LEXICON LOWDOWN
THE 1961 NATIONAL CONVENTION was held at
the New County Hotel, Southgate Street, Gloucester
from Good Friday, 31st March to Easter Monday,
3rd. April. Probably the two most notable facts to
emerge from the gathering were that judging from
the large number of new faces present the BSFA
recruiting system is extremely successful and that
science-fiction conventions are back in fashion
The two points are of course probably related, but
it is true to say that the bias of the convention
was towards the sercon rather than towards the
fannish. This is not to say that the fannish
element was left uncared for - far from it - but
this was a programmed convention. Neofans were not
left out in the cold but mixed well with the old
guard and indeed, a good time was had by all. The
trouble with conventions like the LXIcon, as this
get-together was termed, is that they are all too
short.
IT LOOKS LIKE HARROGATE IN 1962. At the
Sunday BSFA A.G.M. it was decided that next year’s
con should be held in the north of England. Ron
Bennett was asked whether he would be willing to
arrange for the con to be held in Harrogate; he
announced that already had the names of a
tentative con committee. The hotel in Harrogate
still has to be approached (no, we have more than
one hotel...that should read “the” hotel) and
registration fees worked out. Everyone to whom I
spoke about Harrogate as a consite was most
enthusiastic. The Convention Committee lines up at
the moment as Norman Shorrock, Phil Rogers, Sid
Birchby, Terry Jeeves, Ken Slater (plus Davids
Eggleton and Barber)and. Ron Bennett.
This is the first issue of Skyrack to be put on to
stencil in a moving car, driven by Valerie Jeeves
en route from Gloucester to London.
THE CON BEGAN ON FRIDAY this year and
instead of Friday evening being left blank
(programmewise) for fans to mix, the crowded table
of events due for the weekend was spilled over
into Friday. Four or five short fantasy films were
shown, including a badly documented puppet film
and an extremely obscure Flemish film, “The Magic
Ring” of which the colour photography was
plusperfect. Altogether, though, the audience
agreed that this showing was a disappointment.
THE PROGRAMME BOOKLET was once again
produced by that master of programme booklets,
Norman Shorrock, assisted by Bob Parkinson and
Eddie Jones. This superb production included
articles on sf by Ken Slater, an obituary to Doc
Weir by Eric Jones and a sparkling introduction to
Kingsley Amis by Brian Aldiss, as well as some
wonderful Eddie Jones artwork. Eddie,
incidentally, designed the professional-looking
lapel badges which contend admirably with the type
of badge favoured by the U.S. Worldcons.
SATURDAY’S PROGRAMME began in the morning
with a tape-play, “Typo”, produced by younger fen
from Cheltenham and Nottingham University. Some of
the humour was extremely juvenile and technique
showed inexperience, but on the whole this play
showed a good understanding of fannish ingroup
jokes and it was well received by its audience.
GEOFF DOHERTY, the editor of the 1960
Murray publication, “Aspects of Science Fiction”
spoke on Saturday afternoon as “An Alien in the
Academy,” presenting an outsider’s viewpoint of sf
as reading matter, and its literary value,
especially as regards its place in school. His
main point was that while Wells and Verne are
accepted by the general public as “respectable”
writers modern writers are not. SF has a degraded
literary value as an image in the public eye, he
said.
THE DON FORD SLIDE SHOW was an item that
had been eagerly awaited and this was held on the
Saturday afternoon. The projector lamp was a weak
one so that the majority of the fine pictures lost
some of their brightness, but one could not in any
way begin to fault the slides themselves or the
excellent taped commentary that Don had provided.
The slides showed the 1960 Midwestcon, views round
Cincinnatti (with a side note to Ella Parker), and
the 1960 Pittcon with Eric Bentcliffe greatly in
evidence. Thanks, Don.
BRIAN ALDISS introduced the Convention’s
Guest of Honour, Kingsley Amis,whose latest book
“New Maps of Hell” was on sale at the convention,
by telling of Amis’ “Portrait” mention in a New
Worlds Aldiss feature and saying that Amis’ later
success in the literary field was due entirely to
him (Aldiss).
