Martin Charlton Woodhouse (29 August 1932 – 15 May 2011) was a British author and scriptwriter. He is most famous as a writer for the TV series The Avengers

The Avengers (TV series)

The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...

, but he also authored or co-authored eleven novels. He was a former medical doctor, pilot, engineer and computer designer.

Biography

Woodhouse was born in Romford

Romford

Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...

 and was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School

Salisbury Cathedral School

Salisbury Cathedral School is a school located in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It was founded in 1091 by Saint Osmund at Old Sarum . It was moved 150 years later to the newly built Salisbury Cathedral. In 1947 it was relocated to the former Bishop's Palace in the grounds of the cathedral. The...

 and Oundle

Oundle School

Oundle School is a co-educational British public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. The school has been maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation in 1556. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, a day...

. He read Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences (Cambridge)

The Natural Sciences Tripos is one of the several courses which form the University of Cambridge system of undergraduate teaching...

 at Downing College

Downing College, Cambridge

Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1800 and currently has around 650 students.- History :...

 at Cambridge, from 1951 and Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington

Paddington

Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...

, completing his postgraduate research at the Medical Research Council’s

Medical Research Council (UK)

The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

 applied psychology unit in Cambridge (where he he built “Lettuce”, a logical truth computer).

In 1959 Woodhouse was called up for National Service

National service

National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...

 and worked with the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine

RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine

The Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine was a British Royal Air Force aviation medicine research unit between 1945 and 1994.- Early days :The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine was opened on 30 April 1945 by the Princess Royal...

, and then at the Farnborough radar research establishment.

After being discharged from military service Woodhouse worked as an author of novels and screen plays, a computer programmer and a stock trader.

Given the great tradition of study of English Literature created by the long academic work of F. R. Leavis

F. R. Leavis

Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis CH was an influential British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for nearly his entire career at Downing College, Cambridge.-Early life:...

 it is notable that Downing College makes no acknowledgement of Woodhouse as an alumnus. It is perhaps ironic that Woodhouse's writings embrace The Two Cultures

The Two Cultures

The Two Cultures is the title of an influential 1959 Rede Lecture by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow. Its thesis was that "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" was split into the titular two cultures—namely the sciences and the humanities—and that this was a major...

 in a way which neither Leavis nor C. P. Snow

C. P. Snow

Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government...

 could have anticipated.

Writing style

Martin Woodhouse wrote in the techno-thriller

Techno-thriller

Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction...

 style before the category had been well defined as a subgenre. The publication in 1966 of his first novel, Tree Frog

Tree frog

Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as "tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semi-aquatic.-Characteristics:...

, preceded that of Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton

John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...

's breakthrough novel, The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain , by Michael Crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that rapidly and fatally clots human blood, while in other people inducing insanity...

 by several years. What epitomises Woodhouse's stories is that the hero is a Man of Science, who thwarts his opponents using his wits, knowledge, and the application of his scientific craft; rather than relying on brawn, skill at arms, or dogged detective work. Woodhouse's writing is filled with very dry, humorous prose. Protagonists tend to be very intelligent, scarcastic, and unimpressed with authority figures. Many of his books are filled with details that reflect his background in engineering and medicine.

Books by publication date

• Tree Frog (1966)
• Rock Baby (a.k.a. Bush Baby) (1968)
• Phil and Me (1970)
• Mama Doll (1972)
• Blue Bone (1973)
• Medici Guns (1974)
• Medici Emerald (1976)
• Moon Hill (1976)
• The Remington Set (1976)
• Medici Hawks (1978)
• Traders (1980)

Giles Yeoman

Woodhouse wrote a series of techno-thriller

Techno-thriller

Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction...

 novels about Giles Yeoman, an aeronautical engineer who is a reluctant participant in a variety of cloak-and-dagger exploits conducted by the British intelligence community. The plot of each book revolves around the military or intelligence applications of some new some form of technology, and Yeoman's efforts to make sure that this technology doesn't fall into the hands of his opponents. Woodhouse's descriptions
show the sort of attention to technical detail that would be expected from his work as an engineer for the RAF

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

.

