David Britton

David Britton is a British author, artist, and publisher. In the 1970s he founded a series of small press magazines of the speculative fiction and horror genres, and in 1976 he co-founded (with Michael Butterworth) the controversial publishing house Savoy Books.

Britton is the creator and script writer of the Lord Horror and Meng and Ecker comics published by Savoy. These characters also appear in a trio of novels written by Britton: Lord Horror (1990), Motherfuckers: The Auschwitz of Oz (1996), and Baptised in the Blood of Millions (2001). The first book, Lord Horror, was the first to be banned in the United Kingdom since Hubert Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn was banned in 1968.

"Lord Horror," Britton has said, "was so unique and radical, I expected to go to prison for it. I always thought that if you wrote a truly dangerous book -- something dangerous would happen to you. Which is one reason there are so few really dangerous books around. Publishers play at promoting dangerous books, whether they're Serpent's Tail or Penguin. All you get is a book vetted by committee, never anything radically imaginative or offensive that will take your fucking head off. Ironically, I think it would do other authors a power of good if they had to account for their books by going to prison -- there are far too many bad books being published!"

External References

Savoy Books website

BBC Article on the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 Notes that David Britton's Lord Horror was the last novel to be banned under the act.

"If Hitler had won World War Two…" by Michael Moorcock Declares that Britton's Lord Horror series is the only "alternate history" to confront "Nazism with appropriate originality and passion."

Review of Britton's Motherfuckers

Table of Contents for New York Review of Science Fiction, November 1989 listing Brian Stableford's review of Lord Horror.

Excerpt from GQ article about the banning of Lord Horror Includes quotes by Colin Wilson discussing his testimony on behalf of Britton's book.

New Statesman Article by Julian Petley about the banning and defense of Britton's Lord Horror.