Talk:James Herbert

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This entry, purporting to be about James Herbert, has almost nothing to say about the man and consists almost entirely of plot synopses of his novels. This occurs under the main section heading of 'Biography', which is an interesting choice of title when a more accurate one might have been 'Book Summaries'.

I'm simultaneously surprised and not surprised that it's so skimpy - it doesn't even suggest that The Rats was very, very popular, it just skims over it. My twin theories are that (a) his heyday was in the 1970s, and effective Wikipedia editors tend not to be that old and (b) he's only famous in the UK, which has a very limited pool of internet writing talent. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 19:48, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Quite! 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:2884:4E05:2EAE:21 (talk) 12:47, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:TheSpear.jpg

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Who is James Herbert?

I lived in Bethnal Green Up to the age of 24. I lived at 44 Punderson Gardens. Bethnal green although a borough of London, it was more like a village; everyone knew each other. As a very small child I accompanied my mother shopping in Bethnal Green road Markets. A well known identity, was a Harry Herbert. I got to know Harry Herbert very well over the years. His fruit and veg Barrow, was in bethnal Green road opposite Canroberts St.(this is the street where the singer, Helen Shapiro lived) This fact can be verified by many people. I never saw him in brick Lane. Our family would go Hop Picking during the school holidays.I can remember on one occasion meting, the Herbert family at hop picking. I am quite sure that James Herbert is Harry Herbert's son.Trinuwan (talk) 11:54, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Where is the background information about the man?

The article is purportedly about the man, not (just) the books, and yet there is almost no information about him. Something of a mystery. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.178.8.11 (talk) 04:37, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

"Ash" release date

As per WP:CRYSTAL, Individual scheduled or expected future events should only be included if the event is notable and almost certain to take place. Now regardless of what the official site says, the book has been delayed several times already. It was originally intended to be published in October 2010 and this was then pushed back to March 2011, and now a new publication date has been set for September 2012. The new date is even noted as aprovisional date, so it is pretty clear given the publication history of this novel that there is no strong certainty that it will be published, and therefore in accordance with the rules we shouldn't include a date on the article. Betty Logan (talk) 15:53, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Illness

He missed many book signings in recent years due to ill health. Some notes at [1]

says "When I had delivered the manuscript of The Secret Of Crickley Hall to my publishers, I was taken ill on the journey back," .. and then says "Everything is fine now". While the story was published in October 2012, "now" is probably a bit before publication when his comments were sought and received for the story because Ash was published soon after.

There are reports that there were "no signs of illness" before his death. John Vandenberg ^(chat) 22:53, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Ash citation

@TonyGosling:. You have added a citation three times to the Ash entry in the bibilography. Would you please explain to us the rationale for this citation, since as far as I can tell it serves no purpose. Betty Logan (talk) 23:39, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

The citation is self-evidently highly significant since it is the last known interview with the world-renowned author and gives his own opinion on this, his final work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TonyGosling (talk • contribs) 20:05, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

What are you actually citing though?? All you are providing is a citation next to a book. We don't need a citation to corroborate the existence of the book becuase it is self-citing, but to cover this I have added a citation to Herbert's entry at the British Library so the existence of all his books are surced. If you think the source provides something interesting then you should incorporate it into the article and use it as a source. Please read WP:WHYCITE. Betty Logan (talk) 01:30, 8 October 2016 (UTC)

Well, why doesn't Gosling pick something highly relevant and interesting out of that interview, includes the gist of it here in a pithy sentence, and thus establish a legitimate need for the citation he likes so much? 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:2884:4E05:2EAE:21 (talk) 12:50, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Third opinion requested

User:TonyGosling keeps adding a citation next to the Ash entry in the list of novels. The entry includes no claim that requires a source. There are two other relevant details here:

• Even though works are self-citing anyway (by virtue of the author's name, title and publication year) I have added a link to Herbert's entry at the British library to cover all of his works.
• The citation that TonyGosling keeps adding is actually already used in the article as a citation (currently #15) for corroborating another claim.

So, is the article benefitted by adding the citation next to the book's entry in this manner, or should it be left out? Betty Logan (talk) 01:51, 8 October 2016 (UTC)

Response to third opinion request:

The existence of the book, its date of publication, and author are already cited in the text, so we don't need a second citation to cover this. Sometimes multiple sources for the same claim may be useful, if the claim is especially controversial, but it seems hard to believe that that applies here (is there really a serious argument that someone else may have written the book? Seems unlikely). It may, of course, be that the citation is useful as a source for something else, if there's something particularly relevant in the cited interview that isn't already in the article. But, no, we don't need it as source for whether or not the book exists, and was written by Herbert, which is the claim that it was being used to support. Anaxial (talk) 07:10, 8 October 2016 (UTC)

Response to third opinion request:

Sourcing for books in a list is a separate matter than third-party documentation on the existence of those books. I have to agree here that citing the source in question when mentioning the book in question is not necessary, adds nothing to the article, and is potentially confusing to the reader. The publication data of the book itself are all the sourcing required. If the cited interview has information not presented elsewhere in the text, the editor who wishes to include that cite ought to consider whether that information (apart from that this was Herbert's last book, which is something you ought to get from the list of his books) meets the WP:RS and WP:NOTABLE guidelines. Also, see WP:Potentially unreliable sources on strong cautions about the particular publication in which this source appeared. loupgarous (talk) 22:36, 8 October 2016 (UTC)

"that any human being could harbour the thoughts that flowed verbally from his lips"

Yes, he was a truly awful writer. Oddly, vastly improved in translation. 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:A806:B0CF:309C:57D7 (talk) 15:49, 2 October 2021 (UTC)