Sir Fred Hoyle Biography

British writer and astronomer, born in Bingley, Yorkshire, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. His science fiction works, written with the authority his scientific eminence justifies, have consistently misled readers into the assumption that it was scientifically based; however, novels such as The Black Cloud (1957), Ossian's Ride (1959), and October the First is Too Late (1966) were in fact speculative romances dealing with subjects like time travel. The novels written in collaboration with his son, Geoffrey Hoyle, were fast-paced excursions into metaphysical and political wish-fulfilment; Fifth Planet (1963), Seven Steps to the Sun (1970), and The Inferno (1973) are among the most intriguing (and eccentric) demonstrations available of the scientific mind at loose in the world.