Martin Westlake (born 1957) is a British and Belgian author (historical, science fiction and short stories in various genres), playwright, biographer, academic and a former high-ranking EU civil servant.
Westlake's forthcoming full-length historical novel, Other Than an Aspen Be, set in the 1914-1918 period, portrays the scourge of war and the plight of refugees and the existential dilemmas these cause.
His 2021 story, "Going Home", was selected for inclusion in the recently-published The Best of British Science Fiction 2021 A young adult SF novel, The Hunt, was published in 2016 under the pseudonym, Paul Bird.
In an interview about the book, which features a young gamer in a futuristic world, Westlake/Bird cites various inspirations including art, literature, and the Bible.
His farce, The Impotence of Being Frank, was first performed at the Warehouse Theatre (Brussels) by the English Comedy Club (ECC) in May 2017.
He has contributed biographical essays to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, notably about former European Parliament Secretary-General, Sir Julian Priestley.
In 2018, writing under the pseudonym Johannes de Berlaymont, Westlake published Working for the EU: How to get in (2018), and has since run an eight-hour career workshop based on the book each autumn at the College of Europe.