The Northern Roots of Modernist Sci-Fi

In the dying days of industry, northern England supplied the crucial animating backdrop to classic sci-fi in its formative stages.

Dazzle-Ships in Drydock at Liverpool by Edward Wadsworth, 1919, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Synthetic winds have blown away Material dust, but this one room Rebukes the constant violet ray And dustless sheds a dusty doom. — Eileen Blair, ‘End of the Century, 1984’, Sunderland Church High School magazine, 1934 It may have been the Mancunian pop-philosopher Anthony H. Wilson — or perhaps just his alter-ego in the 2001 film 24 Hour […]

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