John Hamilton, Author and Journalist
Biography:
Scottish-born author John Hamilton made his first professional sale at the age of 19 when film legend Milton Subotsky optioned a 15-page treatment for a gritty film noir called Dead City. That was enough to give him the writing bug and after a period scribing film reviews for regional newspapers in Lanarkshire, John moved to London to concentrate on free-lance journalism. Over the next decade he worked for newspapers and magazines both in the UK and overseas; including the likes of 'The Darkside', 'Flesh and Blood' and 'Cinema Retro'. He also took on a regular column in the popular theatre trade magazine 'The Grapevine.'
As well as extensive film reviews, John's published articles and interviews over the years run into dozens and cover such familar names as Diana Dors and Robin Askwith, directors Roman Polanski and Michael Armstrong, fight-arranger Bill Hobbs and noted composer John Scott.
John contributed to a number of books both as a author and/or reseacher including 'Ten Years of Terror', 'Fantasy Females', 'Flesh and Blood: The Book' and 'Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out.' His first outing as a solo author, 'Beasts in the Cellar' chronicling the amazing career of legendary film producer Tony Tenser, was published by FABpress in 2005 and was acclaimed by critics: 'a thrilling read...glorious stuff' (Film Review) and 'the best ever single subject book in the field of British horror cinema' (SFX). This award nominated book made The Independent's Top Books List and appeared on the New York Times 'books for Christmas' recommendations.
Since then, John has completed three more books (see Books page for details), recorded a number of DVD commentaries, written documentaries on cinema including the widely praised 'Legend of Hammer'. He also appeared on the BBC television series 'British Films Forever', as well as Radio 4's Still Lives.
In October 2010 John's first feature film, Grave Tales had its world premiere at the Lumiere Cinema in Kensington, London; later receiving its official release at the Southend Film Festival. As well as writing the script John also appeared (briefly) in the last of the four stories. John's second screenplay has been optioned by Image 10 and is scheduled to start shooting in early 2012, in the meantime John is completing the script for a new documentary for FGS productions.
With whatever free time he has left, John lives in Kent with his beautiful wife Alison and children Alec, Emma and Amy, and numerous cats and dogs which seem to come and go at random.
