Books by Fred Hoyle
Books with son Geoffrey
Books with John E Elliot
Children's books with son Geoffrey
illustrations
by Martin Aitchison
Theatrical Works
Books by Fred Hoyle
The Black Cloud
Harper & Brothers, 1957
While systematically photographing the sky to detect exploding supernovae a young astronomer
on Palomar discovers a myseterious black cloud south of the constellation of Orion. Almost
simultaneously British astronomers deduce, from discrepancies in the positions of Jupiter and
Saturn, that a major unknown body is entering our Solar System. Further observations and analysis
indicate that this vast cloud of interstellar gas will pass between the earth and the sun, shutting
off the sun's rays and bringing about incalculable changes on our planet.
At a closely guarded center outside of London an international group of scientists headed
by Cambridge astronomer Chris Kingsley advises the British government on the fantastic problems
created by the cloud. As months go by and one catastrophe succeeds another the scientists become
less and less content to remain purely advisory. The conflicts between government officials and
scientists provide a human and humorous element in this alarming story.
Ossian's Ride
William Heinemann Ltd, 1959
Baffled by the sudden rise of a powerful centre of industrialization in the south
of Ireland, Intelligence in London send a young Cambridge graduate, Thomas Sherwood, to study
this phenomenon. He travels as a student, and makes his way to that part of Kerry where Ossian
is said to have made his famous ride.
October the First is Too Late
William Heinemann Ltd, 1966
The Yorkshire Moors below Mickle Fell in August would seem a safe enough place
to be, yet it was there that Richard's old schoolfriend, John Sinclair, disappeared for 13 hours.
Two days later, while bathing in a mountain stream, Richard noticed that a strawberry birthmark
was missing from Sinclair's back.
Climbing, music, ancient Greece and the year 5000 AD: all these play a part in Fred Hoyle's
far-reaching and witty science fiction book, which teems with arresting ideas. Its central themes
are time and the meaning of consciousness; around them the author of The Black Cloud and Ossian's
Ride has spun a glittering web of adventure and logical surmise. In this world of dual personalities
and shifting time scales it is entirely plausible that October the first should have been too late.
Element 79
The New American Library Inc, NY and General Publishing Company Ltd, Canada, 1967
Can immortal man ever outwit the airlines? What if dumb animals could be trained
to 'appreciate' the communications media of the human world? How does Number 38, Zone 11, respond when
he sees a U.F.O? What happens to Slippage City when the Devil decides to think big?
These - plus a remarkable sex comedy - are some of the intriguing themes of Element 79, the new
Hoyle galaxy that randges the full scientific spectrum and beyond into the furthest reaches of the
imagination. Author Fred Hoyle is an internationally renowned astronomer and much of his fiction is rooted
in the realm of what is possible - scientifically and psychologically - on earth and in space,
in the present and the future. His visions of his fellow humans is disquieting, hilarious, and
sometimes frightening; his social commentary is often etched in acid. In Element 79 Mr Hoyld steps
forward to take a backward glance at the world - deftly balancing his followers between the unreal
and the real, between a chuckle and a shudder.
Comet Halley
Michael Joseph, 1985
Returning to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge after a spell at the nuclear
research labs of CERN in Geneva, Professor Isaac Newton is plunged into the centre of a baffling
mystery. One of his research students, Mike Howarth, has picked up strange signals on his satellite
telemetry equipment, signals that appear to emenate from a passing comet. Not long after he
has passed the vital data into Isaac Newton's hands, Howarth is found dead. Soon after that, it
becomes clear that some people in very high places - including the Kremlin and the White House -
are more than a little interested in the remarkable events taking place at the Cavendish. But
with the arrival of that most majestic of all celestial bodies, Comet Halley, a third and
infintely more powerful superpower enters the scene. And the Comet's extraordinary intentions -
not to mentionits devastating methods of communicating them to Earth - promise a new dawn for
humanity.
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Books with son Geoffrey
Fifth Planet
Harper and Row, 1963
The year is 2087. The two great power blocs still face each other, with Britain
having adopted the political role folrmerly occupied by Switzerland.
For 75 years the world has known the approach of another solar system which will pass between
our sun and its outermost planets. The sun of the other solar system is named Helios by astronomers,
and it too is found to haveplanets. Its fifth planet, Achilles, is the one most similar to Earth;
and rival rocketship expeditions are launched by the Euro-American and Communist blocs to explore
this transient neighbour ...
From here on the story is wierd and wonderful, the action lively; the scientific ideas are intriguing
and the social satire is amusing.
