From The Dark Hours

British author Guy N. Smith (1939-2020) was born and brought up in Staffordshire. He began writing at a young age thanks to encouragement from his mother, who had been a published novelist in the 1930s. From the age of 12, Smith had over fifty of his short stories accepted for publication in a local newspaper. From then on, he knew he wanted to be a professional writer. Later on, whilst working at Midland Bank in Birmingham, he submitted a synopsis for Werewolf By Moonlight to New English Library (NEL), which was accepted immediately and published in 1974. The novels The Sucking Pit and The Slime Beast followed swiftly. Night of the Crabs was the fourth of Smith's novels and arrived on newsagent stands and bookshops in 1976 just as holidaymakers flocked to Britain's beaches during a prolonged heatwave. It became a bestseller overnight, and he went on to enjoy a successful fulltime career as a writer. He is best known for his horror output, with around 80 horror novels to his name, but he also published work in other genres including thrillers, children's fiction and non-fiction, including thousands of countryside articles.