Wilkins, Vaughan
Entry updated 21 April 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1890-1959) UK journalist and author, in active service during World War One, best known for historical romances like And So – Victoria (1937; rev 1956), but who wrote some tales of sf interest. Being Met Together (1944; vt Napoleon's Submarine 1972), though marginal, interestingly describes an attempt to rescue Napoleon from St Helena using a submarine (see Under the Sea) designed by the American engineer and inventor Robert Fulton (1765-1815). After Bath; Or (If you Prefer) The Remarkable Case of the Flying Hat (1945) is an ornately fantastic juvenile whose variegated cast attempts to return Magic – a flying hat has gone walkabout – to the Crosshatched city of Minchester. Fanfare for a Witch (1954) is historical fantasy.
Of more direct sf interest, The City of Frozen Fire (1950) is an energetic Lost-Race tale for older children set in the Monster-haunted land of Quivera in South America, where a Welsh civilization has survived since the twelfth century. Valley Beyond Time (1955), which shares place-names and Celtic darkness with the previous tale, describes trips through the Dimensions and Time to the Island of Cibola in the midst of a myth-ridden Atlantic Ocean, and back again to a time-ridden, grief-enfolded Earth [for Crosshatch above and Et in Arcadia Ego and Sehnsucht here see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. [JC]
William Vaughan Wilkins
born London: 8 March 1890
died Ross, Herefordshire: 8 February 1959
works
- Being Met Together (London: Jonathan Cape, 1944) [hb/]
- Napoleon's Submarine (London: New English Library, 1972) [vt of the above: pb/]
- After Bath; Or (If you Prefer) The Remarkable Case of the Flying Hat (London: Jonathan Cape, 1945) [illus/hb/Audrey Pilkington]
- The City of Frozen Fire (London: Jonathan Cape, 1950) [hb/David Cobb]
- Fanfare for a Witch (London: Jonathan Cape, 1954) [hb/uncredited]
- Valley Beyond Time (London: Jonathan Cape, 1955) [hb/uncredited]
links
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Crosshatch; Et in Arcadia Ego; Sehnsucht.
- Picture Gallery
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