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At that time many CND members were heavily into skiffle and Brunner wrote several songs for them, including the CND Marching Song, with its memorable opening lines, “Don’t you hear the H-bomb’s thunder/ Echo like the crack of doom?”, which was sung on the first Aldermaston March in 1958. With his first wife Marjorie and Bertrand Russell’s former wife Dora Black he organised CND caravans into Europe, and travelled around the world promoting the CND cause. “The real universe”, he said, “has a marvellous and unique quality, inasmuch as it and only it can take us completely by surprise.” In science fiction, he wrote, the “certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we can’t predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe”.In 1957 Brunner became a member of the National Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Tests; he was a leading member of the Hampstead group from which the national Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was formed. He said at the time of The Shockwave Rider that “I have always found fact infinitely more interesting than myths and falsehoods”. He was a merciless critic of the illogicalities and deceptions of pseudo-science; in a paper at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1975 he lambasted the then-popular writings of such people as Erich von Daniken, T Lobsang Rampa and L Ron Hubbard. The Sheep Look Up (1972), another huge novel, again mixes fiction with fact, this time on the subject of pollution. The Shockwave Rider (1975) was one of the earliest and is still one of the best novels about computers; Brunner was way ahead of his time in seeing their true social impact being communication rather than number-crunching, and one of their threats being a loss of privacy.These dystopian books managed to push a message without being polemical; Brunner was using the near future as a metaphor for the present.

The book won the Hugo Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Prix Apollo. The novel is written in an experimental jigsaw style, whereby hundreds of short snippets build up to give a powerful feeling of desperation: he once commented that “it should be read like a newspaper, not like a novel”. His massive Stand on Zanzibar (1968) was about the problem of overpopulation: the title came from the premise that by the year 2010 the world’s population could – just – stand shoulder to shoulder on the island of Zanzibar. He went on to write nearly 100 books, fiction and non-fiction, under a variety of names.
His most significant books stepped away from narrative conventions.

Much of his early work was “space opera”, galactic adventure stories, which were distinguished from the “pulp” material of many other writers of the time by their literacy. John Brunner was one of the leading British science fiction writers of the last four decades. He died in Glasgow while attending – among hundreds of other authors and publishers and nearly 5,000 fans of the genre – the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, where he had been scheduled to speak on several panels. Brunner sold his first novel at the age of 17, and was a prolific writer throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It has acquired 90 stores from Lonrho and is expected to have a 300-strong retail chain by the end of the year generating sales of pounds 100m.

Credit Lyonnais expect profits to climb from pounds 2.7m to pounds 3.8m.. The shares held at 877p as the stockbroker was said to have lifted this year’s forecast from pounds 3.3bn to pounds 3.68bn and next year’s from pounds 3.75bn to pounds 3.95bn.Jefferson Smurfit, the packaging group, held at 205p as 51 million shares were printed, thought to be the result of a share buy-back.Cautious statements lowered Pentland 16p at 129p, and Vardon, 21p to 127p, but Provident Financial soared 67p to 715p on its results and Inchcape responded to James Capel enthusiasm with a 13p gain to 353p.Vodafone rose 4p to 270p as US investment house Smith Barney was rumoured to have made bullish noises; BT gained 3p to 409.5p on its growing power in the communications revolution.British Biotech added another 26p to 598p on support thought to come from Greig Middleton and Biocompatible, the healthcare tiddler, jumped another 30p to 218p following its US contact lens deal and link with Johnson & Johnson.Rosebys, the retailer, held at 155p. Sears rose 2.5p to 110p on Credit Lyonnais Laing support.HSBC treated a Cazenove upgrade with some indifference. It was enough to lift Barratt Developments 3p to 195p and Beazer 5p to 145p.Storehouse gained 10p to 311p, reflecting an overnight trade of 5 million at 309p Kingfisher, on recent Cazenove caution, fell 6p to 457p Interims are due next month. Robert Cumming at UBS believe such a move could cut earnings per share by up to 20 per cent.Bass fell 12p to 649p; Scottish & Newcastle 7p to 597p and Whitbread 3p to 616p.Allied Domecq, where worries of a dividend cut linger, lost 7p to 507p.Builders rallied on bottom-fishing advice from Hambros.

The betting and hotel group, which is keen to get involved in the Hilton Hotel spread in the US, is thought to be on the verge of increasing its casino operations.Stories are flying around of a bid for London Clubs or the acquisition of some of the Rank Organisation outlets.Breweries had a flat session as the influence of the heatwave gave way to worries about accountancy proposals that could force the beerage to start depreciating pub freeholds over 50 years. Latest rumour is that Tesco could be interested, although talk of a bid mingled with probably more realistic chatter that the two planned to forge a trading link.Hambros, the securities group, added another 6p to 205p and Merrydown, the struggling cider group, 26p to 135p.British Aerospace, with GEC bid talk still in the background, rose 6p to 655p.Ladbroke eased to 164p ahead of today’s results, expected to be disappointing. Lloyds Chemists was again in the frame.Since disappointing results and a restructuring exercise was announced in April the shares have shown surprising resilience and rose a further 9p to 249p.The market believes Kingfisher has looked at Lloyds and decided to keep its powder dry. And its shares have fallen steadily as the market has failed to appreciate the deal. They touched 657p early this month but fell to 600p before moving to 605p as stories of the presentation went the rounds and the Time Warner $8bn bid for Turner Broadcasting was announced.The rest of the market continued to doze in the August sunshine with the FT-SE 100 index managing to stir itself sufficiently to score a 1.4- point gain to 3,504 in slack trading.At one time it appeared that futures-related trading would undermine the cash market but a relatively firm New York display provoked a modest late rally.Occasionally, whispers of takeover action helped to produce a little activity.