Ramsey Campbell Books In Order

Publication Order of Three Births of Daoloth Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Chapooks

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Ramsey Campbell is a renowned English editor, critic, and author of horror, dark fantasy, thriller, and science fiction stories. He has been actively involved in writing and editing for more than fifty years now and has penned hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. Many of his books have become classics. Campbell has successfully adapted three of his books into films for the non-English speaking audience. He came to prominence for the first time in the 1960s. Since then, he has been cited by the critics as one of the leading authors in this field. Several of his fellow authors have described him as the finest living author of the weird fiction genre in Britain. S. T. Joshi has stated that Campbell will be regarded by the future generations as the leading writer of horror novels of our generation, same as Blackwood or Lovecraft.

Author Campbell was born as John Ramsey Campbell on January 4, 1946, in Liverpool, England. He received his early education at St. Edward’s College in Liverpool by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. His parents, Nora and Alexander Campbell, became estranged after his birth and had a rift throughout his childhood and teenage years. Campbell’s dad was more like a shadowy figure for him as he would rarely see him around. For nearly 20 years, he did not see him face to face. The long rift resulted in his mother getting degenerated into schizophrenia and paranoia, which made Campbell’s life too difficult. He has discussed this experience in detail in the afterword and introduction of his book, The Face That Must Die. Several other autobiographical manuscripts describing the life of Campbell are present in Section V of his essay collection. Campbell has seen his mother write a lot of novels and short stories. She was too much involved in writing, but was not able to get her work published, except a few short stories in magazines. So, she encouraged Campbell to start sending his work to publishers at a young age.

Campbell grew up in a blitzed landscape in the post-war Liverpool and was avidly indulged in studying the works of Ambrose Bierce, Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Franz Kafka, and others. Campbell had written his earlier tales when he was as young as eleven years old. They included a set of 16 self-illustrated stories and one poem, that he called ‘Ghostly Tales’. He intended to send them to Phantom for publication, but his mom persuaded him to finish writing a whole book before submitting his work. Campbell was motivated by his English teacher to write more stories and read them out in the class. Later, Campbell sent his collection to many publishers under the pseudonym of John R. Campbell. Although all of them rejected it, one of them encouraged Campbell in the rejection letter to continue writing and hone his writing skills.

A few years later, Campbell found success in getting his first book published. Since then, he has not looked back and published many books and short story collections in his writing career. Campbell has used several pen names for writing different genres of books, including Jay Ramsay, Carl Dreadstone, Montgomery Comfort, etc. He was able to publish Ghostly Tales thirty years after he first wrote them. All the film adaptations of Campbell’s books have been in the Spanish language. Other than writing novels, Campbell has edited numerous anthologies, including Uncanny Banquet, New Terrors, New Tales of Cthulhu Mythos, New Terrors II, etc.

Campbell is married to the daughter of Bertram Chandler, Jenny Chandler. They have 2 children, Matthew and Tamsin, and live in Merseyside. Campbell described Jenny as the best part of himself. She has supported at all stages of his life and career. While Campbell was involved in his works, Jenny spent her time by working as a teacher. The couple is fond of traveling and fine dining. Campbell also likes to undertake public speaking and giving readings of his books at literary events. He has claimed that if it had not been for horror writing, he might have chosen the path of stand-up comedy.

Ramsey started a new book series called The Three Births of Daoloth series in 2016. It features the lead characters in the roles of Dominic Sheldrake, Jim, Roberta, Christian Noble, Toby, Bobby, etc. Campbell has set the events in each book of this series at a gap of over 30 years from the previous one. He has done the setting of the plots in Liverpool and France. The debut book of this series is entitled ‘The Searching Dead’. It was released by PS Publishing in 2016. Initially, Dominic Sheldrake is shown remembering his childhood years during the fifties in Liverpool. He is not able to forget certain events from his past life, including the one in which an old boy from his school gave a talk on World War I. When the history teacher took the entire class to France on a field visit, he expected it to be a trip full of adventures. Instead, Dominic came across a series of events that he could not get over. He learns that a neighbor is involved in old practices that are darker and older than spiritualism.

Dominic also stumbles upon an old journal that tells about the universe’s occult nature. He shares the secret journal with his friends, Jim and Roberta, as well as its contents. They decide to team up and try to stop what is taking root under the church in their community amidst the blitz. Dominic fears that the thing he and his friends are facing now is much worse than the exploitation that they have been facing until now. The second volume of this successful series is known as ‘Born to the Dark’. It was also published by PS Publishing in 2017. This book opens around 30 years after the events in the first book. Dominic Sheldrake is now married and has a son. He is certain that he has freed himself and his family from the occult influence.

While Toby experiences strange dreams and nocturnal seizures, Claudine and Dominic find a facility that helps to treat children with Toby’s condition. They wonder if their visions are just dreams or truths that most people are not able to envisage. As Dominic is forced to confront the strange figures from the past, he calls his old friends for help once again.

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