This prolific English author of general and science fiction was born on the 18th of August 1925 at East Derenham, Norfolk. At 6, he was already sent to a boarding school. He stayed there until his late teens and on 1943, he became part of the Royal Signals regiment.

Right after the World War II, he became a bookseller in Oxford. Since he has been writing short science fictions and has written a lot of stories about his job as a bookseller, Charles Monteith became interested with him. That was the result of his very first book, The Brightfount Diaries in 1955. This was a collection of his stories as a bookseller. On the same year, he also won on a competition for writing a futuristic story. His piece is entitled, Not For An Age. After earning as a writer, he decided to be a full time writer and gave up the job as a bookseller.

It was in 1964 that he started the Science Fiction Horizons together with Harry Harrison. This was the very first journal that criticized science fictions. He was not just good with writings, he was also a successful anthologist. He edited the anthology, Penguin Books. This paved the way to editing more anthologies such as More Penguin Science Fiction in 1963 and in 1964, Yet More Penguin Science Fiction.

He had also written a lot of classic science fictions such as Space Odysseys in 1975, Galactic Empires on 1976 and Perilous Planets in 1978. On 2005, he was awarded as the officer of the Order of the British Empire for rendering services in the field of literature. He also appeared on the Desert Island Discs recently. He loves the book of John Halperns and John Halperns's biography. He also loves the record, Old Rivers by Walter Brennan.