My name is Roger Harris and I am a 39 year old James Herbert fan. I was 14 in 1979, which was around the time I started reading the works of James Herbert. His books 'THE RATS' and 'THE FOG' where completely unique in the mid-70's and I couldn't get enough of them at that time. I remember reading all the early books, although I found THE SPEAR really hard going and boring(!). I gave up reading it half way through and wasn't to read the other half for another 25 years!

A number of factors drew my interest back to the James Herbert books I loved as a teenager. For a start I had always wanted to collect a set of first editions of his books and occasionally I would check on 'ebay' to see how much they sold for. Early editions were very expensive but the later editions, being published in large numbers as best selling authors are, were comparatively cheap. I was browsing in Waterstones towards the end of 2003 and saw a biography of James Herbert. I flicked through it with interest and thought I wouldn't mind getting and reading that. On another occasion, I picked up the hardback book of his latest release "Nobody True" and read with interest the intriguing opening line "I wasn't there when I died". I read the preamble on the cover and I thought I'd really like to read that. Whilst on holiday with some friends, a friend was reading 'Nobody True' and all of these factors, small in themselves, drew me back to my interest in James Herbert. I now had the time and the money to start collecting first editions of his books! I set about it with the same fanaticism that I apply to all of my collecting hobbies. I determined I wanted only excellent condition first editions in very good dust wrappers. On 18th September 2004, I bought on 'ebay' what I thought were three James Herbert first editions. By the time they arrived on 1st October 2004, I had bought 14 others! It was then that I discovered that the three I had originally bought weren't first editions at all but were two books club reprints and a second edition! I immediately bought the first editions elsewhere. By this time, I had bought back issues of 'Book Collector Magazine' and was finding out about James Herbert first editions and how to recognise them. I was now into the more expensive phase of getting the older and rarer books. By 9th October, I had added excellent copies of THE SURVIVOR and FLUKE to my collection. Any copies of the books I bought which weren't excellent I re-bought. By mid October 2004 I had everything except an original first edition of both THE RATS and THE FOG and the comic book style THE CITY. On Saturday 16th October 2004, I went to Nottingham and did a deal to get a near mint copy of THE RATS in original dust jacket and the guy threw in a near mint copy of THE CITY as well. THE RATS cost me an arm and a leg as it is exceedingly rare and hard to find. I had already bought a copy of THE FOG from South Africa, but bizarrely that took some four weeks to arrive so I didn't actually complete my collection until it was received on 8th November 2004 although I had actually paid for all of the books within a month.

I started reading them as they arrived. My first thought was to read them all in the order they were written, but initially, it looked like I wouldn't be able to get a first edition of THE RATS so I wouldn't be able to start if I adopted that approach! I decided to start where I had left off, so to speak and read THE SPEAR. This time I thoroughly enjoyed it and was soon reading James Herbert books I had never read and re-reading old books I had read but where the only recollection of them that I had were the most gory parts!

James Herbert has sold over 50 MILLION copies of his books worldwide. That says it all in terms of the quality of his writing and how popular he is.

SEE MY SIGNED AND DEDICATED PHOTO OF JAMES HERBERT