Piccadilly Publishing / William M. James

Terry Harknett's first western novel was an adaption of the film A Town Called Bastard(1971), which was published under the pseudonym "William Terry". Similar novalisations followed. With A Fistful of Dollars (1972), published under the pseudonym "Frank Chandler", he produced a neat, imaginative adaptation which successfully transferred to the printed page the stark images of heat, dust and sudden death that were so much a part of the spaghetti western. He completed two other novelisations again as William Terry -- Hannie Caulder and Red Sun (both 1972) -- before Laurence James, then a senior editor at New English Library, commissioned him to plot and write the first four books in an original western series. "I wasn't a western fan," Terry later revealed to Steve Holland. "I'd read every mystery I could lay my hands on, and when they suggested I write a western, I said 'I can't do that,' and they just said 'Of course you can, you've written novelisations, you've seen them on television and you've been to the movies.'
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In 1970 Laurence James became an editor at the paperback publishing house, New English Library. It was the beginning of a career that saw him become what he described as the country's "least known bestseller", writing, under pen-names, 12 to 14 novels every year, 160 in total, which sold more than 12m copies.

James left NEL in 1973 to freelance for the market he had helped create. He wrote Hell's Angels novels as Mick Norman; Viking and Roman historical novels and science fiction under his own name; He produced dozens of westerns, beginning in 1974 with the Apache series (as William M. James), a violent revenge story which ran over two dozen novels.

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John Harvey is a former English and drama school teacher. Since 1975, he has been a professional writer with something in excess of 100 published books to his credit. After a number of years spent learning his craft by writing paperback fiction for both adults and teenagers, he is today principally known as a writer of crime fiction, with the first of the Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, being named by The Times as one of the 100 most notable crime novels of the last century.
Harvey's genre fiction appeared under both his own name and the pseudonyms John J McLaglen (Herne the Hunter), William S. Brady (Hawk and Peacemaker), J. D. Sandon (Gringos), J. B. Dancer (The Lawmen), L. J. Coburn (Caleb Thorn) and William M. James (Apache).

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The pseudonym for the writing team of Terry Harknett, Laurence James and John Harvey

WILLIAM M. JAMES

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The pseudonym for the writing team of Terry Harknett, Laurence James and John Harvey WILLIAM M. JAMES

This website is the property of Piccadilly PublishingAll rights reserved For information, please contact the webmaster

The pseudonym for the writing team of Terry Harknett, Laurence James and John Harvey

WILLIAM M. JAMES

This website is the property of Piccadilly Publishing
All rights reserved
For information, please contact the webmaster