British Teenage Fantasy and Science Fiction Society

The British Teenage Fantasy and Science Fiction Society was a club conceived by Ken Potter and Dave Wood and first promoted by Ken Slater through Operation Fantast in the aftermath of the 1951 Necon. It quickly attracted 15 members and Dave Wood wrote about the group in George F. Clements's Void where he used the alternative name Junior Fanatics.

Several members attended the 1952 London SF Con, where they decided to abandon Slater's cumbersome if descriptive name in favour of Wood's alternative. They also resolved to issue a fanzine to be called Peri and Tony Cooper was appointed editor. There were at least two issues of a precursor news bulletin called Periscope in 1952 and with Cooper dropping out of fandom, the first issue of Peri appeared in January 1953 edited by Potter and Wood.

Several Junior Fanatics were also present at the 1953 Coroncon, where they had planned to stage a fannish play. In fact, the group had abandoned the idea after Tony Cooper, the leading man, had gafiated. The committee, however, failed to deleted it from the programme and insisted they go ahead. Walt Willis described it in Hyphen #4:

After this came the play by the Junior Fanatics, the Committee evidently having been unable to get something better after all. The production suffered somewhat from under-rehearsal, the hero living in Lancaster and the heroine in Bournemouth and neither having very strong voices, and it rather lacked the polish and brilliance we have all come to associate with Seventh Fandom. There were also some slight difficulties at first due to them having forgotten their own lines, but with a fine spirit of co-operation they soon overcame this by reading each other's.

He also said that 'these younger fans keep very much together and don't mix with us old has-BNFs', an opinion challenged by Potter in Hyphen #5:

If liaison did not take place between the Young Blood and the anemic, it was your fault.

A third and final issue of Peri appeared in April 1954 and was styled 'the former official organ of the Junior Fanatics'. An editorial said that the Junior Fanatics had folded.

Members included:

• Dai Barker
• John Brunner
• Pete Cooke
• Tony Cooper
• Mike Crowdsown
• Gordon de Lacy
• Philip Duerr
• Matt Elder
• Howard Griffiths
• Tony Klein
• Shirley Marriott
• Ken Potter
• Pete Taylor
• Dave Wood

(See the membership roster in Periscope #2.)

The Galilean Science Fiction Society existed at the same time and with a similar remit. They appear to have been somewhat less successful.

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Club

1951—1954

This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc. When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can!