AS A MAINSTREAM WRITER who is turning more
and more to sf, Kingsley Amis attacked sf on two
fronts, the elements of science and the elements
of fiction. Too much sf is of the gimmick class,
he said, a type of pseudo-science. Time travel,
for example, is impossible, but is accepted as
near reality by the reader. In so far as sf
encourages daydreaming and is a superficial
fantastic entertainment this is a bad thing. It is
not a deplorable aspect of the genre if the reader
himself realises the quality of what he is
reading, but too often, Amis went on, the reader
is happy in his rut of day dream reading. SF
should train the reader to discriminate between
the levels of depth of thought behind these
stories and in so doing should give the reader the
taste for better literature. The reader should ask
himself whether the gimmick in a story is
scientifically possible or impossible without
blindly accepting it. This does not prevent the
reader from enjoying the story but does teach him
to think. Too much sf today suffers said Amis,
from a scientific contamination which encourages
the thought that everything is possible through
science.
Kingsley Amis then went on to startle his large
audience even further by saying that as fiction,
Sf is not imaginative enough. .There are too many
old hat ideas, too many accepted themes and
descriptions. “Aren’t you tired of humanoid
aliens?” he asked. It was all too apparant how
badly bad sf authors write he continued, but is it
always realised how badly good sf authors write.
He quoted from a story by Arthur C. Clarke which
he dismissed, probably rightly ( judging from the
selected extract), as belonging in the field of
popular romance. He concluded his
thought-provoking talk with an appeal for more
balance, particularly in quality, in science
fiction.
KINGSLEY AMIS was immediately taken up on
several points by his audience, an event for which
he seemed well prepared and it was obvious that at
least a portion of his talk had been presented
with the idea in mind of raising comment from his
audience. Asked about time travel and psi
phenomena he said “There is no such. thing as a
thought pattern, I’ve never seen one, show me
one,” to which Peter West immediately answered by
saying, ”I’ve never seen gravity, show me......”
Amis however was even quicker to counter-attack
thrusts from Ted Tubb who was obviously trying to
whip up controversy and comment from the audience.
As Ted made each of his points, Amis quickly cut
the ground from under his feet on each point so
that Ted was left floundering without a solid
foundation of fact on which to build. As a result,
though, other comment was forthcoming from the
audience with interesting points being raised by
Ted Carnell, Ken Bulmer and particularly Dave Kyle
who brought up the point that originally sf
readers had collected sf entirely because it was
sf; whether it was good. or bad did not matter;
one lived for sf and one tried to convert other
people to reading sf. Now that sf is accepted by
the general public that public should. be made
aware that there is good sf and bad sf.
DAVE AND RUTH KYLE were welcome visitors to
the convention and are based in this country until
the end of May. They will probably be taking a
side trip over to Continent. Dave was last at a
convention in this country only last year but we
haven’t seen Ruth since the London WorldCon in
1957. Ruth searched diligently for matzoball soup
and Dave showed, at a room party, the cine shots
he took at last year’s London Convention, shots
which had improved several thousand percent over
the films he showed at last year’s con and which
are now only l00% perfect.
THE HOTEL MANAGEMENT were inclined to be
kind as far as room parties were concerned as long
as these took place on the hotel’s first floor.
Main party centre each night, however, was the
second floor two room suite occupied by ladies of
the Science Fiction Club of London, Ethel Lindsay
and Ella Parker. At one party Alan Rispin
auctioned his hat for TAFF, the top bid being made
by a group of thirteen (everyone present at the
time) who immediately cut the hat into 13 pieces.
APART FROM THE KINGSLEY AMIS TALK another
highlight of the convention also took place on the
Saturday. In the evening was staged the
Transgalactic Tourist Party with some of the best
displays of individual and group fancy dress ever
seen at British conventions. It was well
understandable that the judges had an extremely
hard time deciding on a winner, but the first
prize was awarded to Liverpool’s Eddie Jones as an
Ambassador from Triton. Ina Shorrock, BSFA
Chairman, was second as a birdgirl in a costume
that had also been designed by Eddie. Honorable
mentions were awarded to Norman Shorrock, Tony
Walsh, Eric Jones, Bob Richardson, Bobbie Gray and
Norman Weedall.
