Anthony Masters
Anthony Richard Masters was a British author born in 1940 in Esher, Surrey, England. He was educated at King's College School, where he was expelled for protesting school uniforms. After starting his career as a journalist, he joined Hodder and Stoughton as a book salesman and later became a book-production assistant before transitioning to full-time writing in 1964. His first book, "A Pocketful of Rye," marked the beginning of a prolific career that included biographies of notable figures such as Nancy Astor, Napoleon, and Hannah Senesh. Masters was known for his scholarly yet poignant portrayals, though he often refrained from exploring the more controversial aspects of his subjects' lives. Besides biographies, he wrote thrillers under the pseudonym Richard Tate and children's literature, addressing complex themes with sensitivity. He was also an advocate for children's creativity, founding workshops known as Book Explosions to engage young readers. Masters passed away on April 4, 2003, leaving behind a diverse and impactful literary legacy.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Anthony Masters
Writer
- Born: 1940
- Birthplace: Esher, Surrey, England
- Died: April 4, 2003
- Place of death: Hastings, East Sussex, England
Biography
Anthony Richard Masters was born in 1940 in Esher, Surrey, England. He was the son of Ronald Richard and Margery (née Pitt) Masters. He had a brother, Paul. Masters was educated at King’s College School, Wimbledon, England, from 1953 to 1957. He was expelled for organizing a protest against mandated school uniforms. In 1958, after leaving school he became a journalist.
He joined the publisher Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., in London, England, as a book salesman in 1959. In 1960, he became a book- production assistant for the company. He left Hodder and Stoughton in 1964 to become a full-time writer. This was the year in which his first book,A Pocketful of Rye, was published by Secker and Warburg. He also married Robina Farbrother, an editor, on September 12, 1964.
Masters was a prolific and eclectic writer. His books explored many diverse subjects. He gained a solid reputation as a biographer. Among his subjects was Nancy Astor (Nancy Astor: A Biography, 1981). Nancy Astor was an American married to Lord Waldorf Astor. She was the first woman to be elected to the British House of Commons. Masters’s biography of her was described as a scholarly and poignant portrayal of a complex woman although, he did not delve into the more provocative details of her life.
Other biographies included Napoleon (Napoleon, 1981), Bakunin (Bakunin: The Father of Anarchism,1974,) and Hannah Senesh (The Summer that Bled: The Biography of Hannah Senesh, 1972). The Man Who Was M: The Life of Maxwell Knight (1984) is a compelling book about the man on whom Ian Fleming based his character of “M” in the James Bond books. Masters also wrote about aspects of the occult, including The Natural History of the Vampire (1972) and The Devil’s Dominion: The Complete Story of Hell and Satanism in the Modern World (1978).
Masters wrote thrillers under the pseudonym Richard Tate as well as many books for younger readers. In the latter, he deals with powerful and complex emotions in understated prose. For example, Badger, published in 1986, is the fictional story of one family’s involvement with the brutal sport of badger- baiting. It explores the cruelty humans can inflict but does so with subtlety. His fiction often featured the struggles of coming-of-age characters. In 1967, Masters won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize for his novel The Seahorse.
Masters believed in encouraging the imaginations of children and teens, and toward this end he created workshops called Book Explosions, in which children were invited to participate in a staged interpretation of an event and then write down their feelings about it. He also wrote books designed for children with special needs and was praised for his supernatural Weird World series that invites reluctant readers to open a book. Masters died April 4, 2003, in Hastings, East Sussex, England.