Shirley Marriott

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Shirley Marriott was a fan from the UK, originally from Bournemouth and later London, active from 1951 to the late 1950s.

She was listed as one of the fifteen members of the British Teenage Fantasy and Science Fiction Society shortly after the Society's formation in 1951 and Authentic #21 (May 1952) described her as the organiser of the Galilean Science Fiction Society, another teen sf group.

She attended the Medcon and Coroncon in 1953. Walt Willis described her as:

look[ing] like a brunette BRE of Lee Hoffman. She has the same first name too, but I'm afraid I never found how much further the resemblance went; these younger fans keep very much together and don't mix with us old has-BNFs.

According to Ken Slater, writing in Consomme (October 1953), Marriott spoke six languages.

At Supermancon in 1954 she was part of the group of female fans who launched Femizine. In the absence of any bids for the next convention, Ted Tubb unilaterally announced she would take registrations for a 1955 convention to be held in London. In the event this was unnecessary as Denny Cowen and the Kettering group offered to stage the event.

Marriott moved to London at some point around 1955. She attended Cytricon I and described the experience in 'The Perils of Shirley' for Don Allen's Satellite #6 (Summer 1955):

One final get together was held in the Residents Lounge, once again some of us had to sit on the floor because all chairs, tables and window-sills were occupied. Room No. 10 [a party room] measured about 12" x 12" and early Monday morning there were nearly thirty people crammed into it. Do not ask me how, but I do know that some of the time John Owen and I were under the bed. It was the only unoccupied place. If I could only learn who it was who soaked me to the skin I would personally send him a set of Vargo Statten mags to repay him.

She was also at Cytricon II in 1956 where Eric Jones reported that 