Jim Aitchison aka James Lee
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James Lee at a book signing.
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| Born | 1947 (age 76–77) Australia |
| Pen name | James Lee and David Carrick |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Period | 1998 to present |
| Genre | Horror and Mystery |
| Notable works | Mr. Midnight and Mr. Mystery |
| Website | |
| flameoftheforest | |
Jim Aitchison (born 1947), better known by his pen name James Lee, is a Singaporean author.
Born in Australia, Aitchison is currently a Singapore Permanent Resident, having lived in Singapore since 1983. Before he became a full-time writer, Aitchison was a voice actor, and creative director of an advertising agency. He also published books on business and advertising.
Aitchison's earliest work was a script for Grace Gibson Radio Productions under the pseudonym David Carrick called Under Her Spell. While working for an advertising agency, Aitchison penned the first two episodes over a long weekend and slipped them under the office door. Grace's assistant Reg James passed them on to Grace who put them in production. The serial lasted 130 episodes and starred Fay Kelton, James Condon and Diana Perryman.
Under the pseudonym of James Lee, Aitchison's Mr. Midnight book series has captivated young readers since 1998, with over 3 million copies sold. The books are horror fiction stories with different characters featured in each book. Readers are invited to send in their stories, which Aitchison then fleshes out in his books. His publisher, Flame Of The Forest Publishing, came up with the idea of publishing an Asian series of horror and suspense stories for children, using Asian names and backdrops. It wanted to provide children in the region with reads that they could identify with, a change from books from the West that centred on white children. The Mr. Midnight series is sold in Singapore and other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
In March 2006, Aitchison launched the Mr. Mystery series. Books catering to the same demographic group, with murder mystery stories solved by a group of characters.
In June 2009, Aitchison launched a new series called The Young Immortals, featuring the trio of Train Tang, Jeffry Hunter and Tamaryn.
Aitchison's other works include the Sarong Party Girl series (1994, 1995, 1996), The Seriously Funny Anti-Stress Book (1995), and Terror In Bali: An Eyewitness Account (2003).
He also wrote the national songs "One People, One Nation, One Singapore" and "My Singapore Story" for the National Day Parade in Singapore. In 1998, Aitchison penned the prose work Recollections, a recount of the different phases of Singaporean history read at National Day ceremonies held in schools across the island.[1]
In 2014 and 2015, Aitchison released two books on the history of Grace Gibson Radio Productions. The books, co-authored by Reg James, were titled Yes, Miss Gibson and A Theatre in My Mind.
