CROSS, John Keir

(1914-1967)

   UK writer of RADIO scripts before WWII, and later of novels and tv adaptations (one of them being of John WYNDHAM's The Kraken Wakes) for the BBC. Some of his books for younger children, written as Stephen MacFarlane, are fantasies; Lucy Maroon, the Car that Loved a Policeman (1944) and Mr Bosanko and Other Stories (coll 1944) are typical. All his sf novels are for older children; they include The Angry Planet (1945) and its sequel, SOS from Mars (1954; vt The Red Journey Back 1954 US), both of which represent JKC's transcription of manuscripts "by Stephen MacFarlane" encompassing the first three expeditions to Mars, which discover the vegetable life there to have suffered a Manichaean EVOLUTION into alternative races. The Owl and the Pussycat (1946; vt The Other Side of Green Hills 1947 US) is a fantasy, while The Flying Fortunes in an Encounter with Rubberface! (1952; vt The Stolen Sphere 1953 US) has an orbital satellite as a MCGUFFIN. Though he wrote several novels as JKC, including The White Magic (1947) - not a fantasy, although often recorded as such - his best-known work under his own name is The Other Passenger (coll 1944; cut vt Stories from The Other Passenger 1961 US), a collection of subtle fantasy tales for adults. He edited Best Horror Stories (anth 1956), Best Black Magic Stories (anth 1960) and Best Horror Stories 2 (anth 1965).

   JC

   See also: CHILDREN'S SF.