Literary Birthday – 8 April – James Herbert

James Herbert was born on 8 April 1943 and died on 20 March 2013.

James Herbert Quotes

1. I’m never going to win the Booker and I have no great literary pretensions, but I know how to write well. I do it the old-fashioned way with a pen and paper and I know my spelling and grammar.
2. I’ve always suffered from being labelled a horror writer – just because I didn’t go to university, just because I still talk in my natural voice, just because I’m not as articulate as Martin Amis.
3. I’m terrible in the mornings, but I’m always at my desk by 10 A.M.
4. I’ve always loved comic books. As a kid, I used to read cowboy stories and historical comics about other worlds, unknown places that would take me out of myself and which helped to develop my imagination.
5. Horror novels were written by upper-middle-class writers like Dennis Wheatley. I made horror accessible by writing about working-class characters.
6. The books are full of that neurosis and I guess people tune into that. I have a dread of sounding pretentious and try not to talk too much about what I do. Sometimes, though, it is necessary to point it out: I’m not just in it for the gore.
7. The trick is to keep working and to get things done – just bloody well do it! Yes, you might be writing rubbish but you can always go back over it and make it a better read. With every book you do you may get to a stage where you think ‘this is silly’. That’s happened to me a number of times but I’ve persevered and got on with it.

James Herbert was an English author of horror fiction. Herbert was Britain’s number one bestselling writer of chiller fiction from the first book he wrote. He sold 54 million books that were translated into 34 languages. He also designed his own book covers. He explored themes of societal fears and psychological and personal horror in his books. His best known novels are The Fog, The Rats, The Survivor, and The Dark. Some of his novels were adapted for film, television, and radio. In 2010 Herbert was honoured with the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, presented to him by Stephen King. Later in the same year, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours. His final novel was Ash.

Source for image: Pam Macmillan

by Amanda Patterson

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