John W. Jennison
John W. Jennison was a prolific British author known for his contributions to genre fiction, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s. His exact birth date is not recorded, but he is believed to have passed away in 1969. Over his writing career, Jennison produced more than one hundred novels under at least forty different pseudonyms, including Matthew C. Bradford and Neil Charles, many of which were used as "house names" for multiple authors contributing to a series. His works primarily spanned the thriller and Western genres before he transitioned into science fiction.
In the 1960s, Jennison further expanded his repertoire by writing novelizations of popular television series, particularly those created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, known for their innovative use of puppetry in shows like "Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons." His stories often catered to children, yet some featured more mature themes. Notably, Jennison's work included adaptations related to the Andersons' iconic characters, contributing to the broader narratives of these beloved series. His final publication, "The Angels and the Creeping Enemy," was released in 1968, marking the conclusion of a diverse and extensive literary career.
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John W. Jennison
Writer
- Born: Unknown
- Died: 1969
Biography
John William Jennison was one of the authors who mass-produced genre fiction for United Kingdom paperback publishers in the 1950’s. His birth date is unknown; he is believed to have died in 1969. Starting about 1945, he began turning out what would eventually total more than one hundred novels under at least forty pseudonyms, including Matthew C. Bradford, Neil Charles, Gill Hunt, Edgar Rees Kennedy, Kim Lang, and John Theydon. Some of his pseudonyms were “house names,” made-up names under which a variety of writers would contribute to a series.
Most of Jennison’s books fell under the thriller and Western categories, and he later moved into science fiction. His early science-fiction novels indicate how many identities he used. Conquerors of Venus (1951) and The Mystery Planet (1952) were published under the Kennedy pseudonym; Para-Robot (1952) under the Charles house name; Station Seven (1952), Zero Field (1952) as Hunt, Spaceline (1952) as Lang, and Invasion from Space (1954) as Bradford.
In the 1960’s, he began novelizations of series television shows, most of them created by the British team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and using puppets rather than live actors in a process called SuperMarionation (possibly because the puppets exhibited different facial expressions). These seemed aimed mostly at children, but some of the storylines were more along adult lines than much of the science fiction which was being broadcast on television at the time. Jennison wrote most of these stories under the pen name of John Theydon, which he had been using in the 1950’s for many of his stories in other genres.
Among the puppet-character shows created by the Andersons were Fireball XL5 (1962-1963), Stingray (1964-1965), Thunderbirds (1965-1966) and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-1968), Joe Ninety (1968-1969) and The Secret Service (1969), which used live actors along with puppets and indicated the direction in which the Andersons would subsequently be going. Jennison turned out novels based on several of these, including several Thunderbirds novels, involving a family of do-gooders who rescued people in peril and combated aliens. Some of its protagonists, including Lady Penelope, spun off into their own series of books to which Jennison contributed.
The Stingray show had been the first of the Andersons’ creations to use color and more adult characterizations than their earlier efforts. Protagonist Troy Tempest could not only be bad-tempered but could find himself caught up in a three-way romance. Jennison wrote at least three books based on this series, and two from the Captain Scarlet series, which involved an expedition to Mars that encounters beings known as the Mysterons. Only Scarlet survives, although altered by the encounter, and becomes the lead agent combating the Mysteron invasion when he returns to Earth. Jennison’s last book was another TV tie-in, The Angels and the Creeping Enemy (1968).