Published in 2025
241 pages
Daphne R. Castell was born in 1929 in the U.K. She studied under Professor Tolkien at Oxford University in the 1950s and established herself as an important new voice in British science fiction writing. She was one of the first new female contributors to New Worlds, a leading edge science fiction magazine edited by the prominent fantasy author Michael Moorcock.
Daphne Castell was one of the earliest fans of The Lord of the Rings. She read the very first edition as the three volumes appeared in 1954-55. She even named her house in Botley, Oxford, Ithilien.
She became Deputy Librarian of the Forestry Institute in Oxford, after working as a librarian in the City Library. Her main employment became that of a remedial teacher, working in nearby Bicester, then at Wood Eaton School, Oxford, helping children with special needs. She also supplemented her income by writing science-fiction stories, which appeared in periodicals like New Worlds and anthologies. She read stories on BBC national radio’s Morning Story, and gave talks on the popular BBC radio Woman’s Hour.
In 1955 she married Malcolm Cloke, and had three children, Geoff, Gill and Jonathan. Daphne Castell was treated for cancer around 1980, then completed an MPhil in special education at Birmingham University before the cancer returned and took her life away in 1983.
What is this book about?
Includes the following pieces which were published in science fiction magazines and anthologies:
Dear Aunty
Emancipation
For One of These
Entry from Earth
Rumpelstiltskin
Martians at Dick’s End
Who’s in there with Me?
The Topic for the Evening
Come Up and See Me
A Prince of the Captivity
The Sun-Hunters
The Patent Medicine Man
The Way of Our Fathers
Cold Storage
The Fishers of the Fountain
Alma Mater
Elizabeth
Household Gods
Diminishing Landscape with Indistinct Figures
Close of Night
