Christopher Priest (photo ©MarieMarquez) was born on July 14, 1943, in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England.

After studying to become an accountant, Christopher Priest started his activity as a writer. In 1966 he published his first short story titled “The Run” in the British magazine “Impulse”. His first novel, “Indoctrinaire”, was published in 1970.

Originally, Christopher Priest was part of the British New Wave. He was strongly influenced by H.G. Wells but his stories have original elements. All of that adds value to his works but also makes it difficult for him to achieve great success. After publishing the novel “Fugue for a Darkening Island” in 1972, which was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, he finally conquered the public and critics in 1974 with the novel “Inverted World”, which won the British Science Fiction Association Award.

In 1977, Christopher Priest published the novel “The Space Machine”, which won the Australian Ditmar Award. In addition to his novels, he published several short stories, winning the BSFA Award with “Palely Loitering” in 1979. In some stories, he started the series of the Dream Archipelago. His 1981 novel “The Affirmation”, which won the Ditmar Award, belongs to that series.

In 1985, Christopher Priest opened a software company along with his colleague David Langford, who subsequently took complete control of it.

Over the years, Christopher Priest has also written the novelization of some movies: “Short Circuit” in 1986 under the pseudonym Colin Wedgelock, “Mona Lisa” in 1986 under the pseudonym Luther Novak, and “eXistenZ” in 1999.

Christopher Priest has also kept on writing original works and his novels have received great appreciation. “The Prestige” (1995) is a mix of science fiction and horror that won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the World Fantasy Award. “The Extremes” (1998) won the BSFA Award. “The Separation” (2002) won the BSFA Award again, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the translated version in French won the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire award. With the novel “The Islanders” (2011) he returned to the Dream Archipelago winning the BSFA Award again and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Last month he published “The Adjacent”.

Christopher Priest was married to writer Lisa Tuttle between 1981 and 1987 and to the American writer Leigh Kennedy, with whom he had two twins, until 2011.

Since 2006, Christopher Priest is vice president of the H. G. Wells Society. Although he’s been influenced by this father of science fiction, his many explorations of the nature and limits of reality had him compared to Philip K. Dick. In these cases, those labels are always limiting but certainly give an idea of ​​the value of this writer.

Edit. Christopher Priest died on February 2, 2024.