Philip Purser-Hallard (born 1971 as Philip Hallard) is a fantasy, science fiction and crime author described by the British Fantasy Society as "the best kept secret in British genre writing".[1][2]
His Devices Trilogy, beginning with The Pendragon Protocol, is an urban fantasy thriller series which combines Arthurian myth with issues of modern British politics and identity.[2] The British Fantasy Society said that the first novel's "writing is crisp and clever, the plotting devoid of flab and the cast of characters appealing, interesting and consistent", and that it was based on "that rarest of fantasy beasts – an original idea".[1]
He has a long association with Doctor Who licensed fiction. From 2015 he is the editor of The Black Archive, a series of book-length critical studies of individual Doctor Who episodes and stories. The series is published by Obverse Books, and features contributions from Simon Bucher-Jones, Simon Guerrier, Kate Orman and others. Purser-Hallard has written or contributed to six of the books. He has also written short stories and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes.
Purser-Hallard received his doctorate in English literature at Oxford University. His DPhil thesis, entitled 'The Relationship Between Creator and Creature in Science Fiction', examined how British and American science fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries explored the relationship between humanity and a putative creating deity through stories about the creation of sentient individuals by scientists, working from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein through to recent authors like Bruce Sterling, William Gibson and Dan Simmons.[3] He also has interests in eschatological science fiction, as seen in his Faction Paradox novel, Of the City of the Saved.
Purser-Hallard has given three talks at the liberal Christian Greenbelt festival, all on the intersections of science fiction and religious themes.[4] Between 2006 and 2009 he wrote a regular column on science fiction and faith for Surefish, the ISP and webzine arm of Christian Aid. From 2009 to 2012 he published regular 140-character microfictions on Twitter, under the username trapphic.
His brother Nick Hallard, an artist, provided endpieces for the More Tales of the City collection and unofficial illustrations for Purser-Hallard's Of the City of the Saved... web pages.
