An Aldiss Chronology: 1925 — 1956
The Early Years
1925 – Born, Dereham, Norfolk, England – 18th August
1933 – Attends St. Peter’s Court Preparatory School, Bacton
1936 – Attends Framlingham College, Suffolk
1939 – Attends West Buckland School, Devon
1943 – Drafted by the Army in September, and is sent to the Britannia Barracks, Norwich, after training joins the Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick Camp, Yorkshire
1944 – Transferred abroad in August, and sees service in India, Assam, Burma, Sumatra, Singapore, and Hong Kong, experiences that later provide material for a number of succesful books and stories including the bestselling Horatio Stubbs series
1947 – Decommissioned from the British Army, and later in the year finds work with Sanders & Co., in Oxford, the start of a nine years spent as a bookseller
1948 – Marries Olive Fortescue (divorced 1965)
The Words Start to Flow
1954 – First professional sale, A Book in Time, appears in the February issue of The Bookseller and first science fiction sale, Criminal Record, published in the July issue of Science Fantasy
1955 – First book, The Brightfount Diaries, is published by Faber &Faber and first child, Clive, is born in May
1956 – Leaves bookselling to become a full-time writer
An Aldiss Chronology: 1957 — 1968
The Science Fiction Years
1957 – Publishes first science fiction book, the short story collection Space, Time, and Nathaniel, becomes Literary Editor of the Oxford Mail
1958 – Publishes first science fiction novel, Non-Stop, receives special plaque as Most Promising New Author of the Year from l6th World Science Fiction Convention
1959 – Publishes Vanguard from Alpha and The Canopy of Time, second child, Caroline, is born
1960 – Publishes Bow Down to Nul, with C. S. Lewis helps found the Oxford University Speculative Fiction Group
1961 – Publishes The Male Response, Penguin Science Fiction, and The Primal Urge, appointed Editor of the Penguin Science Fiction Series
1962 – Wins Hugo Award for best short fiction of 1961 for the “Hothouse” series, publishes Hothouse and Best Fantasy Stories, 100th published short story, A Kind of Artistry appears in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Margaret Manson publishes
Item Forty-Three, the first attempt at a comprehensive Aldiss bibliography
1963 – Publishes The Airs of Earth and More Penguin Science Fiction.
1964 – Publishes The Dark Light Years, Greybeard, Yet More Penguin Science Fiction, Intralucing SF and Starswarm, edits and publishes SF Horizons (with Harry Harrison) , a critical magazine about science fiction, travels to Yugoslavia with Margaret Manson, spends six months travelling around the country to research his travel book, Cities and Stones
1965 – Publishes Best Science Fiction Stories of Brian W. Aldissand Earthrworks, Guest of Honor at the 23rd World Science Fiction Convention in London, marries Margaret Manson
1966 – Publishes The Saliva Tree and Other Strange Growths and Cities and Stones: a Traveller’s Yugoslavia, wins Nebula Award for best novella of 1965, The Saliva Tree
1967 – Publishes An Age and Nebula Award Stories 2 (with Harry Harrison), second son, Timothy born
1968 – Publishes Report on Probabitity A, Best SF: 1967 (with Harrison) and Farewell, Fantastic Venus (with Harrison), serves as art conespoodent for The Guardian
An Aldiss Chronology: 1969 — 1979
Wider Horizons
1969 – Publishes Barefoot in the Head, Intangibles Inc., Besr SF: 1968 (with Harrison), and A Brian Aldiss Omnibus, is a guest at the SF Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, second daughter, Charlotte, born
1970 – Publishes The Hand-Reared Boy, Neandenhat Planet, Best SF: 1969 (with Harrison),
The Shape of Further Things, and The Moment of Eclipse, The Tokyo International SF Symposium established at Aldiss’s suggestion
1971 – Publishes A Soldier Erect, the revised edition of Best Science Fiction Stories of
Brian W. Aldiss, Best SF: 1970 (with Harrison), and A Brian Aldiss Omnibus 2
1972 – Publishes The Book of Brian Aldiss, Best SF: 1971 (with Harrison), and The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume 1 (with Harrison), Item Eighty-Three by Margaret Aidiss, a revision of Item Forty-Three, is published
1973 – Publishes Frankenstein Unbound, Best SF: 1972 (with Harrison), The Astounding-
Analog Reader, Volume 2 (with Harrison), The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus and Billion Year Spree, 200th published short story, Three Enigmas, appears in New Writings in SF (22)
1974 – Publishes The Eighry-Minute Hour, Best SF: 1973 (with Harrison), Space Opera and Space Odysseys
1975 Publishes Best SF: 1974 (with Harrison), SF Horizons (with Harrison; a reprint of the magazine issues in one volume), Hell’s Cartographers (with Harrison), Decade: the 1940s(with Harrison), and Evil Earths, is invited to join the Committee of Management of the Society of Authors
1976 – Publishes The Malacia Tapestry, Decade: the 1950s (with Harrison), and Galactic Empires
1977 – Publishes Last Orders and Other Stories, Decade: the 1960s (With Harrison) and Brothers of the Head, the first critical guide to Aldiss’s work, Aldiss Unbound by Richard Mathews, published by Borgo Press, elected Chairman of The Society of Author’s Committee of Management, one of five writers honored with an official invitation to visit the Soviet Union.
