Robert Rankin

What can I say about Robert Rankin that hasn’t been said already, and probably by himself?

Robert Fleming Rankin was born in Parsons Green in London on the 27th of July, 1949, and he lived there or thereabouts for most of his life, with his time in the borough of Brentford providing the inspiration and home for much of his output. Robert now lives in Brighton with his wife, Rachel Hayward, an internationally recognised Steelpan player.

He is, to say the very least, a prolific writer, with thirty-three novels published to date, unless another one or two have been published between the time I write this and your seeing it. His first novel, The Antipope (Pan Books, London, 1981), set in Brentford, featured the adventures of two characters, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who would recur regularly through his subsequent work, in the first of several adventures involving them fighting against the forces of darkness in one form or another. Robert’s own lifelong interest in the occult – and in Aleister Crowley in particular - certainly strongly informs his work, and indeed his life. The Antipope was followed by three other books set in Brentford, the last of which, The Sprouts of Wrath (Pan Books, London, 1984), posits the obviously ridiculous idea of London hosting the Olympics. Many more books followed (there’s a full bibliography here), with the most recent, The Mechanical Messiah and Other Marvels of the Modern Age, being published by Gollancz in September 2011. While Robert’s books are a mix of humour, the occult, urban legends, science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk, he himself prefers to suggest that what he writes is Far Fetched Fiction, a not inaccurate description of his work. One of his books, The Brightonomicon (Victor Gollancz, London, 2005), was broadcast on BBC7 in late 2008, the only one of Robert’s books to be adapted for any form of transmission.

Robert studied at the Ealing School of Art in London, where he was a contemporary of Freddie Mercury, so it’s no real surprise that, besides writing books, he has also regularly worked in all sorts of other artforms. Some years back he created a series of sculptures for the covers of his books, which were displayed at The Collection, an art gallery in Lincoln, England, during September 2010, having previously been exhibited at the Waterstone’s bookshop in Brighton, and at the Gunnersbury Park Museum in Brentford. His publishers, Victor Gollancz, have more recently commissioned him to illustrate new covers for much of his back catalogue, and he has expanded this project by providing new internal illustrations for more recent work. He has also performed with numerous bands over the years, bands with names like Astro Laser and the Flying Starfish from Uranus and Robert Rankin and the Rock Gods. He has also provided illustrations for Neil Gardner’s self-published The Bumper Book of Ficts in 2010.

What else is left to say? Michael Carroll said of him that, ‘Robert Rankin is a writer who is as loyal to his readers as they are to him,’ and it is certainly true he has a great relationship with his own fans, and with Irish fandom in particular. He was Guest of Honour at Octocon in Dublin in 1999, and Master of Ceremonies at They Came and Shaved Us in Dundalk in 2003. One of his books, The Greatest Show off Earth (Doubleday, London, 1994) is dedicated to P-CON chairman Pádraig Ó Méalóid, who originally created SproutLore: The Now Official Robert Rankin Fanclub, which would go on to great things under the stewardship of James Bacon, before eventually being retired, and replaced by Order of the Golden Sprout. He regularly takes part is special events organised by these clubs, and others as well. He was made the first Fellow of The Victorian Steampunk Society for his support of the organisation, and his work in the genre. None the less, Robert is perhaps the Luddite’s Luddite, still preferring to write his books out longhand in exercise books. He is a proper old-fashioned British eccentric, but also one of the most genuinely charming and friendly people there is.

I’m going to give the last word to Michael Carroll, who said that ‘reading his books can and will inspire you, scare you, thrill you, entertain you, and cause you to shit yourself laughing’ You can’t say fairer than that.

Bio written by Anne M Kletcha