Life
Shaw was born and raised in Belfast, the eldest of three sons of a policeman. He learned of science fiction at about 11 years old when he read an A. E. van Vogt short story in an early edition of Astounding Science-Fiction magazine. He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD. He attended Belfast College of Technology. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom which met at the house of James White, another Northern Irish science fiction writer, on Upper Newtonards Road. The group was influential in the early history of science fiction fandom and produced fanzines Hyphen and Slant, to the latter of which Shaw contributed material. Shaw acquired the nickname "BoSh" during this period. He published his first science-fiction short story in 1951, followed by several others.
He gave up writing and went with his first wife Sadie (née Sarah Gourley) and their son and two daughters to live in Canada from 1956 to 1958. His novel Vertigo is set in Alberta, and Orbitsville's limitless grasslands may have been influenced by this period in his life. Originally trained as a structural engineer, he worked as an aircraft designer for Short and Harland, then as science correspondent to The Belfast Telegraph from 1966-1969, and as publicity officer for Vickers Shipbuilding (1973-1975), before starting to write full-time. In April 1973, during the Troubles, Shaw and his family moved from Northern Ireland to England, where he produced the majority of his work: first to Ulverston, then to Grappenhall in Warrington. Sadie died suddenly in 1991 and Shaw lived alone there for some years.
Shaw had nearly lost his sight through illness, and suffered migraine-induced visual disturbances throughout his life. These, and references to eyes and vision, appear as a theme in some of his works. He was known as a drinker, and at one stage considered himself an alcoholic. He was quoted in 1991 as saying: "I write science fiction for people who don't read a great deal of science fiction." He married American Nancy Tucker in 1995 and went to the US to live with her, then returned to England in the last months of his life. Shaw died of cancer on 11 February 1996.
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“The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet’s life. It is what he has become through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression in the life of the artist. His true work will not stand in any prince’s gallery.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)