David Britton
British author, artist, and publisher (1945 – 2020)
David Britton (18 February 1945 – 29 December 2020) was a British author, artist, and publisher. In the 1970s he founded Weird Fantasy and Crucified Toad, a series of small press magazines of the speculative fiction and horror genres. In 1976, Britton and Michael Butterworth co-founded the publishing house Savoy Books.
Biography
Britton was a student at St John's College, Durham, graduating in 1969 with a degree in Education. In 1976, Britton founded the publisher and distributor Savoy Books with Michael Butterworth, who he had met in the early seventies. At the time, Britton was running the bookshop The House on the Borderland in Manchester.
In 1989, Britton wrote Lord Horror published by Savoy Books, a dystopian horror with a central character based on Nazi collaborator William Joyce, also known as Lord Haw-Haw. This became the last publication to be banned under the United Kingdom's Obscene Publications Act in 1992, with Britton serving a jail term at HM Prison Manchester. The ruling was later overturned on appeal after a defence led by human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson. Copies of the book which had been seized were not returned.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “David Britton” is british author, artist, and publisher (1945 – 2020). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through David, Britton and British, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “british author, artist, and publisher (1945 – 2020)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5231755. VIAF identifies the subject as 308292305. The Library of Congress control number is nb2005009753. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 2020, 1976 and 1969.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “David Britton”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow David Britton primary sources, David Britton archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “David Britton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.