The Coming of a King by I. O. Evans

(1894-1977) South-African-born editor and author, in UK from an early age, and a UK civil servant from 1912; he was in active service throughout World War One. His first book of sf relevance was the nonfiction The World of Tomorrow – A Junior Book of Forecasts (1933), focusing on possible future Inventions, partly illustrated with reproductions of artwork from sf magazines, and thus – almost accidentally – the first Anthology of sf Illustration; Anthology of Armageddon (anth 1935) with Bernard Newman assembled stories directly related to World War One, mostly nonfantastic. Tales like Gadget City: A Story of Ancient Alexandria (1944) – which features an ancient Briton enslaved in Alexandria, where he is enthralled by the Inventions in which it glories, including a giant steamship – incorporate some sf anomalies into narratives that are, again, mostly nonfantastic. The Coming of a King; A Story of the Stone Age (1950) is Prehistoric SF. He was also editor and translator of many of Jules Vernes works.

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