Leslie P. Davies

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Leslie Purnell Davies (mostly as LP Davies ; born October 20, 1914 in Crewe , Cheshire ; died January 6, 1988 in Puerto de la Cruz , Tenerife ) was a British writer who wrote numerous novels and short stories in the border and mixed areas authored the genres of horror , mystery , fantasy and science fiction .

Life

Davies was the son of gardener Arthur Davies and Annie Davies, née Sutton. He studied optometry at the University of Manchester , where he graduated in 1939. Before that, he had worked in pharmacies for several years. From 1939 to 1945 he served in the British Army in North Africa and Italy. After the Second World War he was deputy head of a post office in Birmingham until 1957 . From 1960 he worked as an optician .

He started working as a writer in the early 1960s. In 1960 a first story appeared, Because Susie Didn't Go Straight Home! in Family Star magazine , his first novel The Paper Dolls appeared in 1964.

A characteristic of his work is, on the one hand, the tendency to mix genres such as science fiction and detective novels, which often makes classification difficult and, according to Davies, hindered the marketing of his first novel, for example, and, on the other, the recurring themes, namely memory loss, identity disorder and loss the relation to reality. Since it is often about problems of the psyche, Davies called his books "psychofiction" in contrast to the usual science fiction, at least some of his books could be classified with the more common term psychological thriller. With a few exceptions, there will appear to be a role wp supernatural elements that end up dissolving and presenting a natural explanation.

ST Joshi spoke of Davies' novels as "some of the most notable weird fiction of the 1960s and 1970s in their quiet way ".

In addition to his novels, he published hundreds of short stories using several pseudonyms . Many of these appeared in London Mystery Magazine , including ten of his stories in one issue, each under a different name.

Works

  • The Paper Dolls (1964)
  • Man Out of Nowhere (1965, also as Who Is Lewis Pinder?, 1966)
  • The Artificial Man (1965)
    • German: The man from the future. Translated by Tony Westermayr. Goldmann's space paperbacks # 090, 1968.
  • Psycho Spirit (1966)
  • as Leslie Vardre: Tell it to the Dead (1966, also known as The Reluctant Medium , 1967)
  • Twilight Journey (1967)
    • German: Journey into the Twilight. Translated by Norbert Wölfl. The German version of the book was checked by Herbert W. Franke . Goldmann Science Fiction # 0177, 1973, ISBN 3-442-23177-9 .
  • The Lampton Dreamers (1967)
  • The Nameless Ones (1967, also as A Grave Matter , 1968)
  • The Reluctant Medium (1967)
  • The Alien (1968)
  • Dimension A (1969)
  • Genesis Two (1969)
  • Stranger to Town (1969)
    • German: Strange in this city. Detective novel. Translated by Norbert Wölfl. Goldmann pocket thriller # 3274, 1969.
  • The White Room (1969)
    • German: A perfect gentleman. Detective novel. Translated by Gerhard Baumrucker and Alexandra Baumrucker. Goldmann pocket thriller # 4060, 1971.
  • Adventure Holidays Ltd. (1970)
  • The Shadow Before (1970)
  • Give Me Back Myself (1971)
  • What Did I Do Tomorrow? (1972)
  • Assignment Abacus (1975)
  • Possession (1976)
  • The Land of Leys (1979)
  • Morning Walk (1983)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ST Joshi: LP Davies: The Workings of the Mind. In: (ders.): The Evolution of the Weird Tale. New York 2004, p. 149.
  2. ^ Robert Reginald : Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Detroit 1979, p. 873.
personal data
SURNAME Davies, Leslie P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Davies, Leslie Purnell (full name); Davies, LP (alternative spelling); Barne, Leo (pseudonym); Blake, Robert (pseudonym); Bridgeman, Richard (pseudonym); Evans, Morgan (pen name); Jefferson, Ian (pen name); Peters, Lawrence (pseudonym); Phillips, Thomas (pseudonym); Thomas, GK (pseudonym); Vardre, Leslie (pseudonym); Welch, Rowland (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Crewe , Cheshire
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1988
Place of death Puerto de la Cruz , Tenerife