Brian Aldiss was born on August 18, 1925 in Norfolk, England. After finishing his studies, he was drafted into the British Army during World War II. Four years later he was able to leave the military life, and found work as a bookseller, while he began to write stories and little by little he was interested in the public thanks to his participation in several magazines and by winning the first prize in the popular story contest of the newspaper The Observer. In 1948 he married Olive Fortescue, from whom he divorced in 1965 to marry Margaret Manson. His first published book, The Brightfount Diaries, appeared in 1955, the same year that his first son, Clive, was born. From this publication, more and more stories and novels emerged from his pen, especially science fiction. He was one of the main promoters of the new wave of this genre, which advocated more for an artistic and narrative interest than for the technological and simplistic of pulp novels. He abandoned his trade as a bookseller to devote himself entirely to writing and literary journalism. In 1962 he won the Hugo Award for best story for the Greenhouse series, in 1965 he received the Nebula for best story for The Tree of Saliva and in 1982, the John W. Campbell Memorial for Heliconia Primavera. In 2005 he was ordained a Knight of the British Empire.