 |
Bernard Taylor, (born October 1934 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England) is a British author of horror, suspense and romantic fiction and of true-crime non-fiction. He has written several plays for the theatre, and has also written for television and radio. He has more recently written novels under the pseudonym Jess Foley.
Born in Swindon, Wiltshire, Taylor studied art at Swindon School of Art before moving to London to study at the Chelsea School of Art, where he was awarded the National Diploma in Design and the Chelsea Diploma. This was followed by a year Birmingham University where he underwent teacher-training. Following this he worked for several years as an illustrator and teacher before moving to the United States where he taught art and English and then went into the theatre, first as a designer, then as an actor. As an actor, he worked on Broadway and in various theatres across the country, later taking up writing as well, including several children's plays which were successfully produced.
Following his return to England, he continued with his acting career, appearing in numerous stage, film and television productions and numerous TV commercials, but concentrating on his writing. His first play, Daughter of the Apaches (which he directed and appeared in), was produced in 1975 at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch. It won Taylor Thames Television's Most Promising New Playwright award, and he was also seconded as Resident Playwright to the theatre for a year. During this time the theatre produced his second play, Mice on the First Floor, starring Frances Tomelty, and produced several children's plays which he wrote in partnership with Ginnie Hole.
Also in 1975, he wrote his first novel, The Godsend . Between 1976 and 2020 he published eleven novels, numerous short stories and four non-fiction works under his own name, and five novels under the pseudonym Jess Foley. Taylor's four non-fiction works were all shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction Award. Perfect Murder, written with the late Stephen Knight, won the award in 1987. Taylor currently lives in Blackheath, southeast London.
A film version of The Godsend was released in 1980. It was produced and directed by Gabrielle Beaumont, the screenplay written by her husband Olaf Pooley. The plot stayed relatively true to the novel, but the ending was changed completely. The film was not well received, however Cyd Hayman received an award for best actress at the Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival for her role as "Kate Marlowe".
In 1993, Yves Simoneau directed a film version of Mother's Boys which starred Jamie Lee Curtis. With the exception of character names, this film was little or nothing like the novel on which it was based. Many critics[ who? ] felt that Simoneau borrowed from numerous other stalker dramas and attempted to ratchet the action to a feverish pitch in the conclusion. Most critics[ who? ] found Mother's Boys an unconvincing, often over-the-top psychodrama. The film underperformed drastically at the box office, but is available on Region 1 DVD.
Bernard Taylor was commissioned to write a sitcom series for the BBC, entitled Maggie: It's Me . The plot revolved around a character named Allie who wanted to change her life, so she dumps her boyfriend to "teach him a lesson" and moves in with her friend Maggie. Frances de la Tour was cast as Maggie, and Rosemary Martin was cast as Allie. A half hour pilot was produced, and aired on 3 May 1977 but the series was never produced. [1] [2]
(published in various anthologies)
Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterized as an elderly spinster, she is one of Christie's best-known characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Royal Magazine in December 1927, "The Tuesday Night Club", which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930, and her last appearance was in Sleeping Murder in 1976.
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith was a British actress known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles. She had an extensive career on stage and screen for over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his personal favorite, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in the "plantation home in the Mississippi Delta" of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie the "Cat", Brick's wife.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in the 1892 short story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze". Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Unusually, it was published simultaneously in separate editions for adults and children.
The Columbia University School of the Arts is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre and Writing, as well as the Master of Arts (MA) degree in Film Studies. It also works closely with the Arts Initiative at Columbia University (CUArts) and organizes the Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF), a week-long program of screenings, screenplay, and teleplay readings.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury, and the second book in his Green Town Trilogy. It is about two 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern home, Green Town, Illinois, on October 24. In dealing with the creepy figures of this carnival, the boys learn how to combat fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark", who seemingly wields the power to grant the townspeople's secret desires. In reality, Dark is a malevolent being who, like the carnival, lives off the life force of those it enslaves. Mr. Dark's presence is countered by that of Will's father, Charles Halloway, the janitor of the town library, who harbors his own secret fear of growing older because he feels he is too old to be Will's dad.
Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher film produced and directed by Bob Clark, and written by Roy Moore. It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. The story follows a group of sorority sisters who receive threatening phone calls and are eventually stalked and murdered by a killer during the Christmas season.
Gregory William McGee is a New Zealand writer and playwright, who also writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Alix Bosco.
Jayne Anne Phillips is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer who was born in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia.
Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse-Cheyney was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy Caution, which, starting in 1953, were adapted into a series of French movies, all starring Eddie Constantine. Another popular creation was the private detective Slim Callaghan who also appeared in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations.
Bernard J. Taylor is a writer and composer of musicals and stage plays. His stage works have been produced around the world and translated into German, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish and Italian. He is also the writer of 14 novels and three non-fiction books.
The Damned is a 1962 British science fiction horror film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors and Oliver Reed. The screenplay was by Evan Jones, based on H. L. Lawrence's 1960 novel The Children of Light. It was a Hammer Film production.
The Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley.
You're a Sweetheart is a 1937 American musical film directed by David Butler and starring Alice Faye, George Murphy and Ken Murray. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures who had Alice Faye on loan from 20th Century Fox to headline the film. It was remade in 1943 under the title Cowboy in Manhattan.
The Godsend is a horror novel by British writer Bernard Taylor. It is his debut novel and was first published in 1976 by Souvenir Press.
Margaret Stiefvater is an American writer of young adult fiction. She is best known for her fantasy series The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Cycle.
Siddharth (Sid) Katragadda is an Indian American artist, writer, filmmaker, poet and engineer.
Joel Thomas Hynes is a Canadian writer, actor and director known for his dark characters and vision of modern underground Canada.
In the Shadow of the Wind is a 1987 Canadian drama film, directed by Yves Simoneau. It was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.
The Godsend is a 1980 British horror film directed by Gabrielle Beaumont, written by Olaf Pooley, and starring Malcolm Stoddard, Cyd Hayman, Angela Pleasence, Patrick Barr, Wilhelmina Green, and Joanne Boorman. It follows a family who adopt an infant girl from a strange woman, only to find that, as they raise her, their other children begin to die in a series of mysterious accidents. It is based on the 1976 novel The Godsend by Bernard Taylor. The film was released in the United States on 11 January 1980 by The Cannon Group, Inc.
