Peter Currell Brown (born 1936) is the author of the

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

1965

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

novel, '' Smallcreep's Day''."Curiosities". ''

Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

''. February 2009
Reprint
at SFSite (sfsite.com/fsf). Retrieved 2014-09-27. Brown was born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, Essex, England, and went to

Colchester Royal Grammar School Colchester Royal Grammar School (CRGS) is a state-funded grammar school in Colchester, Essex. It was founded in 1128 and was later granted two royal charters - by Henry VIII in 1539 and by Elizabeth I in 1584.Trevor J. Hearn, ''Vitae Corona Fide ...

, which he left at fifteen. His first job working in a factory was the stimulus for ''Smallcreep's Day''. In 1960, Brown was one of a small group who sat down and blocked the entrance of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Foulness. He was sentenced to six months in jail when he refused to agree not to repeat the action. In the following year he was one of the "Eskimo Navy" which boarded Polaris submarines in kayaks, resisting the establishment of the base at

Holy Loch The Holy Loch ( gd, An Loch Sianta/Seunta) is a sea loch, a part of the Cowal peninsula coast of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The "Holy Loch" name is believed to date from the 6th century, when Saint Munn landed there afte ...

. He was a member of the Committee of 100 founded by

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

to organise mass non-violent resistance to nuclear war. He married in 1962, and his first child was born later that year. The following year he moved to a small cottage in rural

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, where he raised his four children. He worked at various jobs locally, including

Dursley Dursley is a market town and civil parish in southern Gloucestershire, England, almost equidistant from the cities of Bristol and Gloucester. It is under the northeast flank of Stinchcombe Hill, and about southeast of the River Severn. The t ...

's main factory, Lister's and Peter Scott’s Wildfowl Trust in

Slimbridge Slimbridge is a village and civil parish near Dursley in Gloucestershire, England. It is best known as the home of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's WWT Slimbridge, Slimbridge Reserve which was started by Sir Peter Scott. Canal and Patch Bridg ...

. In 1966 he set up a craft pottery he called The Snake Pottery in

Cam Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...

. He later gave up employed work to concentrate on the pottery. In 1987 he separated from his wife and moved out of the cottage. In 1980

Mike Rutherford Michael John Cloete Crawford Rutherford (born 2 October 1950) is an English guitarist, bassist and songwriter, co-founder of the rock band Genesis. Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks are the group's two continuous members. Initially servin ...

released his first solo album named after and inspired by ''Smallcreep's Day''. ''Smallcreep's Day'' was republished in September 2008 by Pinter & Martin.Smallcreep's Day [paperback] - £7.99 : Pinter & Martin Publishers

References

External links

* 1936 births Living people Writers from Colchester People educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School 20th-century English novelists English male novelists British anti–nuclear weapons activists 20th-century English male writers {{UK-writer-stub