BRITTON, David

(1945-)

   UK publisher and writer, founder with Michael BUTTERWORTH of Savoy Books, whose list included works by Michael MOORCOCK, Charles PLATT and Jack Trevor STORY. With Butterworth, he edited The Savoy Book (anth 1978) and Savoy Dreams (anth 1984), which attempted with some success to demonstrate the anti-establishment ethos of the house, an ethos that brought both DB and Butterworth into conflict with the UK obscenity laws, as applied by the local police. Copies of DB's first novel, Lord Horror (1989), a scatological examination of Nazism and the UK traitor Lord Haw-Haw which made use of pornographic imagery upsetting to the Manchester police, were seized. A GRAPHIC NOVEL version of some of the same material, Lord Horror (graph in 5 parts 1990-91), was also produced. The novel - which depicts the survival in Burma of Hitler and Lord Haw-Haw - was clearly, if very offensively, a SATIRE; and the destruction order on remaining copies of the text was duly and properly lifted by a UK court in July 1992 - although the graphic novel remained banned.

   JC