William Frederick Temple (9 March 1914 – 15 July 1989) was a British science fiction writer, best known for authoring the novel-turned-film Four Sided Triangle. Early life and career Temple was born in Woolwich in 1914. In 1930, he became a clerk in the London Stock Exchange. His interest in science fiction and space exploration led him to become an active member of both the Science Fiction Association and the British Interplanetary Society: in the former organisation, he was chair of the Writer's Circle and on the editorial team of Novae Terrae while at the latter was he editor of their journal Bulletin. Prior to World War II, Temple shared a flat in London with fellow science fiction fans Arthur C. Clarke and Maurice K. Hanson. Temple wrote a gently humorous, semi-autobiographical account of this time, called Bachelor Flat, in the 1940s but failed to find a publisher. It was eventually printed in the collection 88 Gray's Inn Road: A Living-Space Odyssey (2000). Alongside his involvement with science fiction fandom, Temple began to sell stories to a number of venues including Tales of Wonder. His first published science fiction work was the SF-horror short story "The Kosso", published in the anthology Thrills (1935). He went on to publish other works in amateur and professional magazines over the next few years. Temple married his girlfriend Joan in September 1939: their relationship inspired Temple's most famous story, Four-Sided Triangle, the first version of which appeared in the November 1939 issue of Amazing Stories as "The 4-Sided Triangle". In September 1940 he was conscripted and served as a field artillery signaller while Joan and their daughter Anne Patrizio were evacuated to Cornwall. While serving in the North African Campaign, Temple began work on a novel-length Four-Sided Triangle but lost the half-finished manuscript during a battle in the Tunisian Campaign at Takrouna. He subsequently participated in the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, during which he learned of the birth of his son Peter and the subsequent invasion of Italy, where he lost a second manuscript of Four-Sided Triangle during the Battle of Anzio. During his time in Italy, he received the tragic news that his son had died of a viral infection aged just seven months. He resumed work on Four-Sided Triangle while on leave in Rome and completed it in the Alps: on his return home in October 1945 he typed