AT SUNDAY MORNING’S BSFA Annual General
Meeting it was announced that Terry Jeeves had
defeated Jill Adams in the straight fight for BSFA
vice-Chairman. Terry joins Ina Shorrock, Joe
Patrizio, Ted Forsyth and Jimmy Groves on the new
Committee. It was decided to inaugurate a Dr.
Arthur Weir Memorial Fund in the name of the
Association and this was launched to a good start
by the audience present. Donations to this Fund
and of course BSFA non-members are also invited to
contribute if they so please - should be sent to
the retiring Treasurer, Archie Mercer, 434/4
Newark Rd., North Hykeham, Lincoln. As already
announced on the front page, Harrogate was given
the honour of hosting the 1962 Convention and
further announcements will be made through
SKYRACK’s following issues (if I survive the
weekend). Several attendees of the LXICon were
keen to register as members of the Harrogate
convention immediately but I am sure that it will
be understood that bookings of any type cannot
really be made until more firm plans are made in
arrangement with the concerned hotel.
ON THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON the Science Fiction
Club of London presented a short but well received
play, the full text of which will shortly be
produced in one of the club’s publications.
ERIC BENTCLIFFE, Britain’s 1960 TAFF
Delegate to the PittCon, spoke on his trip and
produced another in his “This is Your Fan Life”
series, if anything an improvement on last year’s
production. Once again the victim’s name had been
well clothed in secrecy and Eric Jones was
eventually spotlighted.. The show was well
supported by acting from several different fen.
VARIOUS AUCTIONS were made throughout the
weekend, probably the most notable being Sunday’s
TAFF auctions. Many lots of books and. magazines
were redonated to the auction by their three
shilling (evidently a stock bid.) buyers and. as
time was running short the last lot was an entire
tea-chest crammed with books and magazines which
raised £2. The entire auction raised £18 to match
last year’s figure. Eric Bentcliffe ran a TAFF
auction on the lines of the SolaCon’s “Auction
Bloch” at which various professional authors were
sold off to the audience. Ken Slater took Brian
Aldiss for 22/6d, Norman Shorrock bought Ken
Bulmer for 17/-, Alan Rispin bought Bruce Burn’s
Bushy Barbarian Beard. for 12/6, Ethel Lindsay
acquired Walt Willis at the bargain price of £1
and. Walt’s production, “The Harp Stateside,” went
for even more than the man himself for 25/- to
Peter Mabey. At the conclusion of the Auction
Bloch, Kingsley Amis said how much he had enjoyed
the convention, asked for the first membership for
next year’s Harrogate con, and agreed to be
auctioned off himself. A syndicate composed of
members of the SFCoL (Don Geldart, Ted Forsyth,
Joe Patrizio, Bruce Burn and Ron Bennett) which
had been formed in the eventuality of the Guest of
Honour’s sale, bought Kingsley for £2. 10s and are
now at a loss as to what to do with him. Readers,
do you want to read Kingsley Amis in OMPA? In
Skyrack?
MORE FILMS WERE SHOWN on Sunday evening to
end the programme as it began, but these were of a
far better quality. Two scientific films from the
Shell Company thoroughly intrigued the audience.
Dave Kyle had brought over the Los Angeles Unicorn
production fan film, “The Musquite Kid” starring
TAFF candidate Ron Ellik. And finally the
professional film, “Forbidden Planet” was shown.
THE CON HALL itself presented a scene
reminiscent of past conventions in its many
colourful displays. Ken Slater, who organised an
initial quiz, was this year assisted by Dave
Barber at his stand and at the SFCoL display and
OMPA one-shot session ran virtually continuously
throughout the weekend.....OMPA also held a
meeting.... A wag in the bar asked Norman Shorrock
and Ron Bennett what the conference was about and
when being told it was a meeting of communists,
asked Bennett to sing the third verse of the Red
Flag..... Fanzines received during the convention
and immediately prior to it will be reviewed next
issue...... A terrific convention, of course, and
these pages can only cover hurriedly compiled
notes. I’m indebted this issue to help provided by
Brian Jordan, who duplicated the issue, and Fred
Parker who provided the coffee.
the 1960 skyrack poll........
