Search - List of Books by Tom Holt
"Lawyers are predators in grey worsted." -- Tom Holt
Tom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt; born September 13, 1961) is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt. Steve Nallon collaborated with Holt to write I, Margaret, an unauthorized biography of Margaret Thatcher published in 1989.
"American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It's never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957.""Everything is out there if you know how to find it, and have the patience. I don't and haven't, but that's my problem.""I don't read the Sunday papers; or the dailies, either.""I try and do 2,500 words a day, every day of the year.""It was irritating to have one's physical shortcomings pointed out quite so plainly twice in one evening, once by a beautiful girl and once by a dying badger.""Luck, like a Russian car, generally only works if you push it.""New technology is useful, but it's inefficient and ugly; it knows it'll be obsolete by lunchtime tomorrow, so it has no incentive to be anything else.""Poetry is one of the few nasty childhood habits I've managed to grow out of.""The best definition of an immortal is someone who hasn't died yet."
Humorous fantasy
- Expecting Someone Taller (1987), based on the mythology of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
- Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (1988), based on Norse mythology and history.
- Flying Dutch (1991), based on the story of the Flying Dutchman.
- Ye Gods! (1992), based on elements of Greek mythology including a parody of Heracles.
- Overtime (1993), based on the legend of Blondel combined with time travel.
- Here Comes the Sun (1993), based loosely on the Celestial Bureaucracy reinterpreted along the lines of the British civil service.
- Grailblazers (1994), based on Arthurian romance and the quest for the Holy Grail.
- Faust Among Equals (1994), an imagined continuation of the story of Faust.
- Odds & Gods (1995), which features assorted pantheons and their adventures after "retirement".
- Djinn Rummy (1995), based on the antics of various bottle-trapped djinn along the lines of a modern Aladdin.
- My Hero (1996), in which literary characters can move between fiction and the real world. One of the main characters is Hamlet.
- Paint Your Dragon (1996), based on the adventures of statues carved to portray the legend of St George slaying the dragon.
- Open Sesame (1997), based on characters from the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
- Wish You Were Here (1998), in which a lake spirit grants four people their heart's desire whether they like it or not.
- Only Human (1999), in which four human souls are switched respectively with a machine, a painting, a lemming and a demon.
- Snow White and the Seven Samurai (1999), based on fairy tales (Brothers Grimm and others) making a world within a computer simulation.
- Valhalla (2000), based on ideas from Norse mythology and the notion of tailoring an afterlife to suit the client.
- Nothing But Blue Skies (2001), which features Chinese dragons which cause rain, and the problems caused when one of them falls in love with a human.
- Falling Sideways (2002), which features human cloning and interference from a race of powerful alien frogs.
- Little People (2002), in which a boy sees elves, and discovers they are being shrunk, imprisoned and enslaved.
- Featuring J.W. Wells & Co., the magic firm from The Sorcerer by Gilbert & Sullivan:
- The Portable Door (2003), which features office politics with a magical twist.
- In Your Dreams (2004), in which the Fey use people's dreams to try to invade the world of humans.
- Earth, Air, Fire, and Custard (2005).
- You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps (2006).
- The Better Mousetrap (2008).
- May Contain Traces of Magic (2009).
- Someone Like Me (2006).
- Barking (2007), based on the mythology of vampires and werewolves transposed into modern day legal firms.
- The Blond Bombshell (2010)
- Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages (2011)
Historical
Using Thomas Holt as author name.
- The Walled Orchard (1997), which was originally published in two parts as Goatsong (1989) and The Walled Orchard (1990)
- Alexander At The World's End (1999)
- Olympiad (2000)
- Song for Nero (2003)
- Meadowland (2005)
Other
- Poems by Tom Holt (1974) (Collection of early poems)
- continuations of E. F. Benson's "Lucia" series set in Tilling
- Lucia In Wartime (1985) fiction
- Lucia Triumphant (1986) fiction
- I, Margaret (1989) (satirical biography of Margaret Thatcher, with Steve Nallon)
- Bitter lemmings (1997) (Songbook)
- Holt Who Goes There? (2002) (short stories)
Parodies of Musical Works more less
- "Impractical Man" — a parody of the song "Practical Man" by Pete Atkin and Clive James.
Total Books: 147