ANYONE in the know about science fiction probably knows that writer Ian R MacLeod has won a host of gongs, including a Hugo, a Nebula and not one, but two, World Fantasy Awards.

Fewer might know he is living in Bewdley or that his home town was an inspiration for the atmospheric setting of his latest novel, The House of Storms.

Despite his opening gambit being a request to "bear with him" because he was "suffering from the same flu as the Pope", the author, who has his strongest fan-base in America, gave the Shuttle/Times & News a fascinating insight into the man - and ideas - behind the books.

"I think you just ask yourself a question and then another question after that," was his explanation for how his fertile imagination had supplied the material for two novels on sale in Britain, one in the United States and another due for release in America and France.

"Also, some of the things are the premises of wouldn't it be great if magic worked and how would society react to that?

"You just keep asking yourself more and more questions until it starts to fit, so it's very important to me that my books are believable and interesting and that the characters seem real."

The frank 48-year-old says on his website that he was generally graded with the bottom half of pupils at infant and junior schools and only decided to study at university "for no particular reason than I liked the whole idea of books and dusty libraries".

After graduating with a law degree from Birmingham Polytechnic, where he met his wife, he worked in the civil service for 12 years - during which time he started writing when he was bored.

He became a househusband and full-time writer in 1990 when his wife was expecting their daughter Emily, who is now 14.

Ian has since sold around 30 short stories to most of the sci-fi market and has made almost annual appearances in the Year's Best SF.

His first novel, The Great Wheel, published in 1997, won the Locus Award for the year's best first novel and his second, an alternative history called the Summer Isles, won the World Fantasy Award as a novella.

Ian, who moved to Bewdley from Sutton Coldfield last September, also manages to find time to teach English and creative writing at Aston University. He is currently in the middle of writing a new book, which tells of a woman who faces the decision at the end of her life of whether or not to become a virtual intelligence on a computer.

Describing his work as "realistic fantasy", he said The House of Storms - which was published this month - was set in England in a world where the government and guilds have a far greater influence over people's day-to-day lives.

"It's set during the age of the rise of a new substance called aether, which is basically a form of magic, so all things that happened in the world since the industrial revolution happened in a way that was infused with magic. So, as well as worrying about physics, you can use powers to help things," he said.

"One of the things that would have been characteristic of the Midlands (during the industrial revolution) was river traffic and although I hadn't actually moved to Bewdley when I wrote it, one of the main characters takes a river boat from Bewdley to Bristol."

Fans who would like to find out more about Ian can listen to him giving a talk and reading at Bewdley Library on Thursday, February 24, from 7pm.