James Follett
Encyclopedia
James Follett is an author
and screenwriter
, born in 1939 in Tolworth
, England
.
Follett became a full-time fiction writer in 1976, after resigning from contract work as a technical writer for the British
Ministry of Defence
. He has since written over 20 novel
s, several television
plays, and many radio
drama
s. He is one of the 400 most popular British authors, measured by the numbers of book
s borrowed from public libraries in the UK
.
An asterisk * after the year means the play has been repeated on BBC7.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, born in 1939 in Tolworth
Tolworth
Tolworth is a mostly residential area of outer South London in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, located south west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include: New Malden, Kingston, Surbiton, Berrylands, Chessington, Ewell and Worcester Park....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Follett became a full-time fiction writer in 1976, after resigning from contract work as a technical writer for the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
. He has since written over 20 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, several television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
plays, and many radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
s. He is one of the 400 most popular British authors, measured by the numbers of book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s borrowed from public libraries in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Novels
- The Doomsday Ultimatum (1976)
- Crown Court (1977)
- Ice (1978)
- U-700 (1979), based on his radio play The U-boatU-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
that lost its Nerve, in turn based on a true story during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. - Churchill's Gold (1980)
- The Tiptoe Boys (1981)
- Earthsearch (1981) based on his radio dramaRadio dramaRadio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
Earthsearch - Deathship (1982) based on his radio drama Earthsearch 2
- Dominator (1984)
- Swift (1985)
- A Cage Of EaglesA Cage of EaglesA Cage of Eagles is a 1989 thriller by James Follet, taking place at 1941 in the POW Camp at Grizedale Hall at England's Lake District, where some of the most capable of the German officers captured by Britain were kept ....
(1989) - Mirage (1988)
- Torus (1990)
- Trojan (1991)
- Savant (1993)
- Mindwarp (1993), a prequelPrequelA prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to the radio drama EarthsearchEarthsearchEarthsearch: A Ten-Part Adventure Serial in Time and Space science fiction radio series written by James Follett. It consists of ten half-hour episodes broadcast. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between January and March 1981. There is also a novelisation by Follett of the same name... - Those In Peril (1995)
- Sabre (1997)
- Second Atlantis (1998) (A revision of Ice)
- Temple of the Winds (2000)
- Wicca (2000)
- The Silent Vulcan (2002) hardback ISBN 0-7278-5712-6
- A Forest of Eagles (2004) hardback
- Return of the Eagles (2004) hardback
Radio
(AT indicates the play was heard on BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Theatre, a 60-minute slot; JBM that it was in Radio 4's Just Before Midnight 15-minute slot, and SNT: Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre of 90 minutes.)- Rules of Asylum (1973*, 90 minutes), Wiped by the BBC, but kept in the form of a domestic FM recording by Follett himself and subsequently rebroadcast on BBC 7BBC 7BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment...
in three half-hour instalments. - The Light of A Thousand Suns (1974*, SNT), a cold warCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
techno-thriller set in 1995 - The Doppelganger Machine (1974, AT)
- Speculator Sport (1974, AT)
- The U-Boat That Lost Its Nerve (1975, SNT), a WWII historical drama regarding an informal trial of a German U-boat officer in a POW camp.
- The War in Secret (1975, 3 episodes of 45 mins)
- The Last Riot (1975, AT)
- Jumbo (1976, SNT)
- No Time on Our Side (1976, 60 mins)
- The Rabid Summer (1976, SNT)
- The Twisted Image (1977*, AT)
- The Spanish Package (1977, SNT)
- The War Behind the Wire (1977, 4 episodes of 45 mins)
- A Touch of Slander (1977, AT)
- The Destruction Factor -- The Seeds of CreationThe Destruction FactorThe Destruction Factor - The Seeds of Creation was a 1978 BBC radio play written by James Follett and starring T. P. McKenna, Paul Copley and Rosalind Adams....
(1978*, SNT; a serial in 6 30-minute parts), ecologicalEcologyEcology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities... - Vendetta for a Judge (1979, SNT)
- The Bionic Blob (1979, JBM)
- The Devil to Play (1979, JBM)
- The Bionic Blob and The Case of the Stolen Wavelengths (1979, JBM)
- Softly Steal the Hours to Dawn (1979, JBM)
- The Man Who Invented Yesterday (1980, JBM)
- The Long Lonely Voyage of U-396 (1980, SNT)
- Oboe at the Embassy (1980, AT)
- EarthsearchEarthsearchEarthsearch: A Ten-Part Adventure Serial in Time and Space science fiction radio series written by James Follett. It consists of ten half-hour episodes broadcast. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between January and March 1981. There is also a novelisation by Follett of the same name...
(1981*, 10 episodes of 30 mins) - Earthsearch IIEarthsearch IIEarthsearch 2: A New Adventure Serial in Time and Space is a BBC Radio 4 science fiction series written by James Follett, comprising ten half-hour episodes broadcast between January and March 1982. There is also a novelisation by Follett under the title Earthsearch 2: Deathship...
(1982*, 10 episodes of 30 mins) - A Darkening of the Moon (1986, SNT)
- Ice (1986*, SNT), based on the novel.
- Men, Martians and Machines (2003), a 3-hour career retrospective for BBC 7; named after a science-fiction novel by Eric Frank RussellEric Frank RussellEric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...
that had fired Follett's imagination.
An asterisk * after the year means the play has been repeated on BBC7.
Television
- Two episodes for the cult science-fiction TV series Blake's 7Blake's 7Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
- "Dawn of the Gods" and "Stardrive"; 18 episode of 'Hyperspace Hotel' for BBC1's 'Knowhow' series; two episodes of 'The Squad' for Thames TV; six episodes of 'Crown Court' for Granada TV.
Other works
- StargliderStargliderStarglider is a 3D video game released in 1986 by Rainbird. It was developed by Argonaut Software, led by programmer Jez San. The game was inspired by Jez San's love of the 1983 Atari coin-op Star Wars, It was a fast-moving, first-person combat flight simulator, rendered with colourful wireframe...
, a science-fiction novella that accompanied the 1986 computer game of the same name. - Tracker, a science-fiction novella that accompanied the 1988 computer game of the same name.