CON HOTEL SWITCH
Because of the dissatisfaction expressed at the
high prices of the Dominion hotel, the site of the
BSFA Easter Convention has been switched. Take
note, therefore, of the following:
TIME: Remains Good Friday 15th April to Easter
Monday 18th Apr.
PLACE: The Sandringham Hotel, 25 Lancaster Gate,
London W.2.
BOOKINGS: Bed & Breakfast 30/3d. Double rooms
58/-. Some four bedded rooms 22/6d per.
Priority for cheaper accommodation to be given to
younger fans travelling the greatest distances.
All bookings (no deposits) to be made by letter
through Ella Parker 15l Canterbury Road, West
Kilburn, London NW6,
The Sandringham is not a licenced hotel but the
Manager is agreeable to our bringing in alcohol
provided we keep it to our rooms and the lounge
provided for us. A night porter will provide tea
or coffee. Breakfast is normally from 8 - 9.30,
but as a concession this has been extended to
10.30. If anyone would like to insure articles of
value, John Newman, 36 Bulstrode Ave., Hounslow,
Middx., will take care of any inquiry. Auction
material to Ella Parker. Convcntion fees to Archie
Mercer, 434/4 Newark Rd., North Hykeham, Lincoln.
These have now been reduced to: BSFA Members 7/6,
junior members 5/-; Non BSFA members 10/-, junior
nonmembers 7/6d -- for the entire
convention.
This is a BSFA Convention and is not being
organised in conjunction with the London Circle.
KLAUS EYLMANN writes from Hamburg on fandom
in Germany, ”There are 3 big SF Organisations. The
SFCE with Fanclub SFCD e.V., the SFCD and. the
SSFI. It is a unique situation in fandom that two
different fanclubs have the name SFCD, but no one
will give it up, because the very first club which
was founded by Walter Ernsting has been the SFCD.
Now both clubs, which are calling themselves SFCD
are not the original clubs, but both organisations
are saying that they are the successors of the
original SFCD. There is a terrific feud running
between Wolf Detlef Rohr (Rainer Eisfeld) and
Walter Ernsting and his SFCD. In a short time a
law suit will be filled out in this.matter. When a
delegation of the SFCE (SFCD e.V) (e.V. means
“registered Club”) will turn up at the England
Convention then please don’t think they are
speaking for the majority of Gcrman fans. The
majority of the German fans are organised in the
SSFI (Stellaris Science Fiction Interessen
Gemeinschaft) whose membership is increasing
rapidly, only they have no such agile and
versatile correspondent as the SFCE has in Rainer
Eisfeld. Nevertheless Poul A. Pradel, who has been
a long time in the U.S. and who attended. the
world con in San Francisco or New York (I don't
know for sure) is a committee member of the SSFI.”
THE CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FICTION CIRCLE’S
VALENTINE CONVENTION was held over the weekend
13th/14th February. Out of town attendees made
their way to 44 Barbridge Road, home of Margaret
and Eric Jones, then proceeded to Ah Chews
Restaurant where they were joined by more
Cheltenham fans. Stage One Party HQ were the
palatial clubrooms in London Road where, before
continuing the general merrymaking, discussion
ensued on the Easter Convention. The new solution
was apparently well received by all. The programme
continued with the showing of vintage Chaplin and
Hal Roach films, cartoons and some non vintage fan
film shot in Bebington last month. We then
returned to Gavagan’s Bar for brag, femmes, vodka,
heavy water(!) and general gabfesting. At midnight
the party uprooted itself and was transplanted to
14 Bennington Street, home of Bill and
Bobbie Gray, finally breaking up around 4-5am.
Sleeping arrangements had been well organised and
fans scattered to the far flung reaches (it says
here) of Cheltenham where they were bedded down
and fed by hospitable Cheltfen. A most excellent
and enjoyable gathering. Attendees included Eric
and Margaret Jones, Wally and Joy Johnson, Paul
Briggs, Archie Mercer, Ian Adlem, Mike Chapman,
Bob Parkinson, Bob and Barbara Richardson, Bill
and Bobbie Gray, Doug Lacey, Keith Freeman, Eric
Bentcliffe. Peter Mabey, Tony Walsh, Sandra Hall,
Frank Herbert, Shirley Stevens, John Roles, Norman
Weedall, Eddie Jones, John Owen, Ina and Norman
Shorrock and Mersey and Deeside minibus driver
Jeff Collins. (NLS)
LYNN HICKMAN (3O4 N.11th., Mt.Vernon,
Illinois,USA) reports that the 10th Anniversary
issue of JD-ARGASSY will be published in May, a 70
page issue for 50cents, with material by Harry
Warner, Dean A. Grennell, Rog Phillips, Bob
Tucker, Bob Madle, Sandy Sanderson, John Berry,
Earl Kemp and Charles de Vet amongst others.
Interested fans in Britain may obtain this argosy
by sending British agent Ron Bennett three
shillings and sixpence.
