Mercurio, Jed 1966- (John MacUre)

views updated

Mercurio, Jed 1966- (John MacUre)

PERSONAL:

Born 1966; married; children: two.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Teddington, Surrey, England.

CAREER:

Writer, television series writer, producer, and doctor. Full-time writer, 1994—. Producer for television series, including "The Bodies," "The Grimleys," and "Invasion: Earth"; director of "The Bodies" and "The Grimleys." Military service: Served in the British Royal Air Force as a medical cadet.

WRITINGS:

The Last Echo, TV Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Bodies, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2002.

Penguin Expedition, Walker (London, England), 2003.

Ascent, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2007.

Author of the television play The Legend of the Tamworth Two, 2004, and of several television series, including "Cardiac Arrest" (under the pseudonym John MacUre), 1994, "The Grimleys," 1997, 1999, and "Invasion: Earth," 1998.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jed Mercurio is a British writer and television producer. Mercurio was studying to become a doctor in Birmingham when he enlisted as a medical cadet in the Royal Air Force in order to help with the expenses. In his third year, he saw an advertisement in the back of the British Medical Journal from a television production company looking for a writer with medical experience. He sent off some sketches he had written and, after an interview with the company, became the creator and writer of the 1994 series "Cardiac Arrest." Mercurio stopped practicing medicine and began writing full time, moving on to write and occasionally produce or direct other series, including "The Grimleys," "Invasion: Earth," and "Bodies."

Bodies was published in 2002, two years before the television series began. Mercurio's novel mirrors experiences in his own life, chronicling the life of a medical school graduate working at a large teaching hospital. His life crumbles as his relationship fails, he gets into an affair with an engaged nurse, and his whole world starts to revolve around the hospital. The closer he is to the hospital, though, the more he sees its faults and struggles with his own ethics to report the wrongdoings and carelessness. Writing in Pop Matters, Nikki Tranter described the novel as "a dirty, depressing look at life on the wards." Tranter added that "this glimpse into the medical profession is as enlightening, as it is horrific." Navin Chohan, writing in the British Medical Journal, stated: "Mercurio maintains authenticity throughout Bodies by using accurate medical terms, with explanatory footnotes for the book's main readership, the lay public. Unfortunately, there are so many of these footnotes that they interrupt the flow." London Guardian contributor Julie Myerson thought that "it's clear from the first punchy pages … that he knows his stuff." Myerson summarized that "Bodies is a deeply likeable, entertaining novel—funny, readable, galling, painful, and terrifying in all the right places."

Mercurio published Ascent in 2007, marking his American publishing debut. The novel introduces Yefgenii Yeremin, a Russian orphaned during World War II who, after a tough life growing up in Stalingrad, gets accepted into an air institute where he trains to be a pilot. Yefgenii succeeds in becoming one of the Soviet Union's top pilots, flying on the North Korean side in its war against the United States and becoming a cosmonaut. Reviews were for the novel were mixed. A contributor to Publishers Weekly commented that Ascent "offers plenty of action and suspense, but not enough characterization." Robert Conroy, writing in the Library Journal, agreed that the novel was "often compelling, although the grimness of the subject matter may limit the book's popularity." Booklist contributor Thomas Gaughan described the novel as "haunting, powerful, and mysterious."