John Christopher Glazebrook Hodder-Williams (25 August 1926—15 May 1995) was an English musician, songwriter and author, mainly of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

. But he also wrote novels about aviation and espionage. He was the son of Ralph Hodder-Williams, who was one of the owners of the British publishing firm '

Hodder and Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publishe ...

. Many of his books are early examples of what would later be called

techno-thriller A techno-thriller or technothriller is a hybrid genre drawing from science fiction, thrillers, spy fiction, action, and war novels. They include a disproportionate amount (relative to other genres) of technical details on their subject matter (t ...

s. He also wrote teleplays and worked as a composer and lyricist.

Partial bibliography

Novels

*''The Cummings Report'' (1957) originally published as by James Brogan *''Chain Reaction'' (1959) *''Final Approach'' (1960) *''Turbulence'' (1961) *''The Higher They Fly'' (1963) *''The Main Experiment'' (1964) *''The Egg-Shaped Thing'' (1966) *''Fistful of Digits'' (1968) *''98.4'' (1969) also published as ''Ninety-Eight Point Four'' *''Panic O'Clock'' (1973) *''Coward's Paradise'' (1974) *''The Prayer Machine'' (1976) *''The Silent Voice'' (1977) *''The Thinktank That Leaked'' (1979) *''Chromosome Game'' (1984)

Teleplays

For ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canad ...

'' *''The Ship That Couldn't Stop'' (1961

*''The Higher They Fly'' (196

*''A Voice in the Sky'' (1965

For the British television series ''Suspense'' *''The White Hot Coal'' (1962

References

External resources

* *
Obituary: Christopher Hodder-Williams
from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', 22 May 1995 1926 births 1995 deaths English fantasy writers English science fiction writers English short story writers People educated at Sandroyd School 20th-century English novelists 20th-century British short story writers {{sf-writer-stub