Born in Brighton in 1920, and living most of his life in Kingston upon Thames Surrey, SYDNEY JAMES BOUNDS died November 24, 2006, at the age of 86 after battling cancer.
Bounds’ first published short story was a supernatural tale, ”Strange Portrait” in 1946, and he went on to sell hundreds of stories and 42 novels in a lifetime of writing. He became a very successful children’s writer, and appeared in dozens of junior magazines, annuals and anthologies. He also wrote more than two dozen comic book scripts. Alongside this work he published scores of adult dark fantasy and science fiction stories. His science fiction appeared in the US magazines Other Worlds and Fantastic Universe, and more widely in the UK, in New Worlds, Science Fantasy, Authentic, Nebula, the John Spencer paperback magazines, Vision of Tomorrow, and Science Fiction Monthly. Supernatural magazine appearances included Fantasy Tales, Fantasy Annual and other small press magazines, but most of his best supernatural tales appeared in the long series of ghost and horror anthologies published by Fontana, edited by Mary Danby and R. Chetwynd-Hayes. Particularly outstanding were “The Circus”, which was adapted by George Romero for American TVs Tales from the Dark Side, and “The Mask,” which was adapted for UK radio. A generous selection of the best of these stories is to be found in the two-volume collection, THE BEST OF SYDNEY J. BOUNDS, edited by Philip Harbottle, and published by Lume Books.
In later years, along with science fiction, Bounds continued to write new supernatural stories, appearing regularly in each issue of FANTASY ADVENTURES (still in print from Wildside Press) edited by Philip Harbottle. His dark fantasy stories there included “Writer for Hire” (# 2, 2002), “The Ballet of the Cats” (# 3, 2003), “The Wall” (# 5, 2003), “The Excavation” (# 6, 2005), “The Trunk” (# 7, 2003), “Dreamboat” (# 9, 2004), and “Victim” (# 11, 2004). The final 13th issue of this magazine featured seven of his last stories. His horror story anthology appearances include “Homecoming” in MOONLIGHT ONLY (2002), “A Taste for Blood” in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRES (2004), “The Circus” in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW TERROR (2004), and “The Night Comers” in GREAT GHOST STORIES (2004), and “A Little Night Fishing” in TALES TO FREEZE THE BLOOD (2006) all edited by Stephen Jones.
Bounds published more than 40 novels, beginning with a detective thriller in 1950, A COFFIN FOR CLARA aka CARLA’S REVENGE, but soon switched to writing SF and westerns, most notably his “Savage” series, begun in 2000, with the eighth and last novel, SAVAGE RIDES WEST appearing posthumously in 2007. He also returned to writing detective novels, and amongst his later titles were THE CLEOPATRA SYNDICATE (1990 Italian, 2007 English), ENFORCER (2005), THE GIRL HUNTERS (2005), and BOOMERANG (2008).
Novels of SF interest include DIMENSION OF HORROR (1953), THE MOON RAIDERS (1955), THE WORLD WRECKER (1956), THE ROBOT BRAINS (1957), revised as MISSION OF THE BRAINS (2009), THE PREDATORS (1977 Italian, 2002 English), and STAR TRAIL (1978 Italian, 2003 English).
It has been a privilege for me to act as Bounds’ agent, and occasionally, to collaborate with him. A highlight was the conclusion of a deal for the sale of the film rights to one his best short stories (‘The Animators’, 1975) to a leading British movie company, Qwerty Films. The story was filmed as LAST DAYS ON MARS, directed by Ruairi Robinson, with a screenplay by long-time Bounds fan Clive Dawson, and starring Liev Schreiber…
In addition to his own writing, Bounds worked as a Tutor for a Writing School for many years, and this was work he loved, encouraging and helping new authors to break into print. Just three days before he died, he learned of, and gave his blessing to, the inauguration of the “Best Newcomer—the Sydney J. Bounds Award.” given annually by the British Fantasy Society.
His many crime, western and science fiction novels are currently available from Lume Books, and his intriguing series of short stories featuring the cases of Private Mage Al Weaver, set in a parallel world where magic exists, have been appearing in Wildside’s Black Cat magazine, with others set to appear in Bold Venture’s Pulp Adventures quarterly.
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