I'd known about the works of John Wyndham for many years, of course. But I had an insight into John Wyndham Lucas Parkes Beynon Harris, to give him his full name (or "Jack Harris" as he was usually known) when I had a friend who lived in Matlock, in Derbyshire, just above the establishment known to the Harrises as "Smedley's Hydro" (now the Derbyshire County Council offices, a fact not alluded to in Binns' otherwise comprehensive book). She took delight in pointing out a local pub, the Hanging Gate, and saying "John Wyndham drank there."

I promoted this book up my "to be read" pile after I came across an edition of the British critical journal Foundation, which marked the acquisition of the Wyndham Archive by the Science Fiction Foundation at the University of Liverpool by running some articles on Wyndham including some biographical research by David Ketterer on Wyndham and his would-be biographer, his younger brother Vivian.

The book is fascinating. I never knew that Wyndham was originally from Birmingham. He came from a well-placed family that ran into scandal, but was able to live in reduced circumstances on inheritances. He started writing for the American pulp magazines before World War II, but this was never a highly remunerative occupation. It was only after the war that his US agent, Frederik Pohl, sold The Day of the Triffids (which had sat, unfinished, in a box under Wyndham's desk for two years) for the stunning amount of $12,500 - roughly the equivalent of £1.17 million today. Wyndham was almost overnight catapulted into fame (which he shunned) and fortune.

Wyndham's personal life was very much of its time. He was in a long relationship with a woman - Grace Wilson - who was very much the model for all his female protagonists (apart from those based on his mother). They lived in simple circumstances in the Penn Club in London and did not marry until after Grace retired, as if they had married before then, Grace would have had to give up her job as a teacher.

This is all detailed in meticulous research that gives a very clear picture of the man, his career and circumstances.

I can only find two areas of contention. Some of the accounts of Wyndham's early life and the scandals that enveloped the family as a result of Wyndham's father's shortcomings (both as a lawyer and an individual) seem to have been particularly dramatized in a way that seems at odds with the rest of the narrative. And I have a problem with a very minor matter of fact. Vivian is described as having belonged to the "Alderwasley Fire Service", initially as a volunteer. I queried this when I read it in the Ketterer article in Foundation, because Alderwasley is some distance from Matlock, and isn't really the sort of place to have justified its own fire service, being a very small and distributed village in the hills above the Derwent valley. David Ketterer's article reproduces some of the manuscript pages of Vivian Harris' biography, including the reference to "Alderwasley", but his handwriting was rather untidy, and Ketterer acknowledged that "Alderwasley" was his best interpretation of a rather indistinct word. I would be more inclined to render the word as "Auxiliary", which makes much more sense, as the AFS during World War II was a more organised service and there would have been an AFS unit in Matlock. Amy Binns has overlooked Ketterer's caveat for this, and accepted 'Alderwasley' as fact.

These are minor issues. Wyndham wanted no biography published, and Vivian's draft - which was never finished - was intended merely as personal recollections of his much admired elder brother. Wyndham's own desire for privacy and the compartmentalisation of his life meant that his wish had effect up until very recently (Binns' biography was published in 2019, fifty years after Wyndham's death). As a successful science fiction author, Wyndham took part in the activities of British science fiction fandom, and was known in fan circles, attending conventions and meetings of the London SF Circle. yet when he married in 1963, the existence of his wife, Grace, came as a major surprise to his fan friends (and contrary to popular belief, science fiction fans are not exclusively male and are as heterosexual as the rest of the population).

But none of the objections I've raised can take away from this book its status as perhaps the only detailed biography of Wyndham we are likely to see. ( )

A fascinating account of the very private life of classic SF author John Wyndham. While the blurb emphasises Wyndham’s relationship with Grace Wilson, in fact Amy Binns has meticulously researched the author’s life from birth to death. The result is a triumph, revealing the influences that would play out as themes in his fiction.

The book is full of excerpts from his letters, granting a rare insight into a man who worked hard to stay out of the public eye. They are set carefully in context, using Wyndham’s own words to bring the facts to life with his familiar turn of phrase. They reveal his character (every bit as likeable as expected) and his concerns for a world fast changing beyond recognition. He is by turns playful, incisive, concerned, morose, but he is always unapologetically devoted to the elegant, independent woman who lives next door.

I thoroughly enjoyed Hidden Wyndham as a glimpse of an author I have long admired, but also as a window on to a time – only one hundred years removed! – that already feels unexpectedly alien in so many respects.

Full review ( )