British author Basil Copper died 4 April 2013, apparently of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Born 5 February 1924 in London, England, he was named a World Horror Grandmaster in 2010.

Copper was a journalist and news editor, becoming a full-time writer in 1970, breaking into professional publishing with his short story “The Spider” in the fifth [[[Pan Book of Horror Stories]]] (1964). His first novel, [[[The Dark Mirror]]], appeared two years later. He began his association with editor August Derleth and Arkham House in 1971, when his story “The House by the Tarn” appeared in [[[Dark Things]]]. They then published his collections [[[From Evil’s Pillow]]] (1973, it was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award) and [[[And Afterward, the Dark]]] (1977), as well as his novels [[[Necropolis]]] (1980) and [[[The House of the Wolf]]] (1983). After Derleth’s death, Copper continued writing his Solar Pons fictional detective series (a pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories).

Several of his stories were dramatized on BBC Radio, and in 2008, n early 2008, Stephen Jones’ bio-bibliography Basil Copper: A Life in Books appeared; it won the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction.