ISBN 978-1-916508-10-1 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-916508-09-5 (ebook)
Ansible Editions, August 2023
Cover photo: Tom Boardman (left) and Michael Moorcock against the background of a Stingray puppet and model diorama provided by the Gerry Anderson team. Photo by Peter Mabey.
1965: The Second UK Worldcon is released simultaneously in ebook and trade paperback formats. 169 paperback pages; 61,500 words. All proceeds from sales go to the TransAtlantic Fan Fund.
Rob Hansen has compiled this history of the 1965 London Worldcon from contemporary fanzine and magazine accounts, so that once again the complex story emerges from the participants’ own words, together with Rob’s explanatory notes and commentary.
Coverage includes the fan politics and intrigue which didn’t stop with the winning of the 1965 bid for London and featured some dirty tricks; the multi-part “Hugo Hullabaloo” which like so many fan controversies centred on Harlan Ellison; excerpts from convention publications and fanzine reports of major speeches and panels; a banquet menu including “crottled greeps”; and what would have been an epic verbal battle between John W. Campbell and Michael Moorcock if the latter hadn’t been so hungover that John Brunner had to do most of the talking.
Order the print edition Free ebook download About the authorLONCON II was organised by SFCoL, the Science Fiction Club of London, the last UK Worldcon to be run by such a small group of fans. But who exactly were the members of SFCoL, what was the group all about, and why were they also known as the Scottish Fan Club of London? You’ll find answers to these and other questions in this volume, as well as discovering what Operation Andy Capp was, why there was so much drama around the drama award, which noted writer demanded whisky from inside a Dalek, and why the Rolling Stones didn’t perform at the convention.
The formidable Ella Parker was the convention chairman (yes, that was her title) and only the fourth woman to chair or co-chair one of the twenty-three Worldcons to date; the first was Julian May in 1952.