It seems that every few years somebody announces science fiction is dead. In 2007 it was the turn of Ridley Scott, who then went on to make The Martian, so perhaps these claims should always be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly when we look back over the history of SF writing over the years and find that it is a genre that is as much defined by current events than by any singular vision of the future.

For that reason, British science fiction in the 1950s was incredible stuff. Anxiety over the powers scientists had unleashed after the dropping the atomic bomb at the end of World War II obsessed many novelists, but so did a sense of despondency at poverty and suffering within a community that was still living with rationing until 1954. How could novelists make sense of those strange times? Writers such as Arthur C Clarke turned their eyes to the far future, while others such as John Wyndham explored contemporary society. But, in either case, the fear of ‘What if?’ was electric within those books., and are well worth reading now – not only for an insight into the 1950s, but for how they continue to reflect on life now.

Here’s a look at eight of the best of them.

Equator (US Title: Vanguard From Alpha) by Brian Aldiss

Aliens. If they arrived on Earth, how would we interact with them, and could we overcome that barrier of otherness? In Equator, one of Aldiss’ earliest books, otherness really isn’t a problem. Instead the arrival of the Rosks from some far-off humid planet leads to an awful lot of negotiation, and the realisation that the aliens are just as slippery, divided and devious as humanity.