John Christopher was born Christopher Samuel Youd in Knowley, Lancashire, England, on April 16, 1922.

When he was ten years old, his family moved to Hampshire, where he was educated at Peter Symonds's School, Winchester. Youd became interested in science fiction in the late 1930s and published a magazine in the field called the Fantast. He served in the Royal Corps of Signals from 1941 to 1946, and when he returned to civilian life received a Rockefeller Foundation Grant that enabled him to devote an entire year to writing. After this, he worked for ten years in the information bureau of a diamond-cutting firm, continuing to write fiction in his spare time. Youd wrote a number of serious novels for adults under his own name, including Giant's Arrow (1956) and Messages of Love (1961). His work was well received by critics but was not a resounding commercial success.

With a...