Born on the Romney Marsh, in Hythe, Kent, on 2 August 1948, to Robert and Kathleen Holdstock, Robert Paul Holdstock is the eldest of five children who grew up in a lively, busy household. His father, a policeman, worked various shifts and was frequently absent during the day but "was brilliant at compensating when he was around," as Holdstock told Catie Cary in an interview for Vector (October/November 1993). Holdstock's parents read to him often, and he himself began to read at about age three and began writing stories as early as age eight or nine. He cites as early influences C. S. Lewis's Narnia fantasies, the Westerns his grandfather left around, and the novels of H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells. His other grandfather, a gardener in Kent, taught him gardening and an appreciation of the land and nature. An obsessive researcher and reader, he lists...