Tom Howard
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"Tom Howard" was the pen name used by John Howard Reid, an Australian writer, editor, and publisher born in 1937 in the Sydney suburb of Burwood, Australia. He was educated at St Patrick's College and the University of Sydney, and while studying evenings he worked by day as an examiner and investigator with the Taxation Office. He began writing under the pseudonym Tom Howard in 1968, though his first books under that name were not published until 1985. The name itself was a personal one rather than a fanciful invention: Reid was forced to use a pseudonym, "Tom Howard," which is actually more or less his middle name, after he found himself writing for two rival newspapers at once.
Working under the "Tom Howard" name, Reid produced a well-regarded series of illustrated topographical books pairing color photography with accessible narrative, including titles on Jane Austen's Hampshire haunts and the Yorkshire moors associated with the Brontë sisters, as well as a line of popular illustrated books on cats, dogs, and horses. Reid worked in the publishing industry all his life, starting at the bottom of the ladder and gradually working his way up to the editor's and publisher's desks, while in his spare time contributing numerous movie reviews and articles to magazines such as Films and Filming. Under both his own name and his pseudonyms, he wrote numerous books of fiction as well as film history and criticism, including titles such as Suspense in the Cinema and Brisbane at the Cinema.
Beyond his own writing, Reid lent the Tom Howard name to a lasting literary legacy: he founded the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest and the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, competitions that continue to recognize emerging writers. He lived in Wyong, Australia, and passed away in 2018. His illustrated "Country" series volumes, produced at a time of strong popular interest in literary tourism, remain sought after by collectors of Austen- and Brontë-related ephemera and mid-1990s illustrated topographical books.
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