Author Brian M. Stableford was born in Shipley, Yorkshire, U. K. on July 25, 1948. He received an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of York in 1969 and a Ph.D. in sociology in 1979. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1988, he taught sociology at the University of Reading. He has published over 100 books, including science fiction and fantasy works, non-fiction, translations, and learned articles. He has written under the pseudonym of Brian Craig as well as under Brian Stableford and Brian M. Stableford. He has received numerous awards for both fiction and non-fiction including the British Science Fiction Award (1995), the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the… International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (1987), the J. Lloyd Eaton Award (1987), the Science Fiction Research Association's (SFRA) Pioneer Award (1996), and the SFRA's Pilgrim Award (1999).