Adrian Tchaikovsky

Born in Lincolnshire, Adrian Tchaikovsky studied zoology and psychology at the University of Reading, before going on to train as a legal executive. Whilst working in a Leeds law firm, he kept writing fiction and published his first novel Empire in Black and Gold in 2008 – the first volume in what became his critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series. It was inspired by a role-playing game named Bugworld he managed whilst at university.

Tchaikovsky has written over twenty novels, five novellas and several story collections. In 2015, he published Children of Time – his celebrated science fiction novel about artificial intelligence, alienness and humanity’s battle for survival. It went on to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award the following year, and the second book in the series, Children of Ruin (2019), scooped the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The third, much-anticipated volume set in the same universe, Children of Memory, followed in 2022.