Jonathan Clements


Jonathan Michael Clements is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for Neo magazine. He is also the co-author of encyclopedias of anime and Japanese television dramas.

Background

Clements speaks both Chinese and Japanese, and many of his works relate to East Asia. He wrote his master's degree at the University of Stirling on manga and anime exports, predicting the rise of several trends in the international industry including back-to-front printing, direct American investment in anime, and the proliferation of attempts to substitute non-Japanese products. Subsequently, he translated over 70 anime and manga works for British distributors, and worked as a voice director and actor. He wrote his PhD at the University of Wales on the industrial history of Japanese animation, later published by the British Film Institute as Anime: A History.
He served two years at Titan Books in London as the editor of Manga Max magazine, an experience he would later fictionalise as the Judge Dredd adventure Trapped on Titan. In 2000, he received the Japan Festival Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Understanding of Japanese Culture, specifically for his work on Manga Max.

Broadcast work

Shortly after leaving the editorship of Manga Max magazine, he became a presenter on the Sci-Fi Channel's Japan-themed magazine show Saiko Exciting. He has been a consultant and talking head on numerous TV shows, including New Secrets of the Terracotta Warriors, Koxinga: Sailing into History, China's Jade Empire, and Chinese Chariot Revealed. In 2016, he became the presenter of three seasons of Route Awakening, a series investigating the origins of several key Chinese cultural icons.
In 2019, he appeared on Christmas University Challenge as a member of the winning Leeds University team, alongside Henry Gee and Timothy Allen, captained by Richard Coles.

Script work

Although Clements has written a couple of novels, much of his fiction work is CD audio drama or radio under the auspices of Big Finish Productions, including the Strontium Dog series, starring Simon Pegg, and the Doctor Who spin-off Sympathy for the Devil, starring David Warner and David Tennant.
  • Down to Earth
  • Trapped on Titan
  • Doctor Who Unbound: Sympathy for the Devil
  • Fire From Heaven
  • 99 Code Red
  • Pre-Emptive Revenge
  • Solo
  • Snake Head
  • Red Devils
  • Immortal Beloved
  • Brave New Town
  • The Destroyer of Delights
  • The Tiger's Tail
  • The Deer Hunters
  • Secret of the Sword
  • Survival of the Fittest
  • The Devil's Playground
  • Year Zero
  • Death Note: die hörspielreihe
Other work includes the script for the comic "'Tastes Like Chicken

Books

Clements's many non-fiction publications, on subjects ranging from the history of the Vikings to the life of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, serve as research for his fiction. His books have been translated into a dozen languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Korean. His major works include:
  • The Moon in the Pines
  • The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917
  • The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953
  • The Pirate King: Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty
  • Confucius: A Biography
  • A Brief History of the Vikings
  • The First Emperor of China
  • Wu
  • Beijing: The Biography of a City
  • Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy
  • A Brief History of the Samurai
  • Admiral Togo: Nelson of the East
  • A Brief History of Khubilai Khan
  • Sun Tzu's Art of War: A New Translation
  • An Armchair Traveller's History of the Silk Road
  • Anime: A History
  • An Armchair Traveller's History of Finland
  • Christ's Samurai: The True Story of the Shimabara Rebellion
  • A Brief History of the Martial Arts
  • A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shōgun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun
  • A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic
  • The Emperor's Feast: A History of China in Twelve Meals
  • Japan at War in the Pacific: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire in Asia
  • Rebel Island: The Incredible History of Taiwan
In 2011, he became a contributing editor to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 3rd edition, with special responsibility for Chinese and Japanese entries.