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David Langford

The SEX Column

Starcombing

All Good Things

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Don’t Try This At Home: Selected Convention Reports
David Langford

ISBN 978-1-716-25853-4 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-913451-44-8 (ebook)

Don’t Try This At Home

Ansible Editions, 2015

Cover photo: Nocturnal balloon activity in the Fan Village at Loncon 3, the 2014 London Worldcon.

Don’t Try This At Home: Selected Convention Reports was published as an Ansible Editions ebook in July 2015, slightly expanded in November 2018 and additionally released as a trade paperback in January 2021.

This book collects most of David Langford’s reports on British and occasionally overseas SF conventions, from Mancon 5 (the infamous 1976 Eastercon in Manchester) to Loncon 3 (the 2014 World SF Convention in London Docklands). Warning: contains fannish esoterica! At least in the earliest reports.

There are thirty-two articles in all – mostly from fanzines but a few professionally published – which between them cover 35 conventions plus a few bonus items such as a very strange book launch party held underground in the Chislehurst Caves. In all, with a brief introduction and an index of coverage by convention name, the text runs to approximately 79,000 words.

As an ebook, Don’t Try This At Home is freely downloadable from the TransAtlantic Fan Fund ebooks page, where satisfied customers are encouraged to donate to TAFF. The trade paperback, alas, costs money.

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Here are the named conventions covered (some briefly, some at considerable length) in Don’t Try This At Home:

Aussiecon 3 (Worldcon), Melbourne, September 1999 • Boskone 29, Springfield, Massachusetts, February 1992 • Compute for Charity, Hull, July 1990 • Conspiracy ’87 (Worldcon), Brighton, August 1987 • Contrivance (Eastercon), Jersey, Easter 1989 • Discworld Convention 2, Liverpool, September 1998 • Discworld Convention IV, Hinckley, Leicestershire, August 2004 • Eastercon ’77, Coventry, Easter 1977 • Follycon (Eastercon), Liverpool, Easter 1988 • Illumination (Eastercon), Blackpool, Easter 1992 • Intersection (Worldcon), Glasgow, August 1995 • Intervention (Eastercon), Liverpool, Easter 1997 • Loncon 3 (Worldcon), London, August 2014 • Mabinogicon, Bangor, July 1991 • Mancon 5 (Eastercon), Manchester, Easter 1976 • Mexicon 2, Birmingham, February 1986 • Mexicon 3, Nottingham, May 1989 • Mexicon IV, Harrogate, May 1991 • Mexicon 5, Scarborough, May 1993 • Microcon, Exeter, February 1988 • Minicon 33, Minneapolis, Easter 1998 • Novacon 6, Birmingham, November 1976 • Novacon 11, Birmingham, November 1981 • Oxcon (Unicon), Oxford, August 1984 • Plokta.con 4.0, Sunningdale Park, May 2009 • Sectus (Harry Potter), London, July 2007 • Silicon 3, Newcastle, August 1978 • Silicon 4, Newcastle, August 1980 • Torcon 3 (Worldcon), Toronto, 2003 • Tropicon/Fanhistoricon, Florida, November 2000 • Twentycon, Birmingham, July 1991 • UK Year of Literature and Writing, Swansea, December 1995 • Wincon (Unicon), Winchester, August 1991 • World Fantasy Convention, London, October 1988 • World Fantasy Convention, London, October-November 1997.