Peter Tremayne

Peter Tremayne is the pseudonym of Peter Berresford Ellis. In 1977, his novel, The Hound of Frankenstein was published by Mills and Boon. Today it is a cult read and second-hand copies of the book fetch a fair price.

JOHNNY: How did the story for the Hound of Frankenstein first come about? Was it something you were specifically asked to do by a publisher/agent, or was it something that you just sat down to write one day?

PETER: The story came about because an editor in charge of this series of books asked me if I would write and deliver it in a couple of weeks. The whole thing came together quite easily. It was a nice little earner for a few weeks work. I had lived in Cornwall for a while and set it around Bodmin Moor where there were many a legend of mysterious hounds and the like. There was no time for re-writing anything; it was a rush job to get the title out by the publishers deadline. It was all a rush job.

PETER: The Hound of Frankenstein was published on August 12th, 1977. It was the first Peter Tremayne fiction title published but certainly not the first written. Dracula Unborn was already written and in production from Corgi who published it on October 28, 1977 and the first book in the Corgi series Masters of Terror – a collection of William Hope Hodgson stories edited and introduced , by me – was also in production, coming out on November 25, 1977. Of course I had been writing book reviews as Peter Tremayne for a London based weekly national newspaper since 1976.

JOHNNY: How on earth did the book end up being published by Mills and Boon, better known for their lusty romance novels? Was the horror market something they were truly interested in exploiting?

PETER: Venture Books, whose imprint is almost hidden on the jacket cover, was launched by Mills and Boon. They thought they saw a market for a series of pocket books for servicemen; short reads, 25,000 words each. They kicked off with six titles in the horror area – using the standard horror characters: Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man and so on. John Beal, who edited the Daily Mail Annuals, was given the job of editing these and offered the titles to writers he knew. Among them, an old friend from the 1960’s, Jack Hamilton Teed, took Dracula (The Blood of Dracula) and I took Frankenstein (The Hound of Frankenstein). So one was given the subject, told not to do anything too nasty, and to write the 25,000 word brief.

PETER: With due respect to Jack and the other members of the team who produced these books, the answer is ‘no’. The series didn’t seem to work and there were no more published by Mills and Boon.

PETER: I feel very happy in acknowledging the story. Especially when my agent was able to retrieve the rights on the story. Originally, it had been sold for a flat fee – all that Mills and Boon were offering at the time – and then resold to Steve Jones’ anthology and translations in Italian, Japanese and so on. No, as for changing anything, I never go back to a story and change things. I go on to the next story.

JOHNNY: With the Mills and Boon series not working, were there any initial reservations over the reprinting of the story in Stephen Jones’ Mammoth Book of Frankenstein?

PETER: No, I feel no reservations about any editor wanting to republish my stories. Just recently Otto Penzler wanted to republish my short story Dracula’s Chair – my only reservation was to ask my agent to point out to him that it had already been published about ten times since its first appearance – but he was just as enthusiastic to include it anyway.

JOHNNY: What have you done in the years since the publication of Hound of Frankenstein – do you continue to write horror, and if not would you ever consider writing it again?

PETER: Since 1977 I have published 48 titles as Peter Tremayne, then of course, 34 titles under my own name and by next year, 9 titles as Peter Macalan. There are also about 97 short stories under the Tremayne name. These works have appeared in over a score of languages. While my more recent concentration in the Peter Tremayne field is my medieval murder mysteries featuring Sister Fidelma, I do still write the occasional dark fantasy tale. If you want a precise count of the horror fantasy tales – I have published 17 novels in the genre plus two collections of short stories and published a total of 31 short stories in the genre to date.

PETER: Now and then my fans do discuss my early horror fantasy work and sometimes Hound of Frankenstein is mentioned. Most of my fans are now centred in the International Sister Fidelma Society based in Charleston, South Carolina (www.sisterfidelma.com) and I noticed in one of the editions of their magazine The Brehon, the Society produces this print magazine three times a year for members, someone had written an article and even a cover of the book was printed. But the Fidelma Society was formed mainly for enthusiasts of the medieval murder mysteries which now sell about 4 million copies world-wide, appear in 17 languages, are available as audiobooks, and dramatised on radio and option for developing for television. The fans also hold a three day convention called the Feile Fidelma in Cashel, Co. Tipp, which is the hometown of my sleuth -Sister Fidelma. The second of these conventions is being held on Sept 5-7, and details are on the society website.

JOHNNY: If someone came to you and wanted to write a sequel to Hound of Frankenstein, would it be something you could do, or would you have to have complete control?

PETER: Curiously enough , those looking at the Cornish background in Hound of Frankenstein, will find it appearing in The Hungry Grass and The Morgow Rises, so you could say that they are all connected. However, in response to the specific question, as a professional writer, I would always maintain complete control over any creative work of mine.