David Britton

David Britton (18 February 1945 – 29 December 2020) was a British author, artist, and publisher. In the 1970s he founded Weird Fantasy and Crucified Toad, a series of small press magazines of the speculative fiction and horror genres. In 1976, Britton and Michael Butterworth co-founded the publishing house Savoy Books.

Biography

Britton was a student at St John's College, Durham, graduating in 1969 with a degree in Education. In 1976, Britton founded the publisher and distributor Savoy Books with Michael Butterworth, who he had met in the early seventies. At the time, Britton was running the bookshop The House on the Borderland in Manchester.

In 1989, Britton wrote Lord Horror published by Savoy Books, a dystopian horror with a central character based on Nazi collaborator William Joyce, also known as Lord Haw-Haw. This became the last publication to be banned under the United Kingdom's Obscene Publications Act in 1992, with Britton serving a jail term at HM Prison Manchester. The ruling was later overturned on appeal after a defence led by human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson. Copies of the book which had been seized were not returned. A graphic novel adaptation of the book also remained banned.

Work

Britton was the creator and scriptwriter of the Lord Horror and Meng and Ecker comics published by Savoy. These characters also appear in a series of novels written by Britton, beginning with Lord Horror in 1989 (though it carried a 1990 publication date) and concluding with his final completed work Old Death in 2020 (though not published until 2022).

"Lord Horror," Britton said, "was so unique and radical, I expected to go to prison for it. I always thought that if you wrote a truly dangerous book - something dangerous would happen to you. Which is one reason there are so few really dangerous books around. Publishers play at promoting dangerous books, whether they're Serpent's Tail or Penguin. All you get is a book vetted by committee, never anything radically imaginative or offensive that will take your fucking head off. Ironically, I think it would do other authors a power of good if they had to account for their books by going to prison -- there are far too many bad books being published!"^{[better source needed]}

According to Michael Moorcock, the Lord Horror series is the only "alternate history" to confront "Nazism with appropriate originality and passion."

Influence

Literary critic and fellow transgressive author Keith Seward wrote an essay, Horror Panegyric, examining the style and unconventional narrative structure of Britton’s first three novels - Lord Horror, Motherfuckers and Baptised in the Blood of Millions. Initially published on Seward’s website Savoy also issued a 2008 Ebook and limited print run containing the essay along with excerpts from the books in question.

References