About Kim Newman
Born 1959. Kim Newman is a British journalist, novelist, writer, science fiction writer, screenwriter and film critic.
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He focuses on film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven – and alternative history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award.
Early life Kim Newman was born 31 July 1959 in Brixton, London, the son of Bryan Michael Newman and Julia Christen Newman, both potters. His sister, Sasha, was born in 1961, and their mother died in 2003. In 1980, he graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English.
Newman is a contributing editor to the UK film magazine Empire, as well as writing the monthly segment, "Kim Newman's Video Dungeon", in which he gives often scathing reviews of recently released straight-to-video horror films. He contributes to Rotten Tomatoes, Venue, Video Watchdog ('The Perfectionist's Guide to Fantastic Video') and Sight and Sound. Newman is the author of the Doctor Who entry in the British Film Institute's book series on TV Classics. In 2018, Newman became the chief writer on the BBC Four documentary series Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema.
Newman participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, A Canterbury Tale, Céline and Julie Go Boating, Citizen Kane, Duck Amuck, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Mulholland Drive, Notorious, and To Have and Have Not.
Fiction Newman's first published novel was The Night Mayor (1989), set in a virtual reality, based on old black-and-white detective movies. In the same year, using the pen name Jack Yeovil, he began contributing to a series of novels published by Games Workshop, set in the world of their Warhammer and Dark Future wargaming and role-playing games. Games Workshop's fiction imprint Black Flame returned the Dark Future books to print in 2006, publishing Demon Download, Krokodil Tears, Comeback Tour and the expanded, 250-page version of the short story "Route 666".
Anno Dracula was published in 1992. The novel is set in 1888, during Jack the Ripper's killing spree—but a different 1888, in which Dracula became the ruler of England. Anno Dracula was followed by the Anno Dracula series of novels and shorter works, that followed the same alternative history. The fourth novel in the series was published in 2013 as Johnny Alucard.
Other novels include Life's Lottery (1999), in which the protagonist's life story is determined by the reader's choices (an adult version of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children's books), The Quorum (1994), Jago (1991) and Bad Dreams (1990).
Newman wrote a Doctor Who novella, Time and Relative in 2001.
Novels The Night Mayor (1989) Bad Dreams (1990) Jago (1991) Bloody Students (1991) The Quorum (1994) Life's Lottery (1999) Anno Dracula series Anno Dracula (1992) The Bloody Red Baron (1995) Dracula Cha Cha Cha (also published as Judgment of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959) (1998) Johnny Alucard (2013) One Thousand Monsters (2017) Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju (2019) Time and Relative (2001) Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles (Titan Books, 2011; ) An English Ghost Story (2014) The Secrets of Drearcliffe Grange School (2015) Angels of Music (2016) The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School (2018) Daikaiju (2019) Something More Than Night (2021) Model Actress Whatever (2026)
Collections In Dreams (1992, with Paul J. McAuley) The Original Dr. Shade, and Other Stories (1994) Famous Monsters (1995) Back in the USSA (1997) (with Eugene Byrne) Seven Stars (2000) Where the Bodies are Buried (2000) Unforgivable Stories (2000) The Vaccinator / Andy Warhol's Dracula (2000, with Michael Marshall Smith) Der Fluch der Sieben Sterne (Seven Stars, published in Germany, 2004) Dead Travel Fast (2005) Diogenes Club series The Man from the Diogenes Club (2006) The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club (2007) Mysteries of the Diogenes Club (2010) Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories (2017)
Comics Anno Dracula – 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem (Titan Comics, 2017, five issues) with artist Paul McCaffrey.
As Jack Yeovil Warhammer setting Drachenfels (1989) Bloody Students (1991) Beasts in Velvet (1991) Genevieve Undead (1993, three novellas published as a single book) Silver Nails (2002, short stories) The Vampire Genevieve (2005, compilation of the above four books) Dark Future setting Demon Download (1990) Krokodil Tears (1991) Comeback Tour (The Sky Belongs to the Stars) (1991) Route 666 (1994) Orgy of the Blood Parasites (1994) "The Big Fish" in Shadows over Innsmouth (1994) Comeback Tour (2007)
Non-Fiction Nightmare Movies: Wide Screen Horror Since 1968 (1984) Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations (1985) (with Neil Gaiman) Horror: 100 Best Books (1988) (with Stephen Jones) Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film, 1968–1988 (1988) The BFI Companion to Horror (1996) Millennium Movies aka Apocalypse Movies: End of the World Cinema (1999) Cat People (1999) Science Fiction / Horror: A Sight and Sound Reader (2002) Horror: Another 100 Best Books (2005) (with Stephen Jones) BFI TV Classics: Doctor Who (2005) Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s (2011) Horror!: The Definitive Companion to the Most Terrifying Movies Ever Made (2013) (with James Marriott) Quatermass and the Pit (2014)
Awards Work Year & Award Category Result Ref.Ghastly Beyond Belief
Newman has been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award six times and for the World Fantasy Award seven times.
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Important facts
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Kim Newman?
English novelist (born 1959)
When was Kim Newman born?
Kim Newman was born on 31 July 1959 in London.
What is Kim Newman's occupation?
Kim Newman is a journalist, novelist, writer, science fiction writer, screenwriter and film critic.
What nationality is Kim Newman?
Kim Newman is British.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Kim Newman. https://biography.guide/kim-newman/
MLA: "Kim Newman." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/kim-newman/.
Chicago: "Kim Newman." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/kim-newman/.
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