About

About Chris Norris

I’ve been a few things in my time. I started out as a Zoology student at the University of Oxford, then became a civil servant (which I didn’t enjoy), then a university administrator (which I really didn’t enjoy). Just when I thought my life was all over, I got the chance to move to the USA and started a wonderful career in museums, which lasted more than a quarter century. Now it’s time for something new, so I’m turning my passion for writing into a full-time gig.

About my writing

I started out writing non-fiction – my training is in paleontology and zoology, so these were mostly scientific publications. Then I began curating museum exhibitions, where there’s an emphasis on accessibility, brevity, and clarity of writing. I was also blogging, and editing a huge, multi-author volume on museum storage. Oh, and I somehow managed to write and publish a history of women’s footwear at the same time (under a different name – see if you can figure out who it is!). But I’d always wanted to write fiction. I had ideas, and I had multiple manuscripts in different states of disorganization. What I did not have was time. Until I retired…

Writing influences

When I was young, I read a lot of really bad horror. I won’t say who the authors were, but if you were a teenager in the late 70s or early 80s, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Then, I discovered H.P. Lovecraft. It was The Thing on the Doorstep, and I was hooked. William Hope Hodgson followed, with The House on the Borderlands, and The Boats of the Glen Carrig. I experienced Poe for the first time with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, devoured Machen’s Great God Pan, and spent weeks lost in H.G. Wells’ short stories. My perfect novel may be Well’s The Island of Dr. Moreau – I love that the true horror only appears after the protagonist has returned to civilization.

Personal connection

I was born in 1966 and it’s no surprise that I have a fascination for the period from 1969, when I first started to form memories, to 1979, when I entered my teens. When it came time to start writing, it was an easy decision to set the stories then. Even as a kid, you could tell everything was broken. Dog shit and garbage in the streets, graffiti and cheesy porn ads on the Tube, terrorism of all flavors, strikes, power cuts, and the three-day week (if you want to explore some history, I highly recommend Dominic Sandbrook’s State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun). It seems a particularly good time for the hazy idealism of the Age of Aquarius to mutate into something much darker.

Stylistic inspiration

I’m a big nerd for Seventies culture. Some of what you read may bring to mind TV shows like the Avengers of both the Linda Thorsen and Joanna Lumley eras. I also spent my childhood watching the John Pertwee incarnation of Dr. Who from behind the living room sofa, as I did when Hammer films were being shown on the TV. I especially liked the films that we’d now class as Folk Horror, the obvious ones being The Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man. I came out from behind the TV to watch Top of the Pops, which supplemented the album rock that my older siblings were playing. And for authentic urban grime, think of movies like Get Carter and TV shows like The Sweeney.

Connect with me

You can find me on Facebook as “Chris Norris, Author,” which is a good place to find out what I’m up to. I’ll be blogging on this site as soon as I get myself organized.

What’s up next?

I have several writing projects set in the “Bannisterverse” (for want of a better name) that are scheduled for publication later this year. Stay updated on upcoming releases and events by following me on Facebook and this site.

About the artwork

I have a deep suspicion of A.I. and would never use it for writing. But it was fun to plug in some descriptions of places and characters from Hartslow and see what A.I. would make of them. The images on this site were generated using Leonardo.