Brian Masters

Early life Brian J Masters was born on 25 May 1939 in London to Mabel Masters (; 1916–1989) and Geoffrey Masters (1915–1982), a progress chaser in the aeronautical industry. Masters grew up in a prefabricated home on the Old Kent Road and was educated at Wilson's Grammar School.

Masters' mother had Kyphosis and a weak chest and in 1955 the family moved to Wales to improve her health.

Masters read French Literature and Philosophy at University College, Cardiff where he gained a first in 1961. Briefly a teacher in France (as part of his degree), he worked for a time as a travel guide "organising educational tours for American students". during his conversations with Nilsen. His book contains writings by Nilsen, and Masters considers various theories which attempt to explain Nilsen's actions. Masters reaches no definite conclusion on "the essential unknowability of the human mind", but Nilsen is "not a stranger amongst us" rather "an extreme instance of human possibility". Masters, who is gay, feared that another author might get things wrong about the case given the climate for gay men at the time.

Masters was accused of being overly sympathetic to Nilsen at the time his book was first published in the UK, a view he rejects in his memoir.

Selected bibliography Sartre, a study (1970) A Student's Guide to Saint-Exupéry (1970) A Student's Guide to Rabelais (1971) Dreams About HM the Queen and Other Members of the Royal Family (1973) Wynyard Hall and the Londonderry Family (1973) Camus A study (1974) The Dukes: Origin, Ennoblement and History of 26 Families (1975; revised 2001) Now Barabbas Was a Rotter: the Extraordinary Life of Marie Corelli (1978) Georgiana (1981) Great Hostesses (1982) Killing for Company: The Case of Dennis Nilsen (1985) Gary (1990) The Life of E. F. Benson (1991) The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer (1993, 2007) She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West (1996) The Evil That Men Do (1996) Thunder in the Air: Great Actors in Great Roles (2000) Getting Personal (autobiography 2002)