Ian Watson is well known in all fields of fantastic fiction--science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror. He is best known, however, as one of the British science-fiction writers who emerged from the New Wave of the late 1960s and early 1970s. While he may not have achieved the prominence of other British figures associated with the New Wave, such as Brian W. Aldiss, J. G. Ballard, and Michael Moorcock, Watson is a writer respected for his highly imaginative narratives that explore the relationship among consciousness, language, and reality.

Watson was born on 20 April 1943 in St. Albans, England, where his father, John William Watson, worked at a radio station during World War II. His mother was Ellen Cowe Watson, née Rowley, and he was the couple's only child. After the war ended in 1945, the family returned to North Shields, on Tyneside in northern England, and his father...