Rockets in Ursa Major
Harper and Row, 1969
It is the early 20th century. Man is seeking signs of life elsewhere in the
universe, but all exploratory ships have been lost without a trace - except for DSP15. Thirty
years after leaving earth, and given up for lost, DSP15 suddenly appears on radar screens at
the space station at Mildenhall, England.
Her crew had been frozen to prevent aging, and as the ship settles to a landing, Dr Richard
Warboys eagerly awaits with other scientists for word of what DSP15 has found. But there is
no crew, only a message scratched into a metal surfac, signed by the captain:
"If this ship returns to Earth, then mankind is in deadly peril - God help you - "
And so Earth becomes accidentally involved in a cosmic battle against a virtually omnipotent alien
power, in a story suspenseful and exciting from cover to cover.
Seven Steps to the Sun
Harper and Row, 1970
Mike Jerome, a likeable young TV writer, visits Proffesor Smitt, a physicist,
who gives his an idea for a TV script: using some source of light, perhaps a laser beam, one could
reduce the human structure to a form that could be transmitted into the future as electrical pulses -
and thus create time travel.
On the way home Mike is hit by a taxi, and when he recovers he finds the date is 1979 - ten years
in the future. This is but the beginning of a series of bewildering, fascinating ten year jumps.
Mike is himself living the time change himself! At the end of each stop he tries to find his best
friend, Pete Jones, a Negro jazz musician. Jumps to 1989, 1999 and so on, take Mike into such
far-reaching places as London, the Northern Territory of Australia, California and the Italian
Alps, for a rousing series of adventures in all sorts of bizarre circumstances. At the very end of
this outstanding science fiction adventure by a noted father-son team, there is a slyly ambiguous
twist which leaves the reader wondering...
The Molecule Men
Harper and Row, 1971
Dr John West, Cambridge don and private investigator, was present at the trial
of an odd duck, R. A. Adcock, who was being most uncooperative in answering questions about a
bank robbery. At length, Adcock had made a dash for it from the courtroom - through a glass
window, and what should have been a three storey drop to the street. But suddenly, Adcock wasn't
there, and at once a swarm of bees came into the courtroom.
Thus begins The Molecule Men, which takes many fascinating and terrifying turns to its chilling
conclusion.
In the second story, the Monster of Loch Ness, Tom Cochrane, an independant scientist, determines to
find out why the waters of Loch Ness are inexplicably warming up. What was it that caused the waters
of the loch to pour up into the air like the worst rainstorm any of the observers had
ever seen? What was at the bottom of the loch?
These two short novels by a celebrated father and son team will hold the interest of the science
fiction fan from page one on.
The Inferno
Harper and Row, 1973
Cameron, a tall, testy, whisky-drinking, nationalist-minded, Scottish physicist,
may not have been an astronomer, but he knew the off things in the sky when he saw them. From
an Australian mountaintop where he was advising on the location of a radiotelescope he saw what
looked like Mars, in the wrong spot in the sky. But it wasn't Mars at all, it was a supernova ...
no, not a supernova but a quasar .
Knowing what would happen, Cameron dashed home to Scotland and found himself at a crossroads
of his life. In the face of total catastrophe, and of intense heat, darkness and rain, he
took over as natural leader with both the north and south of the United Kingdom turning to him
for help.
Sir Fred Hoyle, world-renowned astrophysicist, and his son, Geoffrey Hoyle, have set their newest
science fiction thriller not only in London and Scotland, but also at the University of
Charlottesville, and in Australia as well.
The result is an intriguing, fast-paced novel written with a wry humour and offering some fascinating
glimpses of and gibes at astronomy.
Into Deepest Space
Harper and Row, 1974
From a great distance the Yela's recorded message crackled through on the micro-earpiece:
'For the time being you have won. But I am not defeated so easily.'
That had been three years ago, after Dick Warboys had repulsed the invading Yela by firing
a lithium bomb into the Sun. But now that threat seems near fulfilment as appalled scientists
detect the rapid approach of a vast, engulfing cloud of hydrogen. Can humanity survive on Earth or
must selected pioneers abandon it in search of a safer region of the Galaxy?
To find the answer Dick and his allies from Space suffer a perilous voyage into the realms that
reach the ultimate in understanding the physical universe.
The Incandescent Ones
Harper and Row, 1977
Young Peter, a student of Byzantine art forms at Moscow University, through a cryptic
sentence in a lecture receives a message to buy two books of his choice at exactly 1.30 pm in the
university bookstore. When he opens the package, a third book, 'The Life og Pushkin', a very
special copy indeed, has been included. It is this third book that leads Peter to Armenia on a series
of adventures of the sort that Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle know how to spin so skilfully adn so spellbindingly.
Peter's mission includes finding his father again after many years of separation. And from his
father he receives the remarkable 'battery' - plus a very difficult task to perform.
