Laurence James
Laurence James was an English author born in 1942, known for his extensive writing career and use of multiple pseudonyms, including James Axler, James Darke, and James McPhee. He initially worked as an editor for paperback books before becoming a prolific writer, producing a remarkable volume of work, sometimes releasing a book approximately every twelve weeks. Among his notable creations is the science-fiction series featuring the Galactic Security Service and its protagonist, Simon Rack.
James is most famed for the "Deathlands" series, written under the pseudonym James Axler, which explores a post-nuclear war United States and follows characters like Ryan Crowder and Krysty Wroth. This series garnered a loyal fan base and led to the creation of related series, such as "Earth Blood" and "Survival 2000." Beyond science fiction, he contributed to various genres, including historical novels and horror, often addressing themes drawn from his diverse interests.
Despite his prolific output, James maintained a private life and was known for his reluctance to engage with fans on a personal level. He passed away on February 10, 2000, leaving behind a legacy that continues to spark discussions regarding the nature and impact of his work.
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Laurence James
Writer
- Born: September 21, 1942
- Birthplace: England
- Died: February 10, 2000
- Place of death: England
Biography
Laurence James was born in England in 1942. He edited paperback books for the New English Library before he became a prolific author under a variety of pseudonyms, including James Axler, James Darke, and James McPhee. Under his own name he produced a science-fiction series about the Galactic Security Service, featuring the hero Simon Rack, writing five volumes in 1974 and 1975. He also wrote a science-fiction parody of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, “And Dug the Dog a Tomb,” in 1972.
At one point, James was churning out a book, on the average, every twelve weeks. By far his most prolific series, Deathlands, was written under the pseudonym James Axler. These novels, about the United States after a nuclear war, were published by Gold Eagle Books, a division of Harlequin Enterprises, for which James also wrote some historical romances. The first novel in the series, Pilgrimage to Hell, was cowritten with Jack Adrian (the pen name of fellow British author Christopher Lowder), but the subsequent thirty-two novels were written solely by James during a ten-year period. The novels feature three main recurring characters: Ryan Crowder, the one-eyed hero; Krysty Wroth, whose exposure to postatomic warfare radiation causes her to develop superpowers; and J. B. Dix, a gun expert. The series developed a devoted fan base, leading its publisher to begin a similar series, Earth Blood, about space travelers who return to an Earth ravaged by crop plague to search for survivors. James, again writing as Axler, produced three novels for this series: Earth Blood, Deep Trek, and Aurora Quest.
Using the name James McPhee, James produced three novels for Survival 2000, a series about a meteor shower that devastates the Earth. Yet another such series was the four-novel Dark Future, all published in 1992 under James’s own name. As James Darke, he wrote Witches, a series of eight novels set during the English civil war in the seventeenth century. As Richard Haigh, he wrote the horror novel The City, the first of the so- called Pigs trilogy about rampaging swine; as Mick Norman, he produced the Hell’s Angels biker series. A reportedly private man until the end, who refused to send even devoted fans a photograph of himself, James died on February 10, 2000. Some of his vast output has been praised, particularly the Deathlands series, but much of it has also been condemned as exploitative.