Frederick Nolan

Frederick Nolan was born in Liverpool, and was educated there and at Aberaeron in Wales. He began writing western fiction as Frederick H. Christian, a pseudonym derived from his own, his wife Heidi's, and his older son's first names. Over the next decade, while working in publishing Nolan produced fourteen westerns and half a dozen children's books, as well as a considerable body of journalism. Between 1971 and 1975 he also edited and co-published The Gee Report, one of the most widely-read and influential international book trade publications of its time. In 1973, he quit his job and signed a contract to write eight novels in a year. The first of these, The Oshawa Project (published in the US as The Algonquin Project), was a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic, and was later filmed by MGM as Brass Target, starring Sophia Loren. Two years later came The Mittenwald Syndicate, also a major international bestseller. Since then he has written many successful thrillers (Red Center, Sweet Sister Death), biographies (Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Their Music, ) childrens' books, and translations from French and German, as well as many radio and television scripts. His new edition of Pat Garrett's Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, annotated and with a series of corrective historical commentaries, was recently published by the University of Oklahoma Press. His present work includes a script for a two-part TV documentary about Billy the Kid, a history of the Texas cattle town Tascosa, and a new thriller, his first in a decade.