Hello , welcome to the h2g2 Robert Rankin fan club. If you already know all there is to know about this superb author, skip to the bottom and join the club. If however you are unfamiliar with this great man you may like to read on.

Robert Rankin: A brief introduction

Robert Fleming Rankin was born in Parsons Green, England, on July 27th in a year remembered well by those that remembered it well. Myth holds that Robert was of the 23rd of July, a myth believed started as an explaination for notable number of appearances of the number known as '23'.
Robert is an award-winning author, most recently winning 'Best Novel 2003' at the SFX awards for 'Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse'.
Robert Rankin's first published authorship was ‘The Antipope’ in 1981. Robert Rankin provided forty-five black and white illustrations for the book 'Behind the Beatles Songs', written by his friend by Philip Cowan. Robert is not only an author; to many of his fans he is a friend. Robert is also something of a stand-up comedian, providing great laughs when ever put before an audience with amusing anecdotes, observational comedy and song. He is a talented artist and sculptor; he studied Graphics at Ealing School of Art. Waterstone's in Brighton displayed an exhibition of Robert's sculptures from 9th April to 20th May 2001. Robert has created with the help of his partner Sally Hurst, sculptures and artwork for the covers of his novels. He wanted to create sculptures because he wanted both the book's covers to look different from anybody else's and to better get across the 'feel' of the books that are different from anybody else's on the in their content. He is a [questionable] poet and founder of the 'Brentford Poets', in his role as 'Writer in Residence', at Waterman's Art Centre. And a musician, he was once in a band called ‘Astro Laser and the Flying Starfish from Uranus’.

What does Rankin write?

Robert writes most often about Brentford a place he has more than a passing familiarity with having lived and worked there for many years before moving to Henfield, Sussex, and then to his present home in the city of Brighton and Hove.


Robert describes himself as a ‘teller of tall tales’. He has not read a work of fiction since 1981, this is because he was afraid to read another person's books because he says 'I knew I would lift a paragraph here, an idea here, a character there, I just knew I would'. When he submitted his first book to his publisher they said they liked the book. They also said 'if we took out all the Flann O'Brien and all the Spike Milligan there might be something left that was my [Robert's] book'. Robert realised that to write a book one has to 'find your own voice in writing'.


What he writes he describes as ‘Far-fetched Fiction’. This is the genre of the great man’s own devising and what he feels describes his work best. For it's uniqueness Robert's writing deserves a shelf to itself in Smith's. Sadly there is no ‘Far-fetched Fiction’ section in your local Ottakar’s or Waterstones, which was his stated aim. His work gets placed with Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett in the Sci-Fi Fantasy section, perhaps rightly so as Robert Rankin is a humorist who easily rivals these two better known writers. Despite this Robert says 'I feel a bit of a fraud for being there'.


His books are sprinkled with obscure 'in' jokes and jokes so old they are new, references to music and film are there as are references even to fans. The prose is riddled with puns and running gags [many that recur from book to book]. Robert is a master of the double entendre.


There is also a dark side to most of the stories, they deal with the macabre, for example Billy Barnes, a character in Dance of the Voodoo Handbag, keeps his granny in a box under the bed, feeding her flesh to the skull on the Voodoo Handbag. They also feature worlds that are never quite as mundane as they seem where all manner of bizarre and outré events can occur.

A Conclusion

Robert Rankin is a creative and copious author. After 22 years his still fertile mind shows no sign of slowing down. Robert has a contract to publish one novel each year. On meeting him his charm and charisma are immediately apparent. He is loyal and open to his fans who are loyal and dedicated in return.

A Rankin Bibliography

At the time of writing Robert is the author of 26 novels. The following are his novels listed in chronological order, with dates of publication.



The Antipope 1981
The Brentford Triangle 1982
East of Ealing 1984
The Sprouts of Wrath 1988
Armageddon the Musical 1990
Armageddon II: The B-Movie - They Came and Ate Us 1991
Armageddon III: The Remake - The Suburban Book of the Dead 1992
The Book of Ultimate Truths 1993
Raiders of the Lost Car Park 1994
The Greatest Show Off Earth 1995
The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived 1995
The Garden of Unearthly Delights 1995
A Dog Called Demolition 1996
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster 1996
Sprout Mask Replica 1997
The Brentford Chainstore Massacre 1997
The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag 1998
Apocalypso 1998
Snuff Fiction 1999
Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls 1999
Waiting for Godalming 2000
Website Story 2001
The Fandom of the Operator 2001
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse 2002
The Witches of Chiswick 2003
Knees Up Mother Earth 2004
and The Brightonomicon August 2005.
The Toyminator is out in August of 2006!

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