About Me
Jack Deighton: A Potted Biography
Portions of this biography appear in my profile at Infinity Plus.
Jack Deighton was born in Dumbarton and is therefore a true Son of the Rock.*
He studied Chemistry at Glasgow University, then took a PhD (measuring 13C NMR substituent effects. His first sole publication was therefore his thesis Structural and Spectroscopic Studies of Ylides and Bicyclic Compounds.) He worked for two years in Hertfordshire studying the effects of additives on the processability of rubber, then moved back to Scotland and took up teaching. He has taught in Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline. Jack is married with two sons.
Note for those of you who speak aloud as you read:
You should pronounce “Deighton” to rhyme with “Brighton” and not with — to take an example, not at random — a certain town in Ohio. “Jack” should rhyme with, well, “Jack”…
An ylide is a charged compound a bit like a salt but, unlike a salt – which contains two types of ion each with a separate charge – an ylide has the charges on two adjacent atoms within a molecule.
*The old requirement that only those born in Dumbarton (as I was) can be regarded as Sons of the Rock may be out of date as just about everyone now has their first slap on the bum in Vale of Leven hospital which is in Alexandria, a few miles up the road.
Jack Deighton: A Bibliography
NOVEL
“A Son Of The Rock,” Orbit, London, 1997. (Runner up for the British Science Fiction award.) Extracts can be read at infinity plus.
A further completed novel currently titled “Who Changes Not,” is available for publication.
SHORTER FICTION
A number of stories have appeared, including:
“The Face of the Waters,” New Worlds 2, Gollancz, 1992, nominated for BSFA award 1993 — also translated into French as “La Face Des Eaux” in Cyberdreams 2,
“This Is The Road,” New Worlds 3, Gollancz, 1993, nominated for BSFA award 1994, — also as “Le Chemin D’Eternite’,” in Cyberdreams 7,
“Closing Time,” Interzone 89, November 1994,
“The Gentlemen Go By,” Spectrum SF 2,
“SHIFT,” Spectrum SF 3,
“Dusk,” Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction, Mercat Press, 2005 – is also to be found at infinity plus.
“Osmotic Pressure” – forthcoming in “Postcripts” from PS publishing.
