A. Bertram Chandler

A. Bertram Chandler was one of the highly renowned authors from Britain, who used to like writing science fiction novels. He was a British-Australian and very popular in the science fiction world. Chandler was born on March 28, 1912; and died on June 6, 1984. In addition to writing under his own name, he used to make use of a number of pen names as well. Some of his popular pen names include George Whitely, S.H.M, Andrew Dunstan, etc. Author Chandler was born as Arthur Bertram Chandler in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He chose the profession of Merchant Navy and worked as a marine officer for many years. Chandler sailed through the world in all types of ships, starting from the tramp steamer up to the troop ships. He decided to migrate to Australia in 1956 and obtained the citizenship there. Following his migration, he was involved in commanding a number of ships in the merchant navies of New Zealand and Australia. He has achieved the feat of being the last master to have served on the aircraft carrier of Australia, the HMAS Melbourne. He was asked to join HMAS Melbourne as per a law that required an officer to be on board while it was being towed to get broken up in China. As far as the writing career of author Chandler is concerned, he is believed to have written more than 40 books and some 200 short fiction works. For one of his short stories titled ‘The Bitter Pill’, Chandler was awarded the Ditmar Award. He won this award three more times later in his career. The descriptions that he has given in his books about the life in spaceships and understanding and relationships between the crew members are based on his personal experiences while serving on the seagoing ships. Due to his vast experience, his descriptions are filled with realism, which is hardly found with the other authors.