• Tree Frog (1966) - This is a novel about the 1960s cold war arms race to develop long range reconnaissance drones. The action takes place in many locales, but much of it is set in Britain and Libya. The book's descriptions of aircraft control systems are clearly informed by Woodhouse's real life work on the target acquisition and guidance systems for early variants of the RAF's Bloodhound SAM
  Bloodhound SAM
  The Bristol Bloodhound is a British surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s as the UK's main air defence weapon, and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force and the forces of four other countries. The Bloodhound Mk. I entered service in December 1958 and the last Mk...
  
  
• Bush Baby (1968) - This novel focuses on seismographs that England has illegally deployed in east block nations to try and gain information on nuclear tests. Yeoman must track down some of this equipment in the mountains of Yugoslavia to see if it has been discovered and modified to send false data. Published in the USA as Rock Baby.
• Mama Doll (1972) - Contemporary with The Terminal Man
  The Terminal Man
  The Terminal Man is a novel by Michael Crichton about the dangers of mind control. Published in 1972, it was later made into a film of the same name.-Plot summary:...
  
  , the novel explores advanced brain surgery, and how electronic implants might be used to influence behaviour. Yeoman, himself recovering from a head injury, uses his knowledge of electronics as he tries to track down a missing cache of weapons.
• Blue Bone (1973) - The plot revolves around a scientist who is being held against his will in East Germany because he will not reveal the details of a new high strength composite plastic he has created. Yeoman is sent in to rescue the scientist, and his engineering background allows him to devise a creative Macgyver
  MacGyver
  MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
  
  -like method of escape.
• Moon Hill (1976) - A now wealthy Giles Yeoman tries to develop a technology to prevent a volcano from erupting and destroying a city. Again, Woodhouse - who was living in Montserrat while writing the Medici books - draws plot elements from his personal experience.

Leonardo da Vinci

Woodhouse and co-author Robert Ross wrote three novels about Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

. They focus on his work as a military engineer in the service of the Duke of Milan. Leonardo is depicted as a clever, sarcastic Italian Renaissance engineer who doubts the supremacy of the Catholic Church. Many details in these books are historically based, but large portions of the stories depend upon ideas from Leonardo's sketch books being developed into functional machines. This places the novels in the alternate history

Alternate history (fiction)

Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...

 or Steampunk

Steampunk

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...

 genre.

• The Medici Guns (1974) - Leonardo develops and oversees the use of light artillery and geometry to help Lorenzo de Medici's army of Florence end a siege at Castlemonte.
• The Medici Emerald (1976) - Leonardo da Vinci's mistress is captured by the Venetians. To save her - and the city of Florence - he must decipher a message inscribed on an emerald.
• The Medici Hawks (1978) - Muslim invaders try to conquer Italy. Leonardo helps to drive them away by building functional aircraft of the types seen in his sketch books.

Other novels

• Phil and Me (1970)
• The Remington Set (1976) - An English crime novel published under the pen name John Charlton.
• Traders (1980) - A novel about an Afghan prince who profits greatly as an arms trader

Screen writer

Woodhouse wrote the screenplays of seven episodes of the TV series The Avengers

The Avengers (TV series)

The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...

. He also wrote for several British TV series such as The Protectors, Emerald Soup

Emerald Soup

Emerald Soup is a British children's science fiction television series. Produced by ITV, the series ran for seven episodes from November 9, 1963 to December 21, 1963 on the Associated British Corporation network...

, The Hidden Truth, and The Man in Room 17. He also wrote most of the screenplays for the 1961 season of the marionette TV show Supercar

Supercar (TV series)

Supercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis's AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. 39 episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV and in the US in syndication...

in partnership with his brother Hugh. He is thought to have written over 70 screenplays.

The Avengers episodes

• A Chorus of Frogs (1962)
• Mr. Teddy Bear (1962)
• The Golden Eggs (1962)
• The Big Thinker (1962)
• Second Sight (1963)
• The Wringer (1964)
• A Sense of History (1965)

Supercar episodes

• Rescue
• Amazonian Adventure
• Talisman Of Sargon
• False Alarm
• What Goes Up
• Keep It Cool
• Grounded
• Jungle Hazard
• High Tension
• A Little Art
• Ice Fall
• Island Incident
• The Tracking Of Masterspy
• Phantom Piper
• Deep Seven
• Pirate Plunder
• Flight Of Fancy
• Hostage
• The Sunken Temple
• Trapped In The Depths
• The Dragon Of Ho Meng
• Magic Carpet
• The White Line