SIEVEKING, Lance

   Working name of UK writer and radio producer Lancelot de Giberne Sieveking (1896-1972) on his later work, though his first books were signed L. de Giberne Sieveking. He was with the BBC 1924-56; in 1955-6 he edited the publisher Ward Lock's sf list; his literary memoir, The Eye of the Beholder (1957), included portraits of figures of sf interest such as H.G. WELLS. He began publishing sf with "The Prophetic Camera" for TheEnglish Review in 1922, and his first novel Stampede! (1924)-dedicated to, illustrated by, and in its side-of-the-mouth fantasticality derivative of G.K. CHESTERTON-featured a Thought Machine used by anarchists to conveytelepathic commands. In The Ultimate Island: A Strange Adventure (1925) ATLANTIS has survived in the midst of concealing fog and whirlpools, intowhich maelstrom ships have for centuries been lured. LS's best known sf work, A Private Volcano (1955), depicts the effects of a catalyst (thrown up from a volcano) which turns all dross to gold. After outgrowing his borrowed manners, LS became a literate writer, though sometimes uneasy in his handling of genre effects.

   JC

   Other works: The Woman She Was (1934).

   See also: ISLANDS.