John Rankine

Who was John Rankine?

John Rankine was a British science fiction author, who wrote books as John Rankine and Douglas R. Mason. Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales and first attended Chester Grammar School and in 1937 went to study English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess.

We know little of his life until 1966, when his first short stories and novels were published while he was in his mid-forties. The novels have a very 1960s and 1970s feel to them. One theme he worked with was that of a shorter life span, possibly borrowed from William F. Nolan's Logan's Run, but while the background and theme seemed similar, The Resurrection of Roger Diment took the concept in a totally different direction.

Rankine also wrote television novels in the Space: 1999 universe.