A
tenth generation inhabitant of southern England's 'Downs Country', John 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. Popes
and Phantoms and To
Build Jerusalem, novels located in his own preferred - and wildly skewed
- version of history, followed that success. A
Dangerous Energy was deservedly described as 'the first Counter-Reformation
science fiction novel' and To
Build Jerusalem furthers the story of that 'alternative history'. A third
volume in this trilogy, The
Two Confessions is now complete. Popes
and Phantoms was recently published in Russia by Mir.
At the same time Whitbourn has published a steady stream of short stories, including
the extensive Binscombe
Tales series of supernatural stories set in his ancestral homeland. They
were published in collected form as Binscombe
Tales - Sinister Saxon Stories and More
Binscombe Tales - Sinister Sutangli Stories by the Ash Tree Press in 1998
and 1999. Whitbourn's works have been described as constructing 'an alternative
mythology for Britain', as well as 'wreaking stylish havoc' (Time Out)
with orthodox English history.
His fifth book, The Royal Changeling,
(reviewed as 'surely the first work of Jacobite propaganda for several centuries')
was published in 1998. Downs-Lord
Dawn - 'First Panel of the Downs-Lord Triptych' was released by Simon &
Schuster's Earthlight imprint in August 1999. Downs-Lord
Day is to follow in October 2000.
