Michael Moorcock biography

Michael Moorcock was born in London in 1939. He began to write while still at school, starting a magazine, Outlaw's Own, in 1950. He continued to produce similar fanzines until 1962. After leaving school, he began to contribute professionally to Tarzan Adventures and edited that magazine from 1957 to 1958, writing for it his first heroic fantasy series. He contributed to the Sexton Blake Library and worked for a while as a blues singer before contributing science fiction and fantasy stories to SF Adventure and Science Fantasy. In 1964 he became a hugely influential editor of New Worlds, a position that he held, taking some breaks from it, until 1971 and the effective demise of the magazine. He has always been very prolific and, as the author of Elric, the Eternal Champion, Jerry Cornelius, Colonel Pyat, Karl Glogauer and Gloriana and Mother London, he is unquestionably one of the most important of all UK fantasy and SF writers. Michael Moorcock now lives in Texas.

What I found lacking in Tolkien which I had found in, for instance, the Elder Edda, was a sense of tragedy, of reality, of mankind's impermanence. Tolkien really did set out to write a fairy tale and in my view that's exactly what he did-provide a perfect escape plan, which had the added attractions of having been written by an Oxford don. I knew and liked Tolkien who in a bufferish sort of way was very kind to me and encouraging. I looked forward to those books coming out. I was deeply disappointed by their lack of weight and their lack of ambitious language. They are about as likely to last as "the book of the century" as Ouida, Hall Caine or Marie Corelli, all of whom were judged the greatest writers of their day by a contemporary audience.

Michael Moorcock books

• The Stealer of Souls (1963)
• Stormbringer (1965)
• The Sundered Worlds (1966)
• City Of The Beast (1965)
• Lord Of The Spiders (1965)
• Masters Of The Pit (1965)
• The Winds Of Limbo (1965)
• The Chinese Agent (1966)
• The Shores Of Death (1966)
• The Russian Intelligence (1966)
• The Jewel In The Skull (1967)
• The Wrecks Of Time (1967)
• The Final Programme (1968)
• The Mad God's Amulet (1968)
• The Sword Of The Dawn (1968)
• The Ice Schooner (1969)
• Behold The Man (1969)
• The Runestaff (1969)
• The Black Corridor (1969)
• The Eternal Champion (1970)
• Phoenix In Obsidian (1970)
• A Cure For Cancer (1971)
• The Knight Of The Swords (1971)
• Queen Of The Swords (1971)
• King Of The Swords (1971)
• The Warlord Of The Air (1971)
• The Sleeping Sorceress (1971)
• Breakfast In The Ruins (1972)
• Elric of Melniboné (1972)
• The English Assassin (1972)
• An Alien Heat (1972)
• Count Brass (1973)
• The Bull And The Spear (1973)
• The Champion Of Garathorm (1973)
• The Oak And The Ram (1973)
• The Sword And The Stallion (1974)
• The Land Leviathan (1974)
• The Hollow Lands (1974)
• The Quest For Tanelorn (1975)
• The Distant Suns (with Philip James, 1975)
• Legends From The End Of Time (1976)
• The Lives And Times of Jerry Cornelius (1976)
• The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate (1976)
• The End Of All Songs (1976)
• The Adventures of Una Perrson and Catherine Cornelius In The Twentieth Century
• The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming (1977)
• The Condition of Muzak (1977)
• Gloriana; or, The Unfilfill'd Queen (1978)
• The Golden Barge (1979)
• The Great Rock ‘n' Roll Swindle (novella, 1980)
• Byzantium Endures (1981)
• The Entropy Tango (1981)
• The War Hound And The World's Pain (1981)
• The Steel Tsar (1981)
• The Brothel in Rosenstrasse (1982)
• The Laughter of Carthage (1984)
• The City In The Autumn Stars (1986)
• The Dragon In The Sword (1986)
• Mother London (1988)
• The Fortress Of The Pearl (1989)
• The Revenge Of The Rose (1991)
• Jerusalem Commands (1992)
• Blood: A Southern Fantasy (1994)
• Fabulous Harbours (1995)
• The War Amongst The Angels (1996)
• King Of The City (2000)
• Silverheart (with Storm Constantine, 2000)
• The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001)

Latest news: Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock to write new Doctor Who novel
It has been confirmed that the BBC are in talks with the fantasy author Michael Moorcock in regards to writing a new Doctor Who novel. Moorcock says on his website that the Doctor Who book will appear in 2010: "Looks like it's official, I'll be doing a new Doctor Who novel (not a tie-in) for [...]

The winners of the 2009 British Fantasy Awards are…
The British Fantasy Awards have been in existence for almost as many years as the British Fantasy Society itself. In 1971 Ramsey Campbell suggested the Society present an award in honour of the recently deceased August Derleth – an award which this year went to Memoirs of a Master Forger by William [...]

John Jarrold interview (September 2009)
John Jarrold is a name that is respected throughout the publishing world. Working predominantly with new and established science fiction and fantasy authors, John uses his extensive knowledge and skills to help guide writers on the road to publication. Amongst those full of praise for his work are [...]

The Original Script that Time Forgot
The original script for epic fantasy film The Land That Time Forgot has been discovered following the death of one of the screenwriters. James Cawthorn penned the screenplay with pal Michael Moorcock in the 1970s, from author Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1918 novel. The Land That Time Forgot [1974] - buy [...]

January 2009 issue of Locus Magazine now available
The January 2009 issue of Locus Magazine features: Interviews with Frederik Pohl and Daryl Gregory An obituary and appreciations of Forrest J Ackerman News coverage of the publishing industry's Black Wednesday A new column by Cory Doctorow, "Writing in the Age of Distraction" Short ficti [...]

Fantasy Book Review: Sister Warrior by Teel James Glenn
Welcome to the sensual, savage, and fantastic world of Altiva. It is a world of crystal-smiths and warp wizards, first visited in the novel Death at Dragonthroat where Ku’zn, blue-furred warrior woman of the Z’n, gained her freedom from slavery. Now she begins a journey to free her brother, who alo [...]

Can you help? Michael Moorcock needs special keyboard
Michael Moorcock's friend Matt Staggs has asked for aid. Staggs says that Moorcock, the author of the multiverse novels needs some help finding an unusual kind of PC keyboard that could make writing easier. Staggs writes: Michael Moorcock is ailing a bit and he needs help. He'd be able to get a lot [...]

The Stealer of Souls book review
Elric of Melniboné, the haunted, treacherous and doomed albino sorcerer-prince, is one of the great creations of modern fantasy. An introspective weakling in thrall to his soul-eating sword, Stormbringer, he is yet a hero whose bloody adventures and wanderings lead inexorably to his decisive interv [...]

Harry Harrison named as SFWA Grand Master
Harry Harrison, creator of The Stainless Steel Rat and author of the novel that inspired the movie Soylent Green, will be honoured as the next Damon Knight Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America during the 2009 Nebula Awards Weekend in Los Angeles, California. The selecti [...]

Fantasy Masterworks
Fantasy Masterworks is a collection of some of the greatest, most original, and most influential fantasy ever written. These are the books which, along with Tolkien, Peak and others, shaped modern fantasy. I have recently come across Fantasy Masterworks books when researching authors such as Patrici [...]