Phoenix Convention

Colin Smythe was born in Maidenhead in Berkshire in 1942, and was educated at Bradfield College near Reading and subsequently at Trinity College Dublin from which he graduated in 1963. In 1966 he sold his collection of first editions of W.B.Yeats's works, by that stage taking up about 65 feet of shelf-space, and started his publishing company, Colin Smythe Ltd, on the proceeds. He moved to Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire in 1967, and has been living there ever since. The company specialises in Irish literature, with books by or about authors such as W.B.Yeats, Lady Gregory, J.M.Synge, George Moore, G.W. Russell (better known by his pen-name ‘AE’), Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Oliver St John Gogarty, and William Carleton, and also on subjects such as the Irish epic myths, the fairy faith, ghosts, folklore, heraldry, orders of knighthood, diplomacy, politics, trout fishing, and parapsychology.

Colin was a visiting professor in the English Department of the University of Ulster at Coleraine from 1993 to 2002, but remains one still, for reasons that are unclear to him, at the Universidade Moderna in Lisbon. For his services to Irish literature the University of Dublin conferred an honorary Doctorate of Laws on him in July 1998. He has edited and written various books, chiefly by or about Lady Gregory and her family, and hopes to finish his bibliography of the writings of W.B.Yeats soon. It's now 350,000 words in length, still growing and delivery to the publishers is over 25 years late. He feels guilty about this, but admits that the book is now much more comprehensive than it could possibly have been had it been handed in to his publisher in 1982. He also is agent for the literary estates of a number of Irish authors, including George Moore, Lady Gregory and Oliver St John Gogarty.

Colin is also a keen SF and fantasy reader, having been introduced to the works of Tolkien, Lewis, Edison and others at university. He met Terry Pratchett in 1968 and published Terry’s first book, The Carpet People, in 1971, to be followed by his next four books, before coming to an arrangement with Victor Gollancz for subsequent works, starting with Equal Rites. Colin has also published fantasy works by William Barnwell and Hugh Cook.

Since 1987, Colin has been acting as Terry Pratchett’s agent, which has involved him in a completely different world from the rather academic one he had been used to – and much more interesting and challenging than publishing: after editing, proof-reading, getting printed and publishing more than 500 books in forty odd years, the novelty has worn off. Agenting has involved him not only in dealing with Terry's publishers all over the world, but in film, television, drama productions, merchandising, and dealing with internet piracy. He has also acted as the late Josh Kirby’s agent in the UK for the Pratchett related pictures (for calendars, prints, jigsaws, etc).

He still lives in Gerrards Cross, bewails the fact that his home isn't really big enough to hold 10,000+ books, and now has a blue merle Great Dane that came from a rescue home, which he believes now leads a rather more contented / spoiled existence than it did in its puppyhood. Fortunately Robby does not chew the furniture, or the books. Colin's fascination with the paranormal, his long-standing love of SF and Fantasy, and his charming and debonair manner, make him one of the most versatile guests a convention could wish for.

More information about Colin Smythe can be found at his website, http://www.colinsmythe.co.uk/ .