Stephen Gillespie’s favourite
fantasy novels – Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” for the mystery of Dust
and the bond between child and daemon and
Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked” for its misunderstood animal rights activist.
Favourite science fiction
novel – if not the one being currently read, then Stephen Baxter’s “Time Ships”
for its convincingly credible deep future technologies and cosmic temporal
cat’s cradle.
Favourite science fiction
movie – Mike Cahill’s “Another Earth” 2011 (a favourite genre punched in the
gut).
Favourite movie of all time –
Coppola’s “The Godfather” 1972 (gripping family drama).
Favourite graphic novel –
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s “Daredevil Born Again” (superheroes go
“Hill Street Blues”). Or Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” (the
immigrant experience in images. Not one
single written word. Brilliant.).
Favourite theatrical
experience – Dundee Rep and Gridiron’s “Yarn”, Dundee 2008 (Site specific,
promenade short stories. That simple.) Or Tom Mac Intyre’s “The Bearded Lady”,
Dublin 1984. (“Gulliver’s Travels” meets
physical theatre and some psychoanalysis.)
Most important books on the
bookshelf - Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion” and Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”.
Favourite short story –
Saki’s “Sredni Vashtar”.
Favourite poem – Heaney’s
“Blackberry Picking”.
Favourite musical artists – Kate
Bush, David Bowie, Mike Oldfield and Toyah Wilcox. (All inspirational.)
Claim to fame – having a
letter, regarding a point of Whovian cosmology, published in the pages of the
Doctor Who Magazine UK (issue 523).
Stephen Gillespie grew up in Derry, Northern Ireland,
where he spent his teenage years drawing Supurr mini-comics featuring such
superhero creations as Doctor Optic and Anti-Atomic Man. He now lives in Scotland, where he lives with
his wife Tracey and their cat Izzy.
Prior to the novel Stephen Gillespie wrote community
theatre in Ireland which included the rock musical “Captured Shadows” which
toured Ireland in 1985, “The Siege of Robert Lundy" in 1988 for the Relief
of Derry Project and the Tolkeinesque conflict resolution open-air performance
"Two Tribes" in 1996.
In 1994 he was awarded his Batchelor of Arts Honours
Degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Ulster in Coleraine and in
1996 he recieved his Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching from Northern
College, Aberdeen.
Since then he has been teaching Secondary and Primary
level Drama in Dundee.
His first novel “Photographing God” is a Young Adult SF
First Contact story.
