Jonathan Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huangdi (the First Emperor of China), as well as monthly opinion columns for Neo magazine. He is also the co-author of encyclopedias of anime and Japanese television dramas.
Background
Clements speaks both Chinese and Japanese, and many of his works relate to East Asia. He wrote his Master's degree at the University of Stirling on manga and anime exports, predicting the rise of several trends in the international industry including back-to-front printing, direct American investment in anime, and the proliferation of attempts to substitute non-Japanese products. Subsequently he translated over 70 anime and manga works for British distributors, and worked as a voice director and actor. He wrote his PhD at the University of Wales on the industrial history of Japanese animation, later published by the British Film Institute as Anime: A History.
He served two years at Titan Books in London as the editor of Manga Max magazine, an experience he would later fictionalise as the Judge Dredd adventure Trapped on Titan. In 2000, he received the Japan Festival Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Understanding of Japanese Culture, specifically for his work on Manga Max magazine.
Script work
He left to work as a scriptwriter on an abortive Astro Boy movie project, and wrote several episodes of Halcyon Sun for Kuju Entertainment, before serving as a writer or translator on TV programs, including Japanorama (BBC Three), Saiko Exciting (Sci-Fi Channel) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (BBC Two). He was also an interviewee and consultant on the documentary Koxinga: A Hero's Legacy (National Geographic Channel), which drew heavily on his book Pirate King. Much of his fiction work is CD audio drama or radio under the auspices of Big Finish Productions, including the Strontium Dog series, starring Simon Pegg, and the Doctor Who spin-off Sympathy for the Devil, starring David Warner and David Tennant.
- Down to Earth (London: Big Finish, 2002; web, BBCi, 2005) (Strontium Dog)
- Trapped on Titan (London: Big Finish, 2002) (Judge Dredd)
- Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil (London: Big Finish, 2003) (Doctor Who)
- Fire From Heaven (London: Big Finish, 2003 web, BBCi, 2005) (Strontium Dog)
- 99 Code Red (London: Big Finish, 2003) (Judge Dredd)
- Pre-Emptive Revenge (London: Big Finish, 2004) (Judge Dredd)
- Solo (London: Big Finish, 2005) (Judge Dredd)
- Snake Head (London: Big Finish, 2005) (Doctor Who: UNIT)
- Red Devils (London: Noise Monster, 2005) (Space 1889)
- Immortal Beloved (London: Big Finish, 2007; radio, BBC7, 2008) (Doctor Who)
- Brave New Town (London: Big Finish, 2008; radio, BBC7, 2009) (Doctor Who)
- The Destroyer of Delights (London: Big Finish, 2009) (Doctor Who)
- The Tiger's Tail (London: Big Finish, 2009) (Robin Hood)
- The Deer Hunters (London: Big Finish, 2009) (Robin Hood)
- Secret of the Sword (London: Big Finish, 2009) (Highlander)
- Survival of the Fittest (London: Big Finish, 2010; radio, BBC Radio 4 Extra, 2012) (Doctor Who)
- The Devil's Playground (London: Big Finish, 2010) (Judge Dredd)
- Year Zero (London: Big Finish, 2010) (Bernice Summerfield)
Other work includes the script for the comic Tastes Like Chicken in the Judge Dredd Megazine, as well as assorted short stories both there and in Doctor Who anthologies. His most famous work, Schoolgirl Milky Crisis, was the name for a fictional TV series that Clements often used in his Newtype USA columns in order to avoid breaking various non-disclosure agreements regarding real titles that he had worked on as a writer, director or translator. The name was later used as the title to a collection of Clements's articles and speeches.
Books
Clements is a prolific author, whose many non-fiction publications, on subjects ranging from the history of the Vikings to the life of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, serve as research for his fiction. His books have been translated into a dozen languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Korean. His major works include:
- The Moon in the Pines (2000, reprinted in paperback as Zen Haiku, 2007)
- The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917 (1st ed. 2001, 2nd ed. 2006, 3rd ed. 2015, with Helen McCarthy)
- The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953 (2003, with Motoko Tamamuro)
- The Pirate King: Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty (2004, publ. in paperback as Coxinga, 2005)
- Confucius: A Biography (2004)
- A Brief History of the Vikings (2005)
- The First Emperor of China (2006)
- Mao (2006)
- Wu (2007, 2nd ed. 2014)
- Marco Polo (2007)
- Beijing: The Biography of a City (2008)
- Makers of the Modern World: Prince Saionji (2008)
- Makers of the Modern World: Wellington Koo (2008)
- Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade (2009)
- Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy (2009)
- A Brief History of the Samurai (2010)
- Admiral Togo: Nelson of the East (2010)
- A Brief History of Khubilai Khan (2010)
- Sun Tzu's Art of War: A New Translation (2012)
- Modern China: All That Matters (2013)
- An Armchair Traveller's History of the Silk Road (2013)
- Anime: A History (2013)
- An Armchair Traveller's History of Finland (2014)
- Modern Japan: All That Matters (2014)
In 2011, he became a contributing editor to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 3rd ed, with special responsibility for Chinese and Japanese entries.
References
External links
- Muramasa Industriesâ€"The official web site of Jonathan Clements
- Schoolgirl Milky Crisis blogâ€"Jonathan Clements' blog of essays and news
- Jonathan Clements at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- Keynote address: "Wrong About Anime" at Anifest 2012, Czech Republic
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