James Bayley Butler with the Royal Army Medical Corps, beginning as a lieutenant in 1915 and retiring a major after the war. For his service, he was awarded an MBE. Butler's primary research interest was in applied biology. He carried out research on "Catenaria anguillulae", a parasite of the ova of the liver fluke, from 1922 to 1932. Later on, Butler focused on the control of wood-boring beetles and the fungus that causes dry rot in wood "Serpula lacrymans". On this matter, he became an international expert, and assisted in the development of the company Biotox, which manufactured insecticides and fungicides for use
Affliction (Hamilton novel) of the flesh-eating zombies in time to save Micah’s father. Critical reception for "Affliction" was mostly positive. "Publisher’s Weekly" called Hamilton’s take on zombies 'invigorating', while Kirkus lamented that much of the book consisted of Anita ‘preaching to the choir’. Several reviews mentioned the series' longevity, including the British Fantasy Society, who noted "The reader needs to feel that the events that take place are sufficiently different from previous novels in the sequence to continue to hold interest" and felt Hamilton had done enough to encourage both new and old readers. In 2013, "Affliction" made the "New York Times" bestseller