Born in England in 1943, Ian Watson graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1963 with a first class Honours degree in English Literature, followed in 1965 by a research degree in English and French 19th Century literature. After lecturing in literature at universities in Tanzania and Tokyo, and in Futures Studies (including Science Fiction) in Birmingham, England, he became a full-time writer in 1976 following the success of his first novel, "The Embedding" (1973) which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and in France the Prix Apollo, and "The Jonah Kit" (1975) which won the British Science Fiction Association Award and the Orbit Award. Numerous novels of SF, Fantasy, and Horror followed, and 8 story collections to date. His stories have been finalists for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and widely anthologised. He lives in a small rural village 60 miles north of London.