Graham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946,  the grandson of John Masterton,  the chief inspector mines for Scotland,  and Thomas Thorne Baker,  a world-renowned scientist who was the first man to send news pictures by radio.

After joining his local newspaper at the age of 17 as a junior reporter, Graham was appointed deputy editor of Mayfair the men’s magazine at the age of 21.  At 24 he became executive editor of Penthouse.

His career at Penthouse led him to write a series of best-selling sexual advice books, including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed, which solid 2 million copies worldwide and 250,000 in Poland alone,  where it has recently been reprinted.

After leaving Penthouse he wrote The Manitou, a horror novel about the vengeful reincarnation of a Native American spirit,  which was filmed with Tony Curtis in the lead role,  and also starred Susan Strasberg,  Burgess Meredith and Stella Stevens.  Three of Graham’s horror stories were adapted by the late Tony Scott for his TV series The Hunger.  Over the years he has published five collections of short stories, several of which have won awards.

Graham has also written historical sagas like Rich, Maiden Voyage and Solitaire,  as well as thrillers and disaster novels such as Plague and Famine.  The newest disaster novel Drought will be published in May,  2014.

In 1989 Graham’s Polish wife Wiescka was instrumental in his becoming the first Western horror novelist to be published in Poland since World War Two,  and his sex books have not only won popular success in Poland but acclaim from the medical profession.  A park bench has been erected in his honour in Krakow, with a QR symbol which allows passers-by with smart phones to listen to him reading an excerpt from one of his novels.

He was a regular contributor of humorous articles to the satire magazine Punch,  as well as scores of articles on sexual happiness to American women’s magazines.

He has encouraged younger writers in several countries, including France, Germany and the Baltic States.  For the past 13 years, he has given his name to the prestigious Prix Masterton, which is awarded annually for best French-language horror novel.  He was the only non-French winner of Le Prix Julia Verlanger for best-selling horror novel and he has also been given recognition by Mystery Writers of America, the British Fantasy Society and many others.

He edited an anthology of short stories by leading horror writers, Scare Care, in aid of children’s charities,  and has been honoured by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for his fund-raising.

Recently he has very successfully turned his hand to crime writing, although his murder scenes are as strong as anything he has written in the horror genre.

Drawing on the five years in which he and his late wife Wiescka lived in Cork, in southern Ireland,  he has created a series of novels featuring Katie Maguire,  the first woman detective superintendent in An Garda Siochána,  the Irish police force – White Bones,  Broken Angels and Red Light.

He currently lives in Surrey, England, where he is working on more novels featuring Katie Maguire,  as well as short stories and new horror novels.

Frances Carden
Latest posts by Frances Carden (see all)