The Westminster Disaster
Harper and Row, 1978
The Westminster Disaster is based on the present world shortage of high-grade
uranium and the action turns on a Soviet threat to use nuclear blackmail against London.
When the British Ambassador to the U.N. seeks to veto a Soviet demand for sanctions against South
Africa, the threat becomes a hideous reality.
Writing from a position of intimate knowledge of advanced trends in research and science
administration, in this novel the Hoyles give vivid expression to their deep fears about the
present world situation and about carefully laid plans for Soviet domination...
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Books with John E Elliot
A for Andromeda
Harper and Brothers Ltd, 1962
Originality, excitement, pace and scientific accuracy - readers who appreciate
these elements in science fiction will enjoy thoroughly this outstanding novel of adventure.
A for Andromeda is the product of a very successful collaboration between an astrophysicist of
world-wide repuation and a talented dramatist whose work for British television has received the
highest critical recognition.
The scene is set ten years from now. A new radiotelescope picks up from the constellation of
Andromeda, 200 light years away, a complex series of signals which prove to be a program for a
giant computer. Someone in outer space is trying to communicate using a supremely clever, yet
entirely logical method.
When the necessary computer is built and begins to relay the information it receives from Andromeda,
the project assumes a vital importance: politically, militarily and commercially. For scientists
find themselves possessing knowledge of such a nature that the security of human life itself is threatened.
Readers of The Black Cloud and Ossian's Ride, by Fred Hoyle, will already know what excitement his
fiction can generate in his reader.
As a seven part serial on BBC television, this story established popularity records. The last several
installments doubled BBC's audience reaching 80% of the viewing audience of Great Britain.
Andromeda Breakthrough
Souvenir Press, London and The Ryerson Press, Toronto, Canada, 1964
From the dead constellation of Andromeda flashed continuously a long and intensely
complicated message. Picked up during hte testing of the world's most powerful radiotelescope,
it proved to be a blueprint of a computer so advanced that it made all earth-built computers
seem like children's counting beads and even produced a thinking, living human being to interpret
its needs. Could this be part of a fantastic plan to take over the earth?
This brilliantly conceived novel explores what happens when the computer is used to further the
world ambitions of the dictator of a tiny desert state and of the unscrupulous commerical
organisation INTEL. The terrible combinations of ignorance of the machine's purpose and insane
advarice brings the world to disaster. Huge storms rage across the continents, epidemics break out
in cities devastated by floods and everywhere people begin to die from lack of oxygen. The incredible
achievements of the computer had masked one small formula, which was changing the oxygen balance
of the air. Was this the last step in the plan?
The fast moving action and scientific accuracy interact continuously. If this is science fiction at
its best, Andromeda Breakthrough has all the ingredients which made A for Andromeda a best-selling
novel in England and America and in all the many European countries where translations were published.
The originality of Professor Hoyle combined with John Elliot's flair for dramatic presentation
has produced exciting science fiction of surprises, pace and suspense.
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Children's books
The Giants of Universal Park
Ladybird Books, 1982
Big Business amoung the start lead to crime - and the Earth's sun is stolen.
While trying to get it back, Professor Gamma plays a very strange game of football...
The Energy Pirate
Ladybird Books, 1982
All the sugar on Earth has been stolen - to make energy for other planets light
years away. Professor Gamma pursues the theif across the energy pathways of the universe to
put matters right.
The Frozen Planet of Azuron
Ladybird Books, 1982
As the Earth's winter gets colder and colder, Professor Gamma realises that
a powerful villain must be at work. He sets off for a distant planet to find the culprit, knowing
that it will be a very dangerous task.
The Planet of Death
Ladybird Books, 1982
A killer bug has been set loose on Earth, with disasterous consequences.
Professor Gamma and his daughter Kiryl, along with their young friend William, go to the Planet of
Death to find the cure.
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Theatrical Works
A Nighmare for Number Ten by John Warboys
William Heinemann Ltd, 1953
A farce in three acts.
When the spies of half the organisations under the sun unbeknown to each other assume incognito
and appear with their well-laid plots in Farmer Gwilliam's farm, those plots and counterplots,
their loves and hates become involved in the most ludicrous and hair-raising complications.
However, after a series of comic circumstances all is happily resolved - by the most surprising
means!
Rockets in Ursa Major
Mermaid Theatre, London 1962
A Christmas pantomime for children
A For Andromeda
BBC London, 1961
Space serial for television
The Andromeda Breakthrough
BBC London, 1963
space serial for television.
The Alchemy of Love
Opera libretto
Opera libretto The music was written by Leo Smitt (Never fully performed)
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