He was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the
2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to literature.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Vice-President of
International Pen.
During the 1960s, he wrote several unproduced scripts for the British science fiction series Doctor Who (1963) ("Farewell Great Macedon" and "The Yellow Arc of Fragrance") and The Prisoner (1967) ("The Outsider").