ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Priest (born 14 July 1943 in Cheadle,
Greater Manchester) is an English novelist and science fiction
writer born in Manchester.
He left school at 16 and became an accountant. He began
as a writer of science fiction with speculative novels such as
Indoctrinaire (1970), Fugue for a Darkening Island (1972), Inverted
World (1974), and A Dream of Wessex (1977).
In his later work futuristic projections gave way to
settings more or less contemporary and familiar, but distorted by
the psychological confusions and manipulations of the characters.
The Glamour (1984) describes a number of invisible people who may
or may not be delusions. The Quiet Woman (1990) uses plausible
elements—the murder of an elderly CND campaigner, a nuclear
accident that has polluted southwest Britain, the violent fantasies
of a schizophrenic and unreliable narrator—to build a disturbingly
open-ended story of deceit and individual
helplessness.
Priest has been strongly influenced by the science
fiction of H. G. Wells and in 2006 was appointed to the position of
Vice-President of the international H. G. Wells
Society.
He has also written short stories, film scripts, and a
book for children about film-making.
Priest won the BSFA award for the best novel three
times: in 1974, for Inverted World; in 1998, for The Extremes; and
in 2002, for The Separation). He has also won the James Tait Black
Memorial Prize for Fiction and the World Fantasy Award (for The
Prestige).
Priest has also won the BSFA award for short fiction in
1979, for the short story "Palely Loitering"; and has been
nominated for Hugo Awards in the categories of Best Novel, Best
Novella, Best Novelette, and Best Non-Fiction Book (this last for
his The Book on the Edge of Forever (aka Last Deadloss Visions), an
exploration of the unpublished Last Dangerous Visions anthology).
The Space Machine won the International SF prize in the 1977 Ditmar
Awards . Priest's 1979 essay "The Making of the Lesbian Horse"
takes a humorous look at the roots of his acclaimed novel Inverted
World. He was guest of honour at both Novacon 9 in 1979 and Novacon
30 in 2000, and at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in
2005.
In 1983, Priest was named one of the twenty Granta Best
of Young British Novelists.
Priest is married to writer Leigh Kennedy and lives in
Hastings with their twin children, Simon and Elizabeth. He was
previously married to writer Lisa Tuttle.