Graham Masterton is a British author of horror fiction. He has written more than 100 novels ranging from thrillers to historical sagas since 1976, when his debut novel, Manitou, was published.
In addition to his novels, Masterton has written several sex instruction books. Besides, Masterton published four collections of short stories and, in the early 1970s, he co-wrote a short novel Rules of Duel with William S. Burroughs.
Graham Masterton received a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America and was awarded a silver medal by the West Coast Review of Books. Masterson is also the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger for his novel Family Portrait, a reworking of the Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Graham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946. His grandfather was Thomas Thorne Baker, the eminent scientist who invented DayGlo and was the first man to transmit news photographs by wireless.
Masterton began his career as a newspaper reporter and went on to edit the British men's magazine Mayfair. There he met American writer William Burroughs and encouraged him to develop a series of scientific and philosophical articles which eventually became Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys.
At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
Even after a successful writing career, he was a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own, and other mass-market self-improvement magazines for decades.
Success in the literary field came to him immediately. Masterton's debut horror The Manitou (1976) set a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. The novel became an instant bestseller and was adapted in 1978 for the film with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens, and Ann Sothern.
Subsequently, several more horror stories by the novelist were screened.
“People do like to be shocked. They enjoy it. That’s the whole purpose of horror books. You read a horror book to get that frisson of fear. And at the same time, deep down, you know that you are quite safe,” — says Graham who himself prefers romantic comedy to horror movies.
His latest books are published in the crime fiction genre.
Graham Masterton currently lives in Surrey, England.
