Keith Roberts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the former head of the Grenadian security forces, see Keith Roberts (Grenada).
Keith Roberts (1935 - 2000), a British science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of stories featuring a teenaged modern witch and her eccentric granny) and "Escapism."
Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym Alistair Bevan. His second novel, Pavane, which is really a collection of linked stories, may be his most famous work: an alternate history novel in which the Roman Catholic Church took control of England following the assassination of Queen Elizabeth I. Centuries later, in an alternative twentieth century, England is still oppressed by the Inquisition; main form of transport in England are road trains powered by steam; and main form of long-distance communication are the semaphore towers on hilltops. But in Dorset, there is Lady Eleanor, of the Corfe castle, who, with the aid of the supernatural Fairies, starts a major rebellion, for freedom and progress. This melancholy novel is noted for its immense poetical strength and beauty, and high quality of the prose, but, as science fiction it is marred, in the epilogue, by an unnecessary and unsuccessful complication in the alternative history line, regarding the dangers of nuclear holocaust.
His major achievement is also the SF alternative-history story “Weihnachtabend”, which means “Christmas eve” in German, about an England united with the Third Reich (after Hitler’s victory) into a single entity, “The Two Empires”, ruling half the planet.
A later series of stories features Kaeti, a young woman who turns up in different guises at different historical periods, but always with the same name and usually the same "supporting cast" of friends and lovers. The name Kaeti is almost an anagram of Keith, suggesting that she may represent Roberts' anima, as may Anita, an earlier protagonist and other examples of what Keith Roberts called "the PH" or Primitive Heroine.
Roberts wrote numerous novels and short stories, and also worked as an illustrator. His artistic contributions include covers and interior artwork for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, later renamed Impulse. He also edited the last few issues of Impulse although the nominal editor was Harry Harrison.
In later life, Roberts lived in Salisbury. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1990, and died of its complications in October 2000. Obituaries recalled him as a talented but personally 'difficult' author, with a history of disputes with publishers, editors and colleagues.
[edit] Partial bibliography
Novels
- The Inner Wheel
- Pavane
- The Boat of Fate (a historical novel set in Britain at the end of the Roman Empire's power)
- The Furies
- The Chalk Giants (arguably also a collection of linked short stories)
- Molly Zero
- Gráinne (British Science Fiction Association Award winner, 1988; slipstream fiction)
- Kiteworld (originally published as linked short stories)
- The Road to Paradise (a thriller, without fantastic elements)
Collections
- Anita (linked short fiction)
- The Passing of the Dragons
- The Grain Kings
- Machines and Men
- Ladies From Hell
- The Lordly Ones
- Kaeti & Company (linked short fiction)
- Kaeti On Tour (linked short fiction)
- Winterwood and Other Hauntings
Other
- Lemady: Episodes of a Writer's Life (autobiography, with fictional elements)
