Tom Holt

Infobox Writer


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name = Tom Holt
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birthdate = birth date and age|1961|9|13
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occupation = Writer
nationality = British
period = 1987-present
genre = Humorous fantasy, Historical
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Tom Holt (born Thomas Charles Louis Holt September 13 1961 in London) is a British novelist. He is the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School and Wadham College, Oxford.

Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt. Steve Nallon collaborated with Holt to write "I, Margaret", an unauthorized biography of Margaret Thatcher published in 1989.

Novels

Humorous fantasy

*"Expecting Someone Taller" (1987), based on the mythology of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen"
*"Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" (1988), based on Norse mythology and history
*"Flying Dutch" (1991), based on the story of the Flying Dutchman
*"Ye Gods!" (1992), based on elements of Greek mythology including a parody of Heracles
*"Overtime" (1993), based on the legend of Blondel combined with time travel
*"Here Comes the Sun" (1993), based loosely on the Celestial Bureaucracy reinterpreted along the lines of the British civil service
*"Grailblazers" (1994), based on Arthurian romance and the quest for the Holy Grail
*"Faust Among Equals" (1994), an imagined continuation of the story of Faust
*"Odds & Gods" (1995), which features assorted pantheons and their adventures after "retirement"
*"Djinn Rummy" (1995), based on the antics of various bottle-trapped djinn along the lines of a modern Aladdin
*"My Hero" (1996), in which literary characters can move between fiction and the real world. One of the main characters is Hamlet
*"Paint Your Dragon" (1996), based on the legend of St George slaying the dragon
*"Open Sesame" (1997), based on characters from the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
*"Wish You Were Here" (1998), in which a lake spirit grants four people their heart's desire whether they like it or not
*"Only Human" (1999), in which four human souls are switched with a machine, a painting, a lemming and a demon
*"Snow White and the Seven Samurai" (1999), based on fairy tales (Brothers Grimm and others) making a world within a computer simulation
*"Valhalla" (2000), based on Norse mythology
*"Nothing But Blue Skies" (2001), which features Chinese dragons
*"Falling Sideways" (2002)
*"Little People" (2002), based on faery legends
*Featuring J.W. Wells, the magic firm from "The Sorcerer" by Gilbert & Sullivan:
**"The Portable Door" (2003)
**"In Your Dreams" (2004)
**"Earth, Air, Fire, and Custard" (2005)
**"You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps" (2006)
*"Someone Like Me" (2006)
*"Barking" (2007), based on mythology including vampire/werewolf legends
*"The Better Mousetrap" (2008)

Historical

Using Thomas Holt as author name.
*"The Walled Orchard" (1997), which was originally published in two parts as "Goatsong" (1989) and "The Walled Orchard" (1990)
*"Alexander At The World's End" (1999)
*"Olympiad" (2000)
*"Song for Nero" (2003)
*"Meadowland" (2005)

Other

* Poems by Tom Holt (1974) (Collection of early poems)
*continuations of E. F. Benson's "Lucia" series set in Tilling
**"Lucia In Wartime" (1985) fiction
**"Lucia Triumphant" (1986) fiction
* I, Margaret (1989) (satirical biography of Margaret Thatcher, with Steve Nallon)
* Bitter lemmings (1997) (Songbook)
* Holt Who Goes There? (2002) (short stories)

Parodies of musical works

* [http://www.peteatkin.com/b10p.htm "Impractical Man"] — a parody of the song [http://www.peteatkin.com/b10.htm "Practical Man"] by Pete Atkin and Clive James.

External links

* [http://www.tom-holt.com official site] – official website run by Holt's publisher
* [http://www.sffworld.com/interview/75p0.html Interview] at [http://www.sffworld.com SFFWorld.com]