33 Facts About Brian Aldiss

Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories.

Brian Aldiss's byline reads either Brian W Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.

Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H G Wells, Aldiss was a vice-president of the international group in Wells' honour.

Brian Aldiss was co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Brian Aldiss received two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award and one John W Campbell Memorial Award.

Brian Aldiss was associated with the British New Wave of science fiction.

When Brian Aldiss's grandfather died, his father, Bill, sold his share in the shop and the family left Dereham.

Brian Aldiss had an older sister who was stillborn and a younger sister.

At the age of 6, Brian Aldiss went to Framlingham College, but moved to Devon and was sent to board at West Buckland School in 1939 after the outbreak of World War II.

Brian Aldiss eventually read all the novels by H G Wells, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K Dick.

Brian Aldiss wrote a number of short pieces for a booksellers' trade journal about life in a fictitious bookshop, which attracted the attention of Charles Monteith, an editor at the publisher Faber and Faber.

Brian Aldiss confessed to being a science fiction author, to the delight of the publishers, who had a number of science fiction fans in high places, and so his first science fiction book was published, a collection of short stories entitled Space, Time and Nathaniel.

Brian Aldiss led the voting for Most Promising New Author of 1958 at the next year's Worldcon, but finished behind "no award".

Brian Aldiss was elected president of the British Science Fiction Association in 1960.

Brian Aldiss was the literary editor of the Oxford Mail newspaper from 1958 to 1969.

Brian Aldiss supported the New Wave movement, helping the magazine New Worlds to get financial backing from a 1967 Arts Council grant and publishing some of his more experimental work in the magazine.

Brian Aldiss invented a form of extremely short story called the mini-saga.

The Daily Telegraph hosted a competition for the best mini-saga for several years, and Brian Aldiss was the judge.

Brian Aldiss travelled to Yugoslavia, where he met fans in Ljubljana, Slovenia and published a travel book about Yugoslavia entitled Cities and Stones, his only work in the genre.

Brian Aldiss published an alternative-history fantasy story, "The Day of the Doomed King", about Serbian kings in the Middle Ages, and wrote a novel called The Malacia Tapestry, about an alternative Dalmatia.

In 1948, Brian Aldiss married Olive Fortescue, secretary to the owner of Sanders' bookseller's in Oxford, where he had worked since 1947.

Brian Aldiss had two children from his first marriage: Clive in 1955 and Caroline Wendy in 1959, but the marriage "finally collapsed" in 1959 and dissolved in 1965.

In 1965, he married his second wife, Margaret Christie Manson, a Scot and secretary to the editor of the Oxford Mail; Brian Aldiss was 40, and she 31.

Brian Aldiss died on 19 August 2017, the day after his 92nd birthday.

Brian Aldiss was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1990.

Brian Aldiss was the "Permanent Special Guest" at the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts from 1989 through 2008.

Brian Aldiss was the Guest of Honor at the conventions in 1986 and 1999.

Brian Aldiss was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature in the 2005 Birthday Honours list.

In 2013, Brian Aldiss was recipient of the World Fantasy Convention Award at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, England.

Brian Aldiss sat on the Council of the Society of Authors.

Brian Aldiss won two Hugo awards: in 1962 for the Hothouse series; and in 1987 for Trillion Year Spree.

Brian Aldiss won a Nebula award in 1965 for "The Saliva Tree".

Brian Aldiss was the author of over 80 books and 300 short stories, as well as several volumes of poetry.