The Medusa Touch is a 1973 novel by Peter Van Greenaway

Peter Van Greenaway

Peter Van Greenaway was a British novelist, the author of numerous thrillers with elements of horror and satire.He was born and educated in London, worked briefly in commercial art and acted in theatre....

, which was adapted fairly faithfully into a feature film

The Medusa Touch (film)

The Medusa Touch is a 1978 British supernatural thriller film directed by Jack Gold. It starred Richard Burton, Lino Ventura, Lee Remick and Harry Andrews, with cameos by Alan Badel, Derek Jacobi, Gordon Jackson, Jeremy Brett and Michael Hordern...

 in 1978.

The novel tells the story of a radically disenchanted novelist

John Morlar

John Frederick Morlar is a fictional character in the novel and film The Medusa Touch. The novel was written by Peter Van Greenaway and published in 1973; the film was released in 1978, starring Richard Burton as Morlar....

 with highly destructive telekinetic powers. Its dialogue was described in Kim Newman

Kim Newman

Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...

's book Nightmare Movies (1988) as "incredibly misanthropic

Misanthropy

Misanthropy is generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope, or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings...

". The Medusa Touch is one of several Van Greenaway books featuring the character Inspector Cherry of Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

.

The 1978 movie version starred actor Richard Burton

Richard Burton

Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...

as the lead character John Morlar.