Brian Aldiss (1925)
Poet, playwright, critic, fiction and science-fiction writer Brian W(ilson)
Aldiss was born on 18 August 1925 in Dereham, Norfolk, and is the author of more
than 75 books. He was educated at Framlingham College, Suffolk, and West
Buckland School, Devon, and served in the Royal Signals between 1943 and 1947.
After leaving the army Aldiss worked as a bookseller in Oxford for almost a
decade, an experience which provided the setting for his first book, "The
Brightfount Diaries" (1955), a volume of short stories. His first science
fiction novel, "Non-Stop", was published in 1958 while he was working as
literary editor of the Oxford Mail, a post he held between 1958 and 1969. His
many prize-winning science fiction titles include "Hothouse" (1962), which won
the Hugo Award, "The Saliva Tree" (1966), which was awarded the Nebula, and "Helliconia
Spring" (1982), which won both the British Science Fiction Association Award and
the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
Brian Aldiss's autobiographical fiction includes "The Hand-Reared Boy" (1970)
and "A Soldier Erect" (1971), and he has also written three volumes of
autobiography, "Bury My Heart at W. H. Smith's: A Writing Life" (1990), "The
Twinkling of an Eye or My Life as an Englishman" (1998) and "When the Feast is
Finished" (1999). He is the author of several poetry collections, including
"Home Life with Cats" (1992) and "A Plutonian Monologue on His Wife's Death"
(2000).
Several of his books, including "Frankenstein Unbound" (filmed 1990), have been
adapted for the cinema. Most recently, his story, "Supertoys Last All Summer
Long", was adapted and released as the film AI in 2001. His latest books are "Super-State"
(2002) and "Jocasta" (2005), a reworking of Sophocles' classic Theban plays,
Oedipus Rex and Antigone.
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