1978 – Publishes A Rude Awakening, Perilous Planets and Enemies of the System, a play Distant Encounters, an adaptation of several Aldiss stories, produced in London’s West End, wins Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions to the study of science fiction, appointed to the Arts Council Literature Panel, visits Sumatra and Singapore on the way to Australia for Unicon IV
1979 – Publishes New Arrivals, Old Encounters, Science Fiction Verhalen, This World and Nearer Ones and Pile: Peials from St. Klaed’s Computer, Guest of Honor at the World Science Fiction Convention (London), is one of an invited group of distinguished persons to visit the People’s Repubtic of China
An Aldiss Chronology: 1980 — 1989
In the Eighties, But Not in the Shade
1980 – Publishes Moreau’s Other Island and Life in the West, invited to Singapore as Guest Writer for the annual Book Fair, serves a term as Chairman of the Cultural Exchanges Committee for the Society of Authors
1981 – Publishes Foreign Bodies in Singapore only, visits the annual IAFA Conference of the Fantastic, Boca Raton, Florida, appointed a Judge of the Booker Prize, and becomes the first to write publicly about the panel and its decision-making process
1982 – Publishes Helliconia Spring, Brian W Aldiss: Dunkler Bruder Zukunftand Farewell to a Child becomes President of World SF and institutes the annual WSF Awards, appears on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs
1983 – Publishes Helliconia Summer, Best of Aldiss and Science Fiction Quiz, wins John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Life in the West is selected by novelist and critic Anthony Burgess as one of the best ninety-nine novels published in the English language since 1939, makes five trips abroad, chairs World SF annual mesting in Zagreb, Yugoslavia
1984 – Publishes Seasons in Flight, Brian Griffin and David Wingrove’s monograph on Aldiss’s work, Apertures, published by Greenwood Press
1985 – Publishes Helliconia Winter, The Book of Mini-Sagasand The Pale Shadow of Science, an autobiographical essay appears in Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Volume 2, makes five trips abroad, Chief Guest, Centre d’Étude de la Metaphore Colloque, Nice, France, Guest, Toronto Harborfront Literary Festival, appears on Madrid’s six-hour TV program, La Clave.
1986 – Publishes …And the Lurid Glare of the Comet, The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction (with Sam J. Lundwall) and Trillion Year Spree (with David Wingrove). Guest of Honor, Helsinki SF Convention
1987 – Publishes Ruins, The Year Before Yesterday (the author’s 100th monograph), and The Magic of the Past, first performance of SF Blues, founds the publishing house Avereus with Frank Hatherley, Master of Ceremonies, 45th World Science Fiction Convention, Brighton, England
1988 – Publishes Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss, Forgotten Life and SF Blues: The Show That Brian Aldiss Took on the Road
1989 – Publishes A Romance of the Equator, 300th published short story, North of the Abyss, appears in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Guest of Honour at Moscon in Banff, Canada, visits Egypt, San Marino (for the World SF meeting), and Bellagio and Milano to watch the filming of Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound, the first film based on an Aldiss book
An Aldiss Chronology: 1990 >>
Looking Backwards
1990 – Publishes Bury My Heart at W. H. Smith’s: A Writing Life, edits My Madness: the Selected Writings of Anna Kavan, A is for Brian, a 65th birthday festschrift edited by Frank Hatherley, Margaret Aldiss, and Malcolm Edwards, is published by Avernus, works with Stanley Kubrick on a possible filmscript of Super Toys Last All Summer Long, attends the IAFA Conference in March, visits Albania for Marie Claire, attends NasCon in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 48th Worldcon in The Hague, visits Malaysia on a silver wedding anniversary trip with his wife Margaret, revisits Singapore for The Daily Telegraph, a war anniversary story, Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound, is released
1991 – Publishes Bodily Functions and Dracula Unbound, revisits China after twelve years with a World SF group, atends the annual IAFA conference in Florida
1992 – The Work of Brian W. Aldiss: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide by Margaret Aldiss, the first comprehensive bibliography of Aldiss’s writings, is published by The Borgo Press, attends the annual IAFA conference in Florida in March
1993 – Publishes A Tupolev too Far & Other Stories
Fifty Years of Writing
1995 – Publishes The Secret of this Book: 20 Odd Stories, Songs from the Steps of Central Asia, his versification of the poems of Makhtumkuli and At the Caligula Hotel – his first book of poetry from a commercial publisher
1998 – Publishes The Twinkling of an Eye: My Life as an Englishman, his autobiography
1999 – Publishes When the Feast is Finished, a moving account of how BWA and his wife Margaret dealt with her terminal illness, publishes a new novel White Mars a collaboration with Sir Roger Penrose
2000 – 75th year; elected Grand Master by Science Fiction Writers of America
A New Millennium
2002 – Publishes new novel Super-State.
2004 – Publishes new novel Affairs at Hampden Ferrers.
2005 – 80th year.
Received OBE (Officer of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth for ‘services to literature’.
Publishes two new novels Jocasta and Sanity and the Lady.
Publishes new collection of stories Cultural Breaks.
2007 – Publishes new novel HARM.
2008 – Nominated for a Campbell Award.
Published the collection of poems A Prehistory of Mind.
Into The Future
2010 – Brian’s most recent novel, his ‘magnum opus’ Walcot is published.
2011 – Publishes Mortal Morning, a selection of his best and most representative poems.