Running Amok in the Fun Factory

Cover photo of belly-dance at Seacon '79 taken by Kevin Williams

A fanthology of especially witty UK convention reports edited by Graham Charnock as an ebook from Ansible Editions, ISBN 978-1-913451-30-1, November 2017, based on his collecting most of them earlier on his website (link goes to the now defunct site's new home at eFanzines.com). This became one of the most popular TAFF site downloads, and an Ansible Editions trade paperback followed in December 2023, with all proceeds going to TAFF: 230pp, ISBN 978-1-916508-17-0.

Besides Charnock, the contributors are Claire Brialey, Ned Brooks, Dave Cockfield, Alan Dorey, Malcolm Edwards, Cath Gardner, 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; the overall size 129,000 words.

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.

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Publication

Website

2017

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