Michael Scott Rohan

Michael Scott Rohan (1951–2018) was a Scottish writer of fantasy and science fiction, born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh Academy and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he read English before switching to law. He is best known for The Winter of the World trilogy (The Anvil of Ice, The Forge in the Forest, The Hammer of the Sun), an Ice Age fantasy centered on smith-magic and the struggle against an encroaching cold, and for The Spiral sequence, which sends its heroes through mythic versions of real-world places. He also wrote science fiction, including Run to the Stars (1982), and collaborated with Allan J. Scott on historical fantasies such as The Hammer and the Cross. Also a music journalist and opera writer, Rohan stopped writing fiction after an incurable illness diagnosis in 2000 but continued contributing to music and arts publications.