More coincidences

I do like it when two unrelated events impact on each other.  Just before Christmas I read Midnight Blue-Light Special, the second in Seanan McGuire's Cryptid series.  Just now I read an article in Foundation by David Ketterer on John Wyndham's date of birth.

I'm not convinced by the Ketterer article.  He suggests that Wyndham was a year older than his official age because he was born out of wedlock in 1902 (not 1903 as given on his birth certificate), a few weeks before his parents were married (under a "special licence").  He bases this on a letter written by William F. Temple in 1971 where he says he "caught him out about it".  Ketterer links this to a visit by Temple to Wyndham in 1958 and suggests that on this occasion, Wyndham gave an age a year older than his official age.  But there have been a  number of times in the past few years I've been thinking along the lines "I'm 58 next birthday" and then asked my age say 58 not 57, and I have no reason to lie about my age.

During the course of the article, Ketterer tries to find more evidence that Wyndham lied about his age, most of which I find tenuous.  At one point, he mentions the births in The Midwich Cuckoos and a name leapt out - Zellaby.  Gordon Zellaby is one of the main characters in the book but it is a long time since I read it.  However, I knew the name from somewhere.  Then I remembered there is a character in Midnight Blue-Light Special called Sarah Zellaby.  And her race is known as the Cuckoos.