I first read The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth in 1962. I was 19. I had been influenced by Kingsley Amis’s description of it in New Maps of Hell (‘many claims to being the best science-fiction … Continue reading
Nevil Shute wrote several novels with speculative content, of which the most celebrated is probably On the Beach (1957). Although his style was conventional and he is often thought of as a middlebrow author, Shute often had adventurous ideas and … Continue reading
This is not a review of a novel so much as a recommendation of one – the best new novel I have read this year is Sam Thompson’s Communion Town. It is a first novel of impressive skill and imaginative … Continue reading
I returned from Israel nearly two weeks ago. The period that follows a trip abroad is for me invariably marked by twin evils: firstly, a backlog of stuff to catch up with (in this case, more than 150 emails, plus … Continue reading
I have spent the last 9 days in Israel, guest of ICON: The Tel-Aviv International Festival for Science Fiction Imagination and the Future. I spent most of the time in Tel Aviv itself, but was taken to Jerusalem for one … Continue reading
This is a photograph of the Devonshire Inn, in Skipton Yorkshire, currently a branch of the JD Wetherspoon group: In 1893, though, the hotel was known as the Devonshire Arms, and set the scene for the opening pages of my … Continue reading
Just to note a date, more to allow for my own faulty memory than any other reason, and knowing that one day I will need this to remind me: today I finished and delivered The Adjacent. Looking back at diary … Continue reading
It was one of those phone calls that can change your life – or in this case that might even end it. One morning in September 1973 Brian Aldiss telephoned me to say that he had met one of the … Continue reading
I’m clearly not the most committed of bloggers – I can’t help noticing that I have not been here since the middle of April. It’s not because I have been assassinated by Charlie Stross’s fans, nor cast into outer darkness … Continue reading
If anyone says something to your face that you know is unfair or untrue or scandalous, what can you do? You can deny hotly what is being alleged, or go into long explanations of what you know is the truth. … Continue reading
