Simon Maginn

Simon Maginn was born in Wallasey, Merseyside, in 1961. He was educated at St Marys College, Wallasey, and studied music at the University of Sussex, specialising in percussion and composition. He published his first novel, Sheep, in 1994, and also writes as Simon Nolan.

Simon Maginn is a very subtle writer, always original and unsettling in his subject matter and treatment. He is the most talented of the younger British horror writers, and he has the potential to become the best of them all. Already his work may be compared to the recent novels of Ramsey Campbell and to the early writings of Ian McEwan. Maginns trademark is bleakness; he deals realistically with disturbed or disintegrating characters at the edge of madness, for whom there will be no happy ending Maginn is not a flashy writer of commercial horror like Clive Barker, but his work is full of exquisite qualities and deserves rereading for its layers of meaning. He may come to be regarded as one of the best in the field. St James Guide.