ISBN 978-1-916508-17-0 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-913451-30-1 (ebook)
Ansible Editions, December 2023
Cover photo: Belly-dancing at Seacon ’79. Photographer: Kevin Williams.
The trade paperback Running Amok in the Fun Factory was published in December 2023 and slightly expanded in September 2024. 9" x 6" with glossy cover; 235 pages; over 132,000 words. All proceeds from book sales go to the TransAtlantic Fan Fund.
Order the print edition Free ebook downloadGraham Charnock has for years been collecting his favourite UK convention reports by various hands on his website. These selections – plus a few afterthoughts – were converted to an Ansible Editions ebook for the TAFF site in November 2017. Running Amok in the Fun Factory has established itself among the top ten most popular downloads from that site.
Besides Graham Charnock himself, the contributors are: Claire Brialey, Ned Brooks, Dave Cockfield, Alan Dorey, Malcolm Edwards, Cath Gardner, John Nielsen Hall (added in 2024), Rob Hansen, Ron Holmes, Rob Jackson, Terry Jeeves, Leroy Kettle, Paul Kincaid, Ivor Latto, Sam Long, Ian Maule, Peter Nicholls, Darroll Pardoe, Tom Perry, Greg Pickersgill, Linda Pickersgill (Krawecke), Brian Parker, John Piggott, Bob Shaw, Kev Smith, Pete Taylor, D. West, Ian Williams and Kevin Williams.
I was not indiscriminate in my selection; we all know and have published and probably written con-reps which consist simply of a chronological catalogue of events. Those never interested me, even for their historical interest. I was always on the lookout for pieces of writing in which the character of the writer not only shone through but determined the narrative appeal of the article, especially when writing in a humorous vein. We are fortunate in having a number of British fanwriters who qualify eminently on that level. British fanwriters, I think, are especially good at self-deprecating humour, and you will find an abundance of that in these selections, whether at the hands of Peter Nicholls or Roy Kettle. If you have an overdeveloped sense of self-importance it will invariably be knocked back by the typical Convention experience, which is just as it should be.
Graham Charnock, October 2017