Fantasy author Robert Holdstock, best known for his Mythago Wood books, died at 4am yesterday morning, aged 61. He website reports that, “He had been in intensive care since the 18th of November when he collapsed due to an E. coli infection."
Holdstock was first published when he was just 20 when his short story, Pauper’s Plot was published by New Worlds magazine. His first novel, Eye Among the Blind, was published in 1976. He went on to write dozens of fantasy novels in various series, and also edited short story collections, he will always be best known for the Mythago Wood cycle of novels. These were set in and around a mythical ancient woodland in Herefordshire, known as Ryhope Wood, full of mysterious and magical inhabitants,
The first book in the serieswon the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1985. The most recent book in the Mythago Wood Cycle, Avilion, was published in July this year.
SFX offers its sincere condolences to his family, partner and friends.