HARTLEY, L(eslie) P(oles)

(1895-1972) UK novelist and short-story writer known mainly for his works outside the sf field, especially for The Go-Between (1953) and for the trilogy comprising The Shrimp and the Anemone (1944), The Sixth Heaven (1946), which has some slight fantasy content, and Eustace and Hilda(1947). His ghost stories - some of the finest from this century - were variously collected in Night Fears and Other Stories (coll 1924), The Killing Bottle (coll 1932), The Travelling Grave and Other Stories (coll1948 US), The White Wand (coll 1954), Two for the River (coll 1961) and Miss Carteret Receives and Other Stories (coll 1971); these and more were assembled in The Complete Short Stories of L.P. Hartley (coll 1973 in 2 vols). His sf novel, Facial Justice (1960), deals sourly but sensitively with personal dilemmas after humanity has re-emerged from underground after a nuclear DISASTER. Many of the precepts of the subsequent DYSTOPIA satirize the welfare state and English socialism. For women, true equality involves a literal equality of physical appearance, with poignant effects. It has been argued that, when the female protagonist unmasks the dictatorresponsible, showing her to be an ancient and envious hag, the author reveals a fundamental misogyny; the point is moot.

   JC

   See also: HISTORY OF SF; POLITICS.