John Rankine

John Rankine (born Douglas Rankine Mason; 26 September 1918 – 8 August 2013) was a British science fiction author, who wrote books as John Rankine and Douglas R. Mason. Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales, attended Chester Grammar School, and in 1937 began study of English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess (mentioned in Burgess's autobiography, Little Wilson And Big God).

His first short story Two's Company was published in 1964, and his first novel From Carthage Then I Came followed in 1966.

His 1972 novel The Resurrection of Roger Diment features the idea of an abbreviated life span for people, a theme which may have been adapted from William F. Nolan's novel Logan's Run, though Mason's story was developed differently.

Rankine also wrote television novels set in the same universe as the television series Space: 1999.