|
Saw
Moderator
Din: Audiobooks Section
Inregistrat: acum 17 ani
|
|
David Andrew Gemmell (1 August 1948 – 28 July 2006) was a bestselling British author of heroic fantasy. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell had his first work of fiction published in 1984. He went on to write over thirty novels. Best known for his debut, Legend, Gemmell's works display violence, yet also explore themes of honour, loyalty and redemption. With over one million copies sold, his work continues to sell worldwide.
In 2008, the David Gemmell Legend Award was established, intended to "restore fantasy to its proper place in the literary pantheon"; a steering group of 18 authors is chaired by writer Stan Nicholls and the award is decided by a public vote.
David Gemmell was born in 1948 in west London. Raised alone by his mother until the age of six, he experienced a harsh upbringing in a tough urban area, suffering bullying and taunts from his peers, partly due to the absence of his father, and often sustained serious injuries through fighting. Preferring reading books to fighting, he was compelled to take up boxing by his stepfather, who insisted he learn how to stand up for himself without "hiding behind walls or running away", this philosophy informing much of Gemmell's later writing. As a child, he said he "would have given anything" to stand beside King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. As a teenager, he wanted to stand with Marshal Will Kane in the film High Noon. He was expelled from school at the age of sixteen for organizing a gambling syndicate and as a youth was arrested several times. He claimed that one psychologist's report at the time labelled him a psychopath. Gemmell went on to work as a labourer, a lorry-driver's mate and a nightclub bouncer, before his mother set up a job interview with a local newspaper. Of 100 applicants, he was probably the least qualified for the position, but was hired owing to his display of arrogance during the interview, which was mistaken for self-confidence. He went on to work as a journalist for several local newspapers in East Sussex, eventually becoming editor-in-chief for five. He also worked freelance as a stringer for the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, and Daily Express national newspapers. Coming from a staunch socialist family, Gemmell carried banners and campaigned for eventual Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the 1960s, nevertheless admitting a grudging alignment with Thatcherite policies on issues of foreign policy, especially the Falklands Conflict, and with Reaganite views on East-West relations. Gemmell married twice; his first marriage produced two children, before he met his second wife, Stella. The couple made their home in Hastings on the south-east coast of England until the author's death.
Gemmell first attempted writing a novel in the 1970s, but The Man from Miami failed to find a publisher. He later admitted that the book "was so bad it could curdle milk at 50 paces." In 1976, after being diagnosed with a cancer he believed to be terminal, he wrote The Siege of Dros Delnoch in order to take his mind off his illness and to realise his ambition of having a novel published before he died. Written in two weeks, the novel told of a siege resisted against overwhelming odds, at the time serving as a metaphor for his illness; the fortress at the center of the tale was Gemmell, the invaders were his cancer. Leaving the ending of the novel open, he planned to let the fortress stand or fall dependent upon his own prognosis. When Gemmell later learned that he had suffered a misdiagnosis, he set The Siege of Dros Delnoch to one side until 1980, when a friend read the manuscript and convinced Gemmell to sharpen up the novel in order to make one last attempt at publication. It was accepted in 1982 and published in 1984 under the new title, Legend, going on to achieve considerable commercial success. Gemmell said that while it had "all the flaws you expect in a first novel", the writing of Legend was "a golden time" in his life, citing it as the favourite of all his novels. He said that while he could "write it better" after becoming an established author, "[its heart] wouldn't be bettered by improving its style." Gemmell's journalism career overlapped with his career writing novels until the publication of his third novel Waylander in 1986, when he was fired after using colleagues' names for characters in the book. Gemmell later said that his Managing Director had regarded it "a poisonous attack on his integrity."
After the publication of Waylander, Gemmell became an author full-time, writing over thirty novels in total, some as part of long-running series, others as standalone works. Most of his novels were in the heroic fantasy genre; White Knight, Black Swan was a crime thriller, appearing under the pseudonym Ross Harding, and was Gemmell's only novel not to become a bestseller. Two of Gemmell's novels have also been adapted into graphic novel format. Gemmell's books have sold more than one million copies.
In mid-2006, Gemmell was on a trip to Alaska when he became discomforted. Immediately travelling back to the UK, he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in a private London hospital. Within two days he was able to take physical exercise and returned home to resume work on his latest novel. On the morning of 28 July 2006, four days before his 58th birthday, Gemmell was discovered by his wife, slumped over his computer, having died of coronary artery disease.
At the time of his death, Gemmell was writing the final novel in an alternate-history trilogy based upon the legend of the siege of Troy, having completed 70,000 words. Only hours after his death, Gemmell's wife Stella resolved to complete the second half of the novel based upon his chapter plan and notes, contacting Gemmell's publisher two weeks after his funeral in order to make the offer. As a former junior reporter, aspiring novelist and subeditor, and having been involved in Gemmell's writing process for a number of years, Stella Gemmell felt she was "the only one who could do it." Preparing for the task, she reread her husband's previous work, deconstructing the battle scenes in order to build her own. Troy: Fall of Kings was published in 2007 under the joint authorship of David and Stella Gemmell.
Up until his death, Gemmell was also patron of the Hastings Writers' Group, following founder member Catherine Cookson. As patron, he was the main judge in the national literary competition run by the group, the Legend Writing Award, which was named after his breakthrough novel. In 2008, the David Gemmell Legend Award was established, intended to "restore fantasy to its proper place in the literary pantheon"; a steering group of 18 authors is chaired by writer Stan Nicholls and the award is decided by a public vote. At the inaugural ceremony in June 2009, the first recipient was the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, for his novel Blood of Elves. The youngest author to be nominated for this award was 17 year old Liam Gillen.
More information:
Code:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11586.David_Gemmell |
The Drenai Saga books 1,2,3,6,9,10,11
David Gemmell - Legend (read by David Banks)
David Gemmell - The King Beyond The Gate (read by David Banks)
David Gemmell - Waylander (read by David Banks)
David Gemmell - The First Chronicles Of Druss The Legend (read by David Banks)
David Gemmell - Hero In The Shadows (read by Christopher Kay)
David Gemmell - White Wolf (read by Christopher Kay)
David Gemmell - The Swords Of Night And Day (read by Christopher Kay)
Other
David Gemmell - Stormrider (read by Christopher Kay)
David Gemmell - Knights Of Dark Renown (read by Christopher Kay)
Code:
http://rapidgator.net/file/b94030cb1ae9c28de907ce8006ec3aca/Legend.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/804faeda27043628e456070f0fdf17e4/The_King_Beyond_The_Gate.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/75b5532f14cf9e4076ec3425c834f306/Waylander.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/1b6fad98df1c8a52177885d20e90d002/Druss_The_Legend.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/b400a88ae26edf8bfa9635911a67ff6f/Hero_In_The_Shadows.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/abec0438355e2424457f96d4a50c58db/White_Wolf.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/6bf84f4f7f8cf471c86a41b6d8ca7fad/The_Swords_Of_Night_And_Day.rar.html
Other
http://rapidgator.net/file/7d6a25523f6ff88996a0386d5e338d7f/Stormrider.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/a69063b70fd17b621736c844b3ab8244/Knights_Of_Dark_Renown.rar.html |
_______________________________________
|
|
