Leroy Kettle

Ebook cover. Photo of Roy Kettle in 1978 taken by Rob Hansen

(February 25, 1949 –)

Leroy Richard Arthur “Roy” Kettle, a British fan and author, is best known in fandom for his humorous writing in the heyday of London's Ratfandom. Although as a neofan he wrote for Audrey Walton's never-highly-regarded Wadezine, his true fannish debut was in Fouler, which he co-edited with Greg Pickersgill 1970-1972. Most of his best comic writing appeared in his personalzine True Rat, which ran for ten issues 1973-1978. He also contributed to Maya during Rob Jackson's editorship.

As a pro, Kettle has published sf/horror novels with John Brosnan under the pseudonyms Harry Adam Knight (HAK) and Simon Ian Childer (SIC), and an sf thriller in collaboration with Chris Evans.

One-off fanzines include the 1970s Egregious Guide to the Conventions, Letters We Have Not Received and Little-Read Stool Book, all with Greg Pickersgill.

True Rat: The Beast of Leroy Kettle (Ansible Editions, 2018) collects his best fanwriting of the 1970s and early 1980s, including the complete run of True Rat with a few minor deletions of material that no longer seemed funny in 2018. A trade paperback edition was released in 2022.

Until his retirement, Roy’s mundane job was in civil service; he was one of the principal architects of the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, and was awarded an OBE for his work.

Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1978 -- Skycon
• 1979 -- Best Fan Writer Hugo nominee
• 2006 -- Order of the British Empire
• 2013 -- Past president of the FWA

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Person

1949—

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