Christopher Priest was born on 14 July 1943 in Heald Green, Cheshire. His father was a salesman, who eventually became managing director of the company, and his mother worked briefly as a paid lady’s companion before marriage. Priest passed the entrance exam for Cheadle Hulme School, but by his own account was idle and unmotivated for most of his time there, before leaving in 1959 with five “O” levels when the family relocated to Essex. That autumn, Priest signed up as an articled clerk with a firm of chartered accountants in Central London, where he was to remain unhappily for most of the following seven years. He consoled himself by reading horror stories until a colleague introduced him to science fiction, which he then read avidly, working through the field over a three and a…
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Citation: Hubble, Nick. "Christopher Priest". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 March 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3638, accessed 24 November 2024.]