Thanks to his English teacher at school, Huw Langridge realised that writing (and reading) was actually pretty fun, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that he realised that he could bring out his own literary voice.
He grew up in London and, during his years working as a global IT troubleshooter for an oil exploration company, Huw travelled to a number of places that enabled him to find inspiration and tone for his stories. More recently he has visited many parts of the world working on an operations team delivering high-calibre investment conferences.
In 2003 Huw attended an Arvon Foundation novel-writing course at the residential retreat at Lumb Bank in Yorkshire. The course was tutored by Martyn Bedford (“The Houdini Girl” and “Acts of Revision”) and Phil Whitaker (“Triangulation” and “The Face”). The guest author was Louise Welsh (“The Cutting Room”). Also in attendance was Ian Marchant (“Parallel Lines”). Huw has cooked for all of them, and was glad they survived.
Huw’s first short story publication was the science fiction piece “The Ceres Configuration”, published in Issue 4 of Jupiter SF Magazine, released in 2004. The story was described by Adrian Fry of Whispers of Wickedness as “A good old fashioned (yet high-tech) tale of approaching apocalypse, [which] served to remind me just what unpretentious science fiction can do when written by someone who clearly relishes every word.”
Further published short works have appeared in The Ranfurly Review, Reflection’s Edge, Jupiter SF, 365tomorrows and Supernatural Tales.
His short story “Last Train to Tassenmere” received an Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror 2009, and featured in his collection The Train Set, released in 2012.
In 2010 he released his short story collection The Axiom Few, featuring three previously published stories and five stories new to the collection. His Axiom Few stories have received praise from a number of online SF review websites, such as SF Signal, SF Site and SF Crowsnest.
Since 2020 he has written three short novels that, in their own way, pay homage to the cosy catastrophies of John Wyndham. The Tolworth Beacon, The Sapling Method and Hoodwink’s Folly see a mundane suburban setting turned upside down by something far outside of the ordinary.
Huw gets his inspiration from music, travel and the seasons. He lives by the sea in North Wales with his wife and two children.