20 Facts About Edward Hyams

Edward Solomon Hyams was a British gardener and horticulturalist, historian, novelist and writer, and anarchist.

Edward Hyams is known for his writings as a French scholar and socialist historian, and as a gardener.

Edward Hyams was born in Stamford Hill, London, on 30 September 1910, to Arthur Hyams and Annie Dollie Leitson Hyams.

Edward Hyams spent his early adulthood as a factory worker, among other jobs, including in newspapers.

Edward Hyams published his first novel, The Wings of the Morning in 1939.

Edward Hyams continued to write novels and short fiction for the rest of his life.

Edward Hyams joined the Royal Air Force but was disqualified from being a pilot because of his poor eyesight.

Edward Hyams wrote about this time in his memoir, From the Waste Land, describing the transformation of his home, "Nut Tree Cottages", into a prosperous market garden.

Edward Hyams stayed in Molash until 1960, while becoming an increasingly avid horticulturalist.

In 1965 Edward Hyams published Dionysus: A Social History of the Wine Vine, combining his passions for social history and viticulture, and arguing for hybrid viticulture.

Edward Hyams was consulted by the government of Iran when the National Botanic Garden in Tehran was being built.

Edward Hyams' fiction included science fiction, ghost stories, often satirical, and often with a clear political bent.

Edward Hyams's novels included The Astrologer a satirical science fiction novel about an ecological disaster, and Gentian Violet, a satire in which the hero managed to get elected to Parliament as both Conservative and Labour without being discovered.

Edward Hyams began submitting short fiction to the BBC Third Programme and the New Statesman in the 1950s; after they were accepted, he became a regular contributor to both.

Edward Hyams' work was praised by both Anthony Burgess and Ronald Bryden, the latter describing Edward Hyams as "the most exasperatingly gifted writer in England".

Edward Hyams was interested in the role of violence, writing several studies on assassination, revolution, and the uses of terrorism and assassination for political ends.

Edward Hyams was involved with the New Statesman for many years, editing a history of the publication and an anthology of selected works from the journal.

Edward Hyams edited a historical anthology of articles from the New Statesman magazine, New Statesmanship.

Edward Hyams maintained active relations with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Edward Hyams died only two years later, 25 November 1975, at the age of 65, in Besancon, Doubs, France.