Martin Woodhouse


Martin Charlton Woodhouse was a British author and scriptwriter. He is most famous as a writer for the TV series The Avengers, but he also authored or co-authored eleven novels. He was a former medical doctor, pilot, engineer and computer designer.

Biography

Woodhouse was born in Romford and was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and Oundle. He read Natural Sciences at Downing College, Cambridge from 1951, and Medicine at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, completing his postgraduate research at the Medical Research Council's applied psychology unit in Cambridge.
In 1959 Woodhouse was called up for National Service and worked with the Royal Air Force at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, and then at the Farnborough Radar Research Establishment - RRE.
After being discharged from military service Woodhouse worked as an author of novels and screen plays, a computer programmer and a stock trader.

Writing style

Martin Woodhouse wrote in the techno-thriller style before the category had been well defined as a subgenre. The publication in 1966 of his first novel, Tree Frog, preceded that of Michael Crichton's breakthrough novel, The Andromeda Strain by several years. What epitomises Woodhouse's stories is that the hero is a Man of Science in the broadest sense, who thwarts his opponents using wits and expertise, applying craft of all kinds; rather than relying on brawn, skill at arms, or dogged detective work. Woodhouse's writing is filled with very dry, humorous prose. Protagonists tend to be very intelligent, sarcastic, and unimpressed with authority figures. Many of his books are filled with details that reflect his background in engineering and medicine.

Books by publication date

Giles Yeoman

Woodhouse wrote a series of techno-thriller novels about Giles Yeoman, an aeronautical engineer who is a reluctant participant in a variety of cloak-and-dagger exploits conducted by the British intelligence community. The plot of each book revolves around the military or intelligence applications of some new some form of technology, and Yeoman's efforts to make sure that this technology doesn't fall into the hands of his opponents. Woodhouse's descriptions
show the sort of attention to technical detail that would be expected from his work as an engineer for the RAF.
Woodhouse and co-author Robert Ross wrote three novels about Leonardo da Vinci. They focus on his work as a military engineer in the service of the Duke of Milan. Leonardo is depicted as a clever, sarcastic Italian Renaissance engineer who doubts the supremacy of the Catholic Church. Many details in these books are historically based, but large portions of the stories depend upon ideas from Leonardo's sketch books being developed into functional machines. This places the novels in the alternate history or Steampunk genre.
Woodhouse wrote the screenplays of seven episodes of the TV series The Avengers. He also wrote for several British TV series such as The Protectors, Emerald Soup, The Hidden Truth, and The Man in Room 17. He also wrote most of the screenplays for the 1961 season of the marionette TV show Supercar in partnership with his younger brother Hugh, and in 1960 two episodes of a similar show for children Four Feather Falls. He is believed to have written in excess of seventy screenplays.

''The Avengers'' episodes