, Surrey, was named Whitbourn Mews in honour of the author and his The Binscombe Tales series.
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Whitbourn is an archaeology graduate and published author since 1987. His first book, A Dangerous Energy, won the BBC/Victor Gollancz Fantasy Novel Prize (judged by, amongst others, Terry Pratchett) in 1991. In 1562, Elizabeth I suffered from a near-fatal bout of smallpox. In reality she recovered, but that did not occur in the world of A Dangerous Energy and its sequels.
A Dangerous Energy was reviewed as "the first Counter-Reformation science fiction novel", and To Build Jerusalem (1995) furthered the story of that particular alternate history. The Two Confessions, a third and concluding book in the loosely linked series, The Pevensey Trilogy, was published in 2013.
Whereas A Dangerous Energy focussed on the Church, and To Build Jerusalem on 'high politics', The Two Confessions concerns events in the life of a young would-be industrialist and entrepreneur. Chafing against the reactionary constraints of his civilisation, he stumbles upon a deep secret from the past and is commissioned (as an expendable person of ill-repute) to solve the associated centuries-old mystery. Stirred by his actions, events move to a dramatic conclusion between the most powerful forces of the age. The Two Confessions title is also a play on both the sacrament of confession and a clash between two competing ideological 'confessions'.
Popes and Phantoms (1993) followed the success of A Dangerous Energy and featured the stoic and somewhat chilly 'Admiral Slovo' (a family name often favoured in Whitbourn's works) blazing a trail across the Italian Renaissance – albeit Whitbourn's idiosyncratic and wildly skewed alternate history version of same. Many of the prominent figures of the time are met within and influenced (not always for the better) by their encounter with Slovo. Popes and Phantoms was also published in Russia by Mir Fantastiki. In 2021 the book was republished in its original and substantially larger form as Popes and Phantoms – Redux! Resurgam! complete with new cover. It included a previously deleted whole second 'Book' and ending, plus the author's comments in a Foreword & Apology and Afterword & Apologia, together with sundry Odd Thoughts.
At the same time Whitbourn has published a steady stream of short stories, including the extensive Binscombe Tales[1] series of supernatural stories set in his ancestral homeland. They were published in two volume collected form as Binscombe Tales – Sinister Saxon Stories and More Binscombe Tales – Sinister Sutangli Stories by Ash-Tree Press in 1998 and 1999, and reissued in ebook and print editions by Spark Furnace Books[2] in 2011.
His fifth book, The Royal Changeling was published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster's Earthlight imprint. The book recounts the Monmouth Rebellion and Battle of Sedgemoor (1685) while adding a layer of fantasy that brings figures from English mythology to life as both combatants and political forces. Toward the end, as Theophilus engages in pitched battle with Monmouth and his allies, his wife, Eleanor, is simultaneously besieged by supernatural forces in their mansion in Godalming, Surrey.
Subsequent years have seen the release by the same company of his trio of books The Downs-Lord triptych, including Downs-Lord Dawn (1999), Downs-Lord Day (2000) and Downs-Lord Doomsday (2002). These depict the adventures of a 17th-century down-at-luck curate who crosses into an alternate Earth where – though all physical features are similar to ours – the hapless local humans are little more than food animals of the monstrous life-form known as Null. He appoints himself their liberator, goes back for 17th century weapons, and manages to defeat the Null (at least in that world's version of the British Isles) and in the process makes himself a God-Emperor. But further complications arise from the interference of a power-hungry 19th Century American professor, extraterrestrial creatures known as "Angels" and the exploits of the Emperor's Corps of diplomats.
Whitbourn's Frankenstein’s Legions, a Steampunk and zombie-fiction tinged extrapolation of Mary Shelley's classic gothic tale, was published in both print and eBook form in 2012.
Whitbourn's Nothing is True… – The First Book of Farouk, was published in 2018. It comprises a fantasy-tinged and highly unreliable alleged autobiography by the infamous playboy-monarch King Farouk I of Egypt (1920-1965). He reveals himself to be an all-conquering global statesman riding and bestriding 20th century history, and an incomparable lover and erotic artiste besides. Faithful to the book's title, little within is likely to be true. A companion and concluding volume, And Everything is Permissible – The Second Book of Farouk, covering the deposed King's sybaritic European exile, 1952–65, was published in 2019. Its title completes that of the first book, citing valedictory words attributed to Hassan i Sabbah, twelfth century founder of the Order of Assassins.
In 2020 Whitbourn published The Age of the Triffids, a sequel to John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1951). Set a quarter century later, it seeks to provide a 'what happened next?’ to supplement its predecessor's somewhat abrupt ending, whilst paying due homage to Wyndham's masterwork. Whitbourn has said that this project represents fulfillment of a life-long ambition arising from likewise longstanding admiration for Wyndham. For copyright reasons this book is not for sale outside Canada and New Zealand.[3]
2020 also saw publication of his novel BABYLONdon, a historical fantasy set during the Gordon Riots of 1780. As per its 'blurb': "London is on fire and in the hands of the mob. BABYLON rises from the Infernal depths to replace England's Capital and rule forever. Enter the enigmatic Cavaliere, sent to sort things out, armed only with a swordstick—and 'frightfully' good manners."
Whitbourn's works were reissued in eBook format by Orion Publishing Group Ltd's SF Gateway in 2013.
ALTERED ENGLANDS, Whitbourn's collected short stories 1990 to date—and thus a substantial, 600+ page tome—was published in 2020. Its cover features a depiction of The Long Man of Wilmington, an enigmatic hill figure often referenced in Whitbourn's writing. The Long Man or Giant—Southern England's answer to the Sphinx—has come to symbolise the author's beloved Downs Country.
In December 2020 Whitbourn also released a 'Young Adult' Fantasy novel, Amy-Faith & The Stronghold, the first volume of a projected series. A sequel, Amy-Faith & The Enemy of Calm, duly appeared in 2021.
In 2021 Whitbourn won the Cædmon Prize, awarded annually by Anglo-Saxon studies society Ða Engliscan Gesiðas (The English Companions), for a poem composed in Old English style and judged to be in accordance with "the spirit of Old English poetry".
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- Publish & Be Damned! The Suppressed/Depressed Edition. Ash-Tree Press. Web publication. 2003.
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