China Miéville

Born in 1972 in Norwich, China Miéville was raised in London, a city he claims ‘inhabited’ him ‘from quite a young age’, and which has pro- foundly influenced his writing. Indeed, few writers since Charles Dickens have staked a stronger literary claim to the city‚ which appears in various guises throughout Miéville’s work. Raised by a single mother, he attended pri- vate schools on scholarships from the age of eleven, and a boarding school for two years from the age of sixteen. As a child and teenager, Miéville was deeply interested in fantasy, science fiction, and role‐playing games; he was also involved from an early age in left‐wing politics, particularly the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the anti‐apartheid movement. These sets of seem- ingly divergent interests have left clear marks on his writing, and indeed on his life as a whole. As he told an interviewer in 2003, ‘Socialism and sf are the two most fundamental influences in my life’.