James Herbert: Devil in the Dark
By Craig Cabell
Metro Publishing, 2004
ISBN 1 84358 091 8
James Herbert is an author who is, roughly, the English equivalent of Steven King. Not because their writing is the same, or even their subject matter, but because Herbert is the best selling UK horror writer, he has had a major impact on the shape of horror writing in the UK and he has written in a variety of approaches. Biographies of writers can be most useful in understanding how successful writers write, understanding the industry and also just what it takes to make it.
Herbert’s books range from the strikingly horrific (The Rats) to more subtly scary (his more recent books) with horror of a less gory but still real and striking form, written over a 30 year career so far. With twenty-two books of fiction currently published he is the best selling UK horror writer and has a strong position in English-speaking markets, such as Australia. He is less well known in the US, probably substantially because of the UK locations of most of his books. This lack of US market penetration is a great shame, because his books are brilliant and there is so much here that a US audience would enjoy if they got past the non-US nature of the books and writing style.
Cabell’s biography of Herbert is divided into three parts: Herbert’s background prior to writing, his life book by book so far and a final section comprising several short stories and other items. By far the largest part is the middle one, which covers his life book by book through his career to the publication date.
I found myself being somewhat annoyed by the writing style at times. There is some repetition, perhaps forced by the book-by-book approach. There are also places where the author’s obvious respect for and friendship with Herbert comes across a bit like adoration. Or at least it seemed like that to me. But then I was perhaps a non-typical reader in that I was looking for real insights into Herbert’s approach to writing. I don’t think it is a bad biography, but there were those couple of things that I remembered being annoyed with as I read it.
As an insight into Herbert’s life and the influences on his writing, this is an excellent biography. As you read through, you get a real feeling for how his childhood experiences influenced his early work, with later life experience leading to changes of approach and subject matter. It is obvious that a good writer’s work will evolve over some twenty-two books and we see this in this book.
What seems missing from the book is a real digging into some of the events discussed. Now this may be inevitable in an ‘authorized’ biography, as there may be an aspect of only being able to go where Herbert is happy to go. But it is still a shame. For example, Cabell notes the points where Herbert changed publisher but only dives into Herbert’s reasons for doing this on one occasion. I was left feeling that I could have learnt more about the publishing game and author-publisher interactions if these had been probed more deeply.
For those interested in Herbert’s approach to writing there is information scattered through the book. I would have liked more and also for it to be organized into a chapter of its own. What comes through is that Herbert tends to get an initial idea, works up his main characters and then allows the characters to lead the story as he writes it. I was left feeling that this was the complete way his earlier books were written but that over time more and more initial research is done (Cabell talks of notice boards being filled with facts, newspaper clippings, etc). Herbert also appears to make notes of pieces of dialog, ideas and plot points in advance as they come to him and then tries to work these in once he starts to write. You will notice I say ‘appears to’ in regard to these points because the way they are covered leaves you with these impressions but without a clear discussion of them having taken place. These snippets that Herbert notes before writing seem to have been getting more substantial with his latest books. It is unclear whether this is due to a shift to a longer gestation period between books, the books getting longer and more complex or a shift in the way Herbert writes to a somewhat more plot-driven approach. This point would have been interesting to explore because it is obvious that there is a crossover point where even an author who likes to let the characters develop the story has to incorporate research and yet cannot do that unless they have at least some sense of what direction the book is to take. This would have been very interesting to explore and analyze in more depth.
Cabell does do a good job of discussing the changing nature of Herbert’s subject matter and some of his responses to life events and how they have flowed into Herbert’s books. As a fan of Herbert I found this useful. I also enjoyed the discussions of each book, as these pointed me to some of his books that I had not read that I now feel inclined to seek out and read. The final section is also interesting in having two examples of Herbert’s short stories (a form he has only explored to a limited extent) and there is a useful UK collector’s guide to the editions, special collector’s editions and not for publication publisher’s and reviewer’s copies that are on the book collector market.
Overall, this is a good biography but it misses some of the deeper analysis of his approach to writing that I would have liked. Despite this I recommend this book.
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