Colin Greenland
Colin Greenland (born 17 May 1954) is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is Take Back Plenty (1990), winner of both major British science fiction awards, the 1990 British SF Association award and the 1991 Arthur C. Clarke Award, as well as being a nominee for the 1992 Philip K. Dick Award for the best original paperback published that year in the United States.
Colin Greenland

Patrick Nielsen Hayden from Brooklyn, NY · Nicholas Whyte, Colin Greenland · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Colin Greenland
- Born
- 17 May 1954
- Birthplace
- Dover, Kent, England, UK
- Occupation
- Novelist
- Education
- Pembroke College, Oxford (BA, MA, DPhil)
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Fields
- literary activity · science fiction · science fiction literature
- Honours
- Arthur C. Clarke Award · BSFA Award for Best Novel
- Languages
- British English · English
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Documentary summary
Colin Greenland (born 17 May 1954) is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is Take Back Plenty (1990), winner of both major British science fiction awards, the 1990 British SF Association award and the 1991 Arthur C. Clarke Award, as well as being a nominee for the 1992 Philip K. Dick Award for the best original paperback published that year in the United States.
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wikidata · Q742918 · wikipedia · Colin Greenland
In this article
Biography
Biography
Colin Greenland studied at University of Oxford. The recorded working language is British English and English. The field of work recorded is literary activity, science fiction and science fiction literature. Michael Moorcock is recorded as an influence. Distinctions recorded are Arthur C. Clarke Award and BSFA Award for Best Novel.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Colin Greenland • Born — 17 May 1954 • Birthplace — Dover, Kent, England, UK • Occupation — Novelist • Genre — Science fiction • Education — Pembroke College, Oxford (BA, MA, DPhil) • Partner — Susanna Clarke
Biography
Biography
Colin Greenland attended Pembroke College, Oxford, eventually earning a BA, MA (1978), and DPhil (1981). Greenland's first published book, which was based on his DPhil dissertation, was a critical look at the New Wave entitled The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British 'New Wave' in Science Fiction (1983). His most successful fictional work is the Plenty series that starts with Take Back Plenty and continues with Seasons of Plenty (1995), The Plenty Principle (1997) and Mother of Plenty (1998). Besides his work on fiction, Greenland has continued to write non-fiction books and has been active in the Science Fiction Foundation, as well as serving on the editorial committee of Interzone. He has been a guest speaker at four separate Microcons: 1988, 1989, 1993 and 1994. His wife is the novelist Susanna Clarke, with whom he has lived since 1996. He is good friends with Neil Gaiman, and is frequently cited among Gaiman's acknowledgments pages.
Novels
Novels
• Daybreak series • Daybreak on a Different Mountain. London: Unwin Hyman, 1984. • The Hour of the Thin Ox. London: Unwin Hyman, 1987. • Other Voices. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988. • Plenty series • Take Back Plenty. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990 (paper). • Seasons of Plenty. London: HarperCollins, 1995. • Mother of Plenty. London: HarperCollins Voyager, 1998 (paper). • Harm's Way. London: HarperCollins, 1993. • Spiritfeather. London: Orion, 2000 (paper). • Finding Helen. London: Black Swan, 2002 (paper).
Non-fiction
Non-fiction
• The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British 'New Wave' in Science Fiction. London: Routledge & Keegan, 1983. • Storm Warnings: Science Fiction Confronts the Future, with Eric S. Rabkin and George E. Slusser. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. • Michael Moorcock: Death is No Obstacle. Manchester: Savoy Books, 1992.
As editor
As editor
• Interzone: The First Anthology, with John Clute and David Pringle. London: Everyman Fiction, 1985.
Collections
Collections
• The Plenty Principle. London: HarperCollins Voyager, 1997 (paper).
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q742918: Colin Greenland
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Colin Greenland”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Clute and Nicholls 1995, p. 525.
- 2.Sleeman, Elizabeth. International Who's Who of Authors and Writers, 2004. Europa Publications Limited. 219. 2003. 1857431790.
- 3.Reginald 1992, p. 410.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 2
- Clute, John and Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Griffin 1993 (2nd edition 1995). .
- Reginald, Robert. Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, 1975-1991. Detroit, Washington DC, London: Gale Research, Inc., 1992. .
References
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authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,285 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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