Biography

Robert Holdstock was born in Kent in 1948 (from East of the Medway). His childhood was spent between the dense woods of the Kentish hearthlands and the bleak expanse of the Romney Marsh, near which he was born.

After nine years of being a student, specialising in medical Zoology, Robert became a full-time writer in 1975. His early novels include Eye Among the Blind, Where Times Winds Blow and Necromancer. His short stories are collected in In the Valley of the Statues and The Bone Forest. He has written a variety of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy, a series of occult thrillers: Night Hunter, and the novel of John Boorman's film The Emerald Forest. He has won many awards - they are detailed below - but his most famous work is Mythago Wood, for which he won the World Fantasy Award in 1985. This novel was described by Michael Moorcock as "the outstanding fantasy book of the 80s", and the following novel in the cycle, Lavondyss won the British Science Fiction Association's award.

He now lives in North London, collects masks, and escapes to the forests and the wilds whenever possible.

The above photo is used with the kind permission of Beth Gwynn, 2003.

View the gallery of Robert Holdstock photos.

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Awards

British Science Fiction Award

[1982] Short Fiction - "Mythago Wood"

[1985] SF Novel - Mythago Wood

[1989] SF Novel - Lavondyss

[1994] Short Fiction - "The Ragthorn" (with) Garry Kilworth

Czech Academy Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Award

[2002] Best Novel - The Iron Grail

Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire

[2003] Prix spécial: pour La Forêt des Mythagos (pour l'édition de l'ensemble du cycle dans la collection Lunes d'Encre)

Prix d'Imaginales

[2004] For the short story "Scarrowfell", from the Dans La Vallee Des Statues collection, and for the Denoel edition of Dans La Vallee Des Statues itself, which has been translated by Philippe Gindre.

World Fantasy Award

[1985] Best Novel - Mythago Wood

[1992] Best Novella - "The Ragthorn" (with) Garry Kilworth

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