External links
- Chris Westwood at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Chris Westwood web site
- Chris Westwood at Fantastic Fiction
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Chris Westwood | |
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| Born | Christopher Westwood 26 November 1959 Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Author, Music journalist |
| Nationality | English |
| Notable works | Calling All Monsters, Profile |
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Christopher Westwood also known as Chris Westwood (born 26 November 1959 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England) is an English author and journalist. Born as the son of a coal miner and school teacher, he is best known as the author of young adult fiction and children's books. [1] He began his writing career as a music journalist before studying Film production & TV production at a college in Bournemouth. After graduating from college, he began a career as a novelist.
Westwood's first publication was in the weekly English music newspaper Record Mirror, where he worked for three years until 1981 and became the first English rock journalist to cover the work of the Irish rock band U2. [2]
His first novel A Light In The Black , was published in 1989 by Penguin Books and became a runner-up for The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. His second young adult novel Calling All Monsters (1990), had film potential and was considered for adaptation by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and later DreamWorks. [3] Westwood's other novels include Brother of Mine (1993), [4] a study of sibling rivalry between twins, Becoming Julia (1995), a taut thriller about a murder victim and her doppelgänger. These were followed by his cyberspace adventure Virtual World (1996), which was set in a world of interactive computer games. This book was in included in the contenders list for the Carnegie Medal. [1]
His Internet stalker psychological thriller, Profile , was published in 2009. The main influence for this novel was the Alfred Hitchcock film Shadow Of A Doubt , one of several Hitchcock films referred to in the novel.
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Robert Albert Bloch was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small amount of science fiction. His writing career lasted 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He began his professional writing career immediately after graduation, aged 17. Best known as the writer of Psycho (1959), the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft, who was the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while he started emulating Lovecraft and his brand of cosmic horror, he later specialized in crime and horror stories working with a more psychological approach.
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