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Peter Cushing
Bibliography
"...I really haven't any talent as an author."
– Peter Cushing, 1973
Since making the above assertion twenty years before the end of his
life, Peter Cushing tried his hand at authoring a fair number of times,
and, fortunately for us, found that he indeed had some talent in
that direction. His works include two full-length volumes of autobiography,
and numerous short contributions in the form of introductions and annotations.
Additionally, books featuring Cushing illustrations can be found here,
even when he did not provide the text.
Foreword, The Sherlock
Holmes Scrapbook, Peter Haining, editor (ca. Christmas
1973)
An introduction by Cushing.
Foreword, A History of
Hunting (ca. Christmas 1973)
An introduction by Cushing. Published by the League Against Cruel Sports.
Foreword (?), The Best
of Morcambe and Wise (1974) by Eddie Braben
A collection of television scripts from the popular show Cushing guested
on on several occasions. Credited as "written by Eddie Braben ; with pleas,
praise, and insults from Peter Cushing ... [et al.]"
Foreword, Holmes of the
Movies: The Screen Career of Sherlock Holmes (ca. 1976) by David
S. Davies
An introduction by Cushing, a man eminently qualified to write about
Holmes on the screen.
Tales of a Monster Hunter(1977)
An anthology of horror stories selected by Cushing, including The
Man Who Collected Poe, a screen adaptation of which Cushing acted in
in the omnibus film Torture Garden (see filmography)
(title unknown) (ca.
1979)
"recently [1979] illustrated a book of children's stories written by
fellow-actor Joseph O'Conor." – Robert W. Pohle, Jr. & Douglas C. Hart,
Sherlock
Holmes on the Screen. I have been unable to trace the title of the
book, or determine whether it was actually published.
Peter Cushing, An Autobiography
(March
1986)
The death of his wife in early 1971 fairly shattered Cushing, who was
frequently described in the years since as just "waiting to die." "Only
the knowledge that we will meet again keeps me going," and similar sentiments
were voiced by the actor constantly in interviews in the following years.
With the center of his life gone, Cushing turned to an attempt at autobiography
that year, but work on it became sporadic as he plunged himself into acting
roles even more intensely than before. Fifteen years later, this account
of his life, philosophy and (mostly) marriage, was finally finished and
published.
"...My dear friend John Mills...finally persuaded me to take the
plunge and record these memoirs, which I had started originally as a form
of therapy, with no intention of making them public. He threatened never
to work with me again if I didn't." – Peter Cushing
Past
Forgetting – Memoirs of the Hammer Years (1988)
The second volume of Cushing's memoirs concentrates on his film career,
with an emphasis on the genre pictures for which he will best be remembered
– and about which one imagines most fans would really rather read than
the first volume anyway.
"...Everyone hopelessly underestimated Peter's popularity...We have
cleaned out the publisher's warehouse of every last copy!" – owner,
Whitstable's Pirie and Cavendish Bookshop, 1988
Liner
notes, Hammer Horror by War Fare (1990)
Notes for a rock album (recorded by Hammer fans, it seems safe to say).
Christopher Lee also contributed.
Peter Cushing's Tudor Tea Room
Profiles (1990)
A book of Cushing's pen and ink caricatures, drawn mostly in his home
town of Whitstable's Tudor Tea-room, a favorite hang-out for the (mostly)
retired gentleman.
"...Hilarious..." – Del Vecchio and Johnson (see below)
Epilogue, Peter Cushing:
The Gentle Man of Horror and His 91 Films by Deborah Del Vecchio
and Tom Johnson (1992)
An afterword by Cushing, not attributed to any source, possibly requested
by the book's authors or perhaps extracted from their extensive correspondence.
This very brief endnote is preoccupied, sadly but perhaps inevitably, with
death and the afterlife. It ends with a biblical quotation.
Introduction, The Illustrated
Vampire Movie Guide by Stephen Jones (1993)
An introduction by Cushing.
The
Bois Saga (1994)
This fantasy story, written and illustrated by Cushing, was printed
and distributed by a small press publisher in Peter's home town of Whitstable.
Unfortunately, it had a severely limited run of only 500 copies. Fortunately,
one of those copies fell into the hands of Nick Williams, Peter Cushing
fan of the first rank. Mr. Williams was kind enough to send along the information
about this rarity as well as a magnificent color scan of the cover (which
I'm afraid I've had to reduce here). Cushing began work on the story some
years before, for his own amusement and with no intent of publication,
until finally persuaded late in life to share the work with some of his
fans. The saga is told in deliberately incorrect phonetic spelling to complement
Cushing's whimsical cartoons. Perhaps someday a brave publisher will share
this charming-sounding children's tale with more than just a lucky handful
of readers.
Introduction, The Tangled
Skein by David S. Davies (1995)
A Sherlock Holmes novel, with an introduction by Cushing. By the author
of Holmes of the Movies.
Sources:
The Library of Congress Catalogs
Peter Cushing – The Gentle Man of Horror and His 91 Films
(1992) by Deborah Del Vecchio and Tom Johnson
Sherlock Holmes on the Screen (1977) by Robert W. Pohle
Jr. and Douglas C. Hart
The Brettish
Empire (Vol. II, Number 10) (A Holmes site, with the accent on actor
Jeremy Brett, but with a bit of a mention of Cushing)
Original text copyright 1998 by Michael Hoaglin.
All images copyrighted by their respective copyright holders. No
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