British science fiction writer China Mieville (full name - China Tom Mieville China Tom Mieville) was born on September 6, 1972 in London in the family of hippie parents. It is to them, among other things, that he owes his strange name ("China" - "China") and communication in childhood with friends with equally strange names Cascade and India. China Mieville loved to read since childhood, but, according to him, was not an active fan and did not know anything about fan conventions. He did, however, scrutinize many science fiction magazines such as "Interzone," as well as a science fiction column in "White Dwarf." Many books read back in his school years inspired his first works of his own, and despite the fact that most of the publishers rejected it, in 1985 his story "Highway Sixty One Revisited" and the poem "Ex-Beatles in Seance by Steve Bailey" were published.