Whereas it appears traditional in fandom for news
magazines to celebrate their birthdays with
popularity polls, it also appears that fans may be
becoming sickened with poll-form filling in (or
out, depending on birthplace, I suppose) for only
22 fans returned forms this year, as against 35
last year. The twenty-two Good People were: Jill
Adams, Ron Bennett, Eric Bentcliffe, Sid Birchby,
Redd Boggs, Bruce Burn, Bob Coulson, Ted Forsyth,
Colin Freeman, Lynn Hickman, Terry Jeeves, Betty
Kujawa, Ethel Lindsay, Jhim Linwood, George Locke,
Chris Miller, Ella Parker, Joe Patrizio, Bob
Richardson, Alan Rispin, Norman Shorrock and
Arthur Thomson.
THE BEST BRITISH FAN PUBLICATIONS OF 1960
1. ORION (166 points) Ella A. Parker, 151
Canterbury Rd., West Kilburn, London N.W.6. 1/- or
l5cents. 3rd place last year.
2. THE SKYRACK NEWLETTER (126) 5th last year.
3. SMOKE (114) Sgt. George Locke, 24 Field
Ambulance, BFFO 10. 1/.- or 15cents. 6th place
last year.
4. HYPHEN (92) Walt Willis & Ian McAulay, 170
Upper Newtownards Rd. ,Belfast 4, N. Ireland. l/-.
or 15 /. 2nd last year.
5. BASTION (91) Eric Bentcliffe, 47 Alldis St.,
Great Moor, Stockport, Cheshire & Norman
Shorrock, 2 Arnot Way, Higher Bebington, Wirral,
Cheshire. 1/6d.
6. APORRHETA (78) Sandy Sanderson, (note new
address) 2805 University Ave, Apt 41 Bronx 68,
N.Y. USA. First place last year.
7. ESPRIT (69) Daphne Buckmaster, 8 Buchanan St.,
Kirkcudbright, Scotland. 1/6d or 20 .
8. TRIODE (49) Eric Bentcliffe and Terry Jeeves.
4th last year. Now folded.
9. RETRIBUTION (45) John Berry, 31 Campbell Park
Avenue, Belmont, Belfast 2, N. Ireland. 1/-. 8th
last year.
10. THE FAN DIRECTORY (28)
11. LES SPINGE (27)
12. SPACE DIVERSIONS (26)
13. VECTOR (24)
14. SFCoL COMBOZINE (23)
15. BRENNSCHLUSS (15)
16. ROT (12) & FEMIZINE (12)
18. NORTHLIGHT (10)
19. EYETRACKS (9)
20. HAVERINGS and SCRIBBLE (7).
Sincere congratulations to Ella Parker l-l of the
SFCoL whose success is not wholly unexpected. And
well done, Eric, Norman and Daphne on making the
top ten during the first year of genzine
publication of BASTION and ESPRIT.
BEST INDIVIDUAL ITEM OF 1960
17 different items were listed.
1. A tie between THE GOON GOES WEST by John Berry
in CRY (4 points) and HOW TO DRAW CURLY MONSTERS
by Arthur Thomson in ORION (4 pts).
BEST COLUMN
16 items listed, and another tie:
1. INCHMERY FAN DIARY by Sandy Sanderson in
APORRHETA(11 points) and SPECS by Ella Parker in
ORION (11 points).
BEST FAN ARTTIST
1. Arthur Thomson (25 points) 2. Eddie Jones (19
points)
BEST PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
Apart from returns like Punch, The New Statesman
and the British Association of Colliery Managers’
Newsletter there were only three magazines listed
(what? You’re surprised?)
1. NEW WORLDS (23 points)
2. SCIENCE FANTASY (16 points)
3. SFA (1 point)
BEST FANZINE COVER
1. BASTION 1 (20 points
BEST REPORT
1. ARCHIE MERCER in Cactus 5, ELLA PARKER in Orion
25, and JOHN BERRY’s Goon Goes West in CRY( 2
points each).
BEST BRITISH FAN WRITER OF 1960.
1. John Berry (47 points) lst place last year.
2. George Locke (44) 4th last year.
3. Sid. Birchby (31) 8th last year.
4. Walt Willis (25) 2nd. last year.
5. Mal Ashworth (13) 6th last year.
6. Ron: Bennett (13) 5th last year.
7. “Hurstmonceaux & Faversham” (8), Paul
Enever (8)
9. Ella Parker (7) ArchieMercer (7) 10th last
year.
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