MONSARRAT, Nicholas

   Pseudonym of Nicholas John Turney (1910-1979), UK-born writer long in Canada, best known for such adventure novels as The Cruel Sea (1951). The first of the 4 vols of his Signs of the Times series, The Time Before This (1962 UK), which is sf, tells of the discovery of ancient artefacts andfrozen beings in Canada, evidence of a highly evolved earlier race on Earth, and of an atomic HOLOCAUST which ended their civilization. Thesecond, Smith and Jones (1963 UK), is a seemingly conventional spy story but is transformed devastatingly into either an ALTERNATE-WORLD or a NEAR FUTURE novel by its last line. With The Master Mariner, Book 1:Running Proud (1978 UK), NM began a projected 2-part novel about a Flying Dutchman figure, whose story was planned to extend over four centuries of UK life at sea; the second volume, which NM died before completing, was published as The Master Mariner, Book 2: Darken Ship: The Unfinished Novel (1980 UK).

   JC