Keith Roberts

For the former head of the Grenadian security forces, see Keith Roberts (Grenada)

Keith Roberts (September 20, 1935 - October 5, 2000) was a British science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of stories featuring a teenaged modern witch and her eccentric granny) and "Escapism." .

Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym Alistair Bevan. His second novel, Pavane, which is really a collection of linked stories, may be his most famous work. It is an alternate history in which Elizabeth I is killed and England never gains ascendency.

A later series of stories features Kaeti, a young woman who turns up in different guises at different historical periods, but always with the same name and usually the same "supporting cast" of friends and lovers. The name Kaeti is almost an anagram of Keith, suggesting that she may represent Roberts' anima.

Roberts wrote numerous novels and short stories, and also worked as an illustrator. His artistic contributions include covers and interior artwork for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, later renamed Impulse.

Many of his stories have been published posthumously.

He also edited the last few issues of Impulse although the nominal editor was Harry Harrison.

Partial Bibliography

Novels

• The Inner Wheel
• Pavane
• The Boat of Fate (a historical novel set in Britain at the end of the Roman Empire's power)
• The Furies
• The Chalk Giants

Collections

• Anita
• Kaeti and Company
• The Grain Kings

• Lemady: Episodes of a Writer's Life (autobiography)