INVISBLE ENEMIES I – GUY DE MAUPASSANT Guy de Maupassant (1850-93) is recognised as the master of the short story form—having written 300...

Edwin A. Abbot (1838-1926) was an English mathematician, theologian and headmaster. He was educated in St. Johns, Cambridge, earning...

RLS (1850-94) is most famous for inventing the Pirate/Buried Treasure genre in “Treasure Island” (1883), and also romantic adventures...

GEORGE TOMKYNS CHESNEY Towards the end of the Nineteenth Century writers began to realise that future wars would not resemble those which...

Vern’s most popular novel “Around the World in 80 Days” (1872) was written in troubled times as the Franco-Prussian war was raging at the...

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was the son of the English actress Elizabeth Arnold and a Baltimore actor David Poe Jr. After his mother’s...

GILMAN AND “HERLAND” Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She was an early feminist and campaigned...

Fitz-James O’Brien was born in Cork in 1826 and emigrated as a young man to the USA, where he died in 1862 in Cumberland, Maryland, at...

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) Samuel Butler was Bulwer-Lytton’s near contemporary. He is remembered these days for two books—“The Way of All...

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803-73) {this is not a typo} An English aristocrat, he was first a Whig (Liberal) MP, and...

When will scientists stop experimenting on frog DNA?

What are we, the inhabitants of this globe, least among the many that people infinite space? Our minds embrace infinity; the visible...

Mary Shelley Part Four: THE LAST MAN This work appeared in 1826, with the writer being described simply as "The Author of Frankenstein."...

MARY SHELLEY – Part Three So what is it about Mary Shelley’s work that establishes it as the first modern SF story? The answer lies in...

MARY SHELLEY- Part Two With Mary Shelley (1797-1851), we have finally arrived at the doorstep of modern SF. We have seen its early...

MARY SHELLEY – Part One Towards the end of the Eighteenth Century a new style of writing developed – the Gothic Novel. The hallmarks of...

As we approach the nineteenth century, we get closer to the modern forms of SF. But on the way, we encounter minor figures such as George...

Returning to the topic of underground adventures we come to "The Life & Adventures of Peter Wilkins-A Cornishman" by Robert Platock...

One of the enduring tropes of SF is the "Hollow Earth" concept, where the traveller encounters a subterranean world filled with monsters...