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(1962- ) UK playwright, librettist, academic, poet and author, known mostly since he became active in the early 1980s for his Poetry; his first title of interest is Time's Fool: A Tale in Verse (2000), a book-length narrative poem which replays the legend of the Flying Dutchman [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] through the experiences of its teenage protagonist, who is trapped on a train, seemingly for ever (the narrative reaches from 1970 to a desolate Near Future 2019); he is only allowed to step outside once every seven years, on Christmas Eve, when he is forced to experience life for a day with his ageing family. He himself seems Immortal. Anticipation of his regular incarnation creates a cult (see Messiahs; Religion). Drinks with Dead Poets: The Autumn Term (2016), as its title deposes, comprises a series of Dialogues with the Dead.
Sf topoi surface imagistically throughout individual poems, early work being assembled in One Thousand Nights and Counting: Selected Poems (coll 2011). The savage synecdoches descriptive of AIs in How the Hell Are You (2020 chap) sharpen the proleptic tonality of some early work. [JC]
born Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire: 1962
works (highly selected)
collections and stories
links
Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 08:27 am on 15 April 2026.
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