APORRHETA No 15 (Sandy Sanderson,
“Inchmery”, 236 Queens Road, London SE l4; 50 pp;
1/6 or 20cents per copy, 6 for $l or 8/- , l2 for
$2 or 15/-). With the latest Ape, Sandy switches
back to black ink and conjures up micro elite type
for the editorial and as one who suffers from
eyestrain, I’m pleased that the use of the small
type is indeed limited. 24 pages are given over to
a highly interesting Inchmery Fan Diary, but pride
of place must go to a competition set by the
literary minded Vince Clarke, the funniest fannish
idea I’ve seen produced in a long time. George
Spencer contributes a fan story, John Berry writes
an American adventure, and Andy Young asks “What’s
Wrong With SF?” Regular columnists Joy Clarke,
Cantaloupe Flabbergaste, Penelope Fandergaste, and
Dean Grennell are here in force. Joy’s “Li’l
Pitcher” concerns itself with general chatter,
including a nicely thought out development of
Hemingway’s having a cash register attached to his
typewriter (Ha! Caught you, Joy Clarke! Boucher
first used the idea in ”Rocket To The Morgue.”).
After criticising the Apa, Cantaloupe suggests that
the. BSFA forms one. PF salutes the Los Angeles
group, a worthy sentiment, and quietly tears Ted
White to pieces. Grcnnell coins words (a wonderful
piece). Arthur Thomson moves his A to Z from S to
W. Sandy provides a TAFF platform for all three
candidates. A slightly below standard Ape, which
is to say merely brilliant.
TRIODE l7 (Eric Bentcliffe, 47 Alldis
Street, Great Moor, Stockport, Cheshire and Terry
Jeeves, 58 Sherrard Grove, Sheffield 12, Yorks. 1/6
or 20cents per copy, 4 for 5/. or 6 for $1.38pp.
U.S.subs to Dale K.Smith, 300l Kyle Avenue,
Minneapolis 22, Minnesota). This issue kicks off
with a too short editorial by Eric. John Berry is
present with the account of the Berry Two Stage
Rocket. Harry Warner pictures the homes of fen
from their addresses (I wonder what he made of
Donaho’s Nunnery!) Terry Jeeves writes for four
pages, mostly on the recent LaSFaS party. Penelope
Fandergaste spills over her Mill Stream to discuss
dreams and several million BNFs make up the letter
column. The artwork and layout once again deserve
special mention. It used to be said that TRIODE
was too formal and staid, but these days the zine
is a quarterly which does not appear too often.
Shucks! Almost forgot to mention Doc Weir writing
on filming Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” in
England and George Locke writing on tiddly winks
in fandom, which just goes to show how good
the rest of the magazine must be.
CACTUS No. 3 (Sture Sedolin, Box
403,Vallingby 4 ,Sweden. 17pp. 7/- for no fewer
than 10 issues to Alan Dodd, 77 Stanstead Rd,
Hoddesdon, Herts.) Duplicated entirely in red,
this issue maintains the improvement shown in the
second issue, and is noteworthy for the pen
pictures presented by John Berry which show
Inchmery fandom in a deservedly good light. Ray
Nelson contributes some good cartoons which are
spoiled somewhat by the duplicating. Bob Lichtman
reviews fanzine. Terry Carr writes on jazz. Try
this one.
THE CHELTENHAM VALCON made fannish history
by burning itself out in an unusual manner. Archie
Mercer reports that the paraffin heater caught
fire at Bennington Street. “Eric (”I’ll do it - I
sell those”) the Bent assumed control. “Ten
minutes or so later he was still in control and
the thing was flaming brightly. Man, that was the
SMOKE-FILLEDEST room ever,” writes Archie. Ha!
To spread the Cheltenham ValCon mentions over to a
third page, Norman Shorrock notes that the
specially hired LaSFaS minibus was festooned with
outside notices “LaSFaS On Tour” and “M.a.D.
Productions on Location.’
KEN CHESLIN, leading light of the
Stourbridge group, rececntly suffered an accident
at work, resulting in the loss of three right hand
fingers.
HALF A DOZEN fans have already voted in the
TAFF’s Pittcon Push. If this campaign, to send a
British delegate to the September Worldcon, is to
be successful, we’ll have to do better than that.
Move! Meanwhile, America’s TAFF delegate to the
Eastercon says that he will fly jet to London,
arriving April 9th. *** The TAFF auction at the
Eastercon will include 5 Nova covers by Brian
Lewis, from NEW WORLDS 7l, 74, 79 and 82 and SFA
11. Postal bids are invited.
THE DIRECTORY OF 1959 SF FANDOM (1/9 or
25cents from Bennett or Pavlat is still selling.
500 fan addresses, tape and phone listing.
TED FORSYTH (139 Buccleuch Street Edinburgh
8) writcs on his recent trip to London,”If you
read SKYRACK you’ll have noticed that I had a
visit to London coming up. I left Edinburgh early
on Wednesday morning, 27th Jan and arrived back on
Monday evening, 1st Feb. I spent two nights in
Woking with relations and stayed Thursday,
Saturday and Sunday at Ella Parker’s. During this
time I managed to put faces to quite a few fans
who had been only names and in the process enjoyed
myself immensely. London looks like the inside of
a train, I seldom seemed to spend more than a few
minutes on the surface and when I did it was
usually at night. On my way home I passed through
Harrogate, but I did not see you. Was it something
I said?"
ALAN RISPIN hitched over to Harrogate for a
brag session Feb 7th and caught the train back.
Hmm.*** Norman Shorrock has had a card from Boyd
Raeburn in Puerto Rico *** Liverpool University
Rag Mag runs photo of Assistant Editor Bill Harry
on contents page. |