Edward Hyams

Edward Solomon Hyams (1910-1975) was a British writer. Hyams was known for his writings as a French scholar and socialist historian.

Hyams spent his early adulthood (1929-1933) as a factory worker. He married Hilda Aylett in 1933.

Hyams published his first novel, The Wings of the Morning in 1939.

In the 1930s, Hyams was a pacifist and a member of the Peace Pledge Union, but abandoned pacifism upon the outbreak of the Second World War. Hyams joined the Royal Air Force but was disqualified from being a pilot because of his poor eyesight. Hyams then applied for a transfer to the Royal Navy, which was granted; he spent the rest of the war in the Navy.

Hyams began submitting short fiction to the BBC Third Programme and the New Statesman in the 1950s; after they were accepted, he became a regular contributor to both.

Hyams' most famous work was Soil and Civilisation, a history of farming which advocated organic farming and came out against mechanised agriculture. Soil and Civilisation has been described as an early example of "environmental literature". Hyams also edited a historical anthology of articles from the New Statesman magazine, New Statesmanship. Other works included a biography of Proudhon, and Terrorists and Terrorism. His fiction included The Astrologer (1950) a satirical science fiction novel about an ecological disaster.

He won a prize for his translation of Joan of Arc By Herself and Her Witnesses.

Hyams' work was praised by both Anthony Burgess and Ronald Bryden, the latter describing Hyams as "the most exasperatingly gifted writer in England".

Hyams was a keen gardener; he spent some time as a market garderner in Kent, and wrote several books about gardening. He was consulted by the government of Iran when the National Botanic Garden in Tehran was being built. He was also keen on viticulture, and tried to grow wine in Britain.

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