The idea of a time-traveling history department at Oxford University, introduced in this novelette, was also used in her later novels Doomsday Book (1992), To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997), and Blackout/All Clear (2010), as was the character of Professor James Dunworthy.Īlthough Willis' writing of 'Fire Watch' predates the production of Doomsday Book by about a decade, Kivrin Engle, the main character of Doomsday Book, also appears as a minor character in 'Fire Watch'. 'Fire Watch' (1982) was included in Willis' short-story collections Fire Watch (1984) and The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories (2013).

The story won both a Hugo Award for Best Novelette and a Nebula Award for Best Novelette.

Paul's would survive the World War II bombings but would be obliterated in a terrorist attack nearer to the protagonist's own time. He develops a deep emotional attachment to the cathedral and is highly devoted to his role in defending it – especially due to his bitter knowledge that St. Paul in the first century but instead gets sent to St. The narrator is a student historian from a future where historians use time-travel to study history directly. The story, first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in February 1982, involves a time-traveling historian who goes back to the Blitz in London, to participate in the fire lookout at St. ' Fire Watch' is a science fiction novelette by American writer Connie Willis.

Fire Watch by Lexie Nicholas