Mel Croucher | Fiction

"In the summer of 1975, I was an architect looking for a change in career, when I got two job offers in the same week. One was to go be a site architect in the United Arab Emirates. The other was to follow a writing career with the book of a sci-fi comedy movie. The writing offer was made by an enthusiastic young man named Ken Follett, who was Editorial Director at Everest Books. He had read a couple of my early titles and thought sci-fi plus comedy was my sort of thing. He also got me an agent called Janet Freer, who was representing the new-wave science fiction writers Michael Moorcock and Harlan Ellison at the time. Theirs was a world of risk. On the other hand, the architecting offer was made by a disgustingly wealthy man with a serious beard, and I accepted it. Follett became a global best-selling author of thrillers, Moorcock and Ellison had massive success as science fiction writers. I often wonder what happened to that alternative me in the parallel universe where I accepted the writing job."

Book COVERS and illustrations

Mel Croucher | Fiction Bibliography

LIFE IS BUTTER MELON CAULIFLOWER, a novel (1972, Samizdat)
Set in 1940s Berlin and 1960s Stockholm, this is a story of childhood promise and adult failure.

NO NOSE O'TOOLE AND THE SHEER DELIGHT, short story collection (1974, Samisdat)
Fourteen tales of fantasy, humour and idiocy.

JUDAS MURPHY, science fiction novel (1976, Samizdat)
Where would you go if you had one shot at time travel? Murphy chose Bethlehem in Year Zero. Big mistake.

HERBERTS, science fiction novel (1979, Samizdat)
March 8th 1971, the 3D printer arrives and Herbert makes a perfect copy. Of himself. Fast-forward to the eve of the Millennium as a derelict Herbert confronts everything he is not.

101 USES OF A DEAD CRUISE MISSILE, cartoon book (1984, Scorpio)
Does exactly what it says on the uranium-enriched tin.

TAMARA KNIGHT, science fiction serial (1987-1988, Newsfield)
She's fesity, she's broke, and her only friend is a neutron bomb implant. And the teleporter wants her for hamburger meat.

WITHOUT PREJUDICE, comedy serial (1987-1988 Future Publishing)
Agit prop and toilet humour collide head on and redecorate the porcelain.

THE RUBBER ROOM, comedy (1986-1987 Future Publishing)
Serialised in various monthlies for as long as he could get away with it.

THE TRUTH, comedy (late 1980s, Stranger Than Fiction)
Serialised as individual set pieces with full-page illustrations by Robin Evans.

CASTLE MASTER, verse (1990, Incentive)
When asked to provide instructions for a video game, Mel came up with a book of epic verse.

DEVIL'S ACRE, historic novel (2016, Acorn Books)
The world's first media war. The terrorists are American. The year is 1776. Click HERE for more info and free chunks.