Piccadilly Publishing / ANGUS WELLS

ANGUS IAN WELLS

was a British writer of genre fiction, including fantasy and, most famously, westerns. In addition to a few standalone novels written under his own name, Wells wrote under numerous pseudonyms, including Andrew Quiller (The Eagles), James A. Muir (Breed), Charles R. Pike (Jubal Cade), William S. Brady (Hawk and Peacemaker), Charles C. Garrett (Gunslinger), Richard Kirk (Raven), J. B. Dancer (The Lawmen) and Ian Evans. Encouraged by Laurence James, he left an editorial job in publishing in 1975 and became a freelance writer.

His friend and co-author, John Harvey, recalls: "A love, and near encyclopaedic knowledge, of western movies --in particular those of Sam Peckinpah - helped to make Angus well suited to the task. He was as inventive and hardworking as was necessary to produce 50,000 words every four or five weeks, and in those books we wrote together, he could be relied upon to correct not just my faulty knowledge of guns and ammo, but my spelling of sheriff and marshal."

Born in Kent, Angus learned to read among the comics and paperback books that crowded the newsagent's shop run by his parents. Leaving Bromley Grammar School at 18, he went first into public relations and then into publishing, where, as an editor at Sphere Books, he was particularly proud of a science fiction list that included Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark. Once the western market faded, he enjoyed his greatest success as a writer with epic fantasies such as the Books of the Kingdoms and the Raven series, which he co-wrote with Robert Holdstock.

Suffering from a number of debilitating illnesses in his later years, Angus became somewhat reclusive. He passed away at his Nottingham home in 2006. He was 63. (26 March 1943 - 11 April 2006)

ANGUS IAN WELLS

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