Mark Chadbourn

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-09-07

Mark Chadbourn is a British author of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and historical fiction, born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the English Midlands to a family with a long line of coal miners. He holds a degree in Economic History and began his writing career after working as a journalist for major British publications including The Times, The Independent, and Marie Claire. His fiction career began in 1990, and he has since worked as a novelist and television scriptwriter, writing historical novels under the pseudonym James Wilde. His major fantasy works include the Age of Misrule series, the Dark Age series, and the Kingdom of the Serpent trilogy, comprising Jack of Ravens, The Burning Man, and Destroyer of Worlds. He also wrote a six-book series on the Anglo-Saxon hero Hereward between 2011 and 2016, the novel Pendragon (2017), and co-authored The New Kingdom (2021) with bestselling adventure novelist Wilbur Smith. As a scriptwriter, he contributed to the long-running BBC drama Doctors from 2002 to 2014, and his television series Shadow State was optioned by Clerkenwell Films in 2014. Chadbourn won Fear magazine's Best New Author award in 1990 for the story 'Six Dead Boys in a Very Dark World,' and later won British Fantasy Awards for his novella 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' in 2003 and his short story 'Whisper Lane' in 2007. Six of his novels have been shortlisted for the August Derleth Award, and he was runner-up for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award in 2018.

Universe(s)

Books

• World's End (1999) · Age of Misrule Core Canon
• Darkest Hour (2000) · Age of Misrule Core Canon
• Always Forever (2001) · Age of Misrule Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 3 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

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