Mark Hume-Jones meets Lionel Fanthorpe, the leather jacket-wearing, Harley Davidson-riding, paranormal-investigating vicar who is also possibly the world’s most prolific sci-fi author!

Lionel Fanthorpe is recognised as one of the most prolific science fiction writers in the world, possibly the world’s most prolific, although it is an almost impossible task to verify this claim. Let’s just say he has authored hundreds of titles.

Now in his eighties and at the time of writing, shielding in his Cardiff home from Covid-19, Lionel and his wife of 62 years, Patricia, are still working every day on a number of projects.

Not only have Lionel and Patricia written hundreds of sci-fi stories together but their prolific output covers an array of subjects, including the paranormal, mysteries of the world, poetry and religion.

To Infinity readers, Lionel may be best known as the presenter of the cult Channel Four show, ‘Fortean TV’. This programme ran for three series (22 episodes) during 1997/98 and saw Lionel travelling the world in search of strange paranormal mysteries. In a way, the series was similar in outlook to Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’ (covered in Infinity 28).

Lionel Fanthorpe has been described as the leather jacket-wearing, Harley Davidson-riding, paranormal investigating vicar. That’s some accolade! And yet there’s so much more to this fascinating man.

He is a major contributor to paranormal research, a former teacher and headmaster, an Army rock climbing instructor and a World Judo Association black belt Fifth Dan! However, more importantly, he is a loyal friend and dedicated family man who will always go out of his way to help anyone.

In addition to presenting Fortean TV, Lionel has either presented or contributed to many TV series including The Real Nostradamus (1977), Castles of Horror (1999), Talking Stones (2003), The Omen: Prophecy Fulfilled (2006), Bloodline (2008), The Unexplained With George Noory (2008) and Forbidden History (2013/16).

I have had the pleasure of knowing Lionel for many years and have also had the delightful experience of working with him on several projects. He is a natural raconteur and can hold the attention of any audience. His rich and deep Norfolk burr of a voice is perfect for narrations and he has recently recorded a couple of tales for a new app, ‘Time to Sleep Stories’.

His old school values and methods of working are a refreshing change in today’s modern, hectic, fast- paced world. I sat down (virtually) with Lionel in June 2020 to discuss his long and varied career.

How did you start writing science fiction?

I didn’t enjoy school at all, and when there was a lesson pending that I particularly disliked, I would go and hide in the large, old-fashioned library, which had floor to ceiling dividers filled with books. There I discovered some H G Wells books and short story collections, which I read until it was time to escape from the library and re-join my classmates. It was my great enjoyment of the H G Wells stories that was a major factor in starting me as an SF writer.’

When did you start writing professionally?

It was in 1952 when I was 17 years old. Like many teenagers, I was beginning to think about the real nature and meaning of life and exploring aspects of philosophy and theology. Questions about cosmology and the existence of God led to the plot of that first story, ‘Worlds Without End’ under my pen-name Lionel Roberts.

The hero was sent out to try to find the limits of the universe. It was argued that if there were no limits then the universe was a natural phenomenon - not something created by God. If there were limits, then the universe had been made. The story was part of, Futuristic Science Stories Number 6.