Shapes in the Fire: 'They parted lingeringly late in the night''

Matthew Phipps Shiell was born in Montserrat in the West Indies on the 21st July 1865 and was believed to be illegitimate.

He was educated at Harrison College, Barbados before moving to Englsand in 1885 to work as a teacher and translator. He soon began to write and published a series of short stories in The Strand magazine and other periodicals. Some of his works were as a writer for hire and it seems probable that even his first novel ‘The Rajah's Sapphire’ (1896) was one of these.

Perhaps his best-known work was ‘The Purple Cloud’ (1901) and it is still considered an important early work of British science fiction.

His first marriage to the Parisian-Spaniard, Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898 provided him a muse for a character in ‘Cold Steel’ (1900) and several short stories. They separated around 1903 and his daughter was taken to Spain after Lina died the following year. Money seemed to be at the heart of the marriage’s problems.

Shiel, like many writers wanted to write literature but his finances needed more commercial fare. With his more artistic efforts failing to provide he collaborated with Louis Tracy on a series of romantic mystery novels.

In 1902, Shiel published in book form ‘The Weird o'It’ which he described as a "true Bible or Holy Book" for modern times and its attempt to present "Christianity in a radical way."

Soon after Shiel turned his pen to contemporary themes with an historical novel about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. But he faced declining sales and tried to boost them by returning to a previous success ‘The Yellow Danger’. These efforts failed to capture any meaningful sales.

By 1914 Shiel was in prison for "indecently assaulting and carnally knowing" his 12-year-old de facto stepdaughter. He served sixteen months of hard labour.

Over the next decade Shiel wrote five plays, dabbled in radical politics and translated pamphlets for the Workers Socialist Federation. In 1919, he married Esther Lydia Jewson. The marriage lasted a decade but fell apart over his sexual interest in and possible abuse of his wife’s young female relatives.

Financially life was difficult, but he was helped in 1931 to obtain a Civil List pension despite his criminal record.

Shiel published 25 novels, several collections of short stories, essays poems and plays.

M P Sheil died on the 17th February 1947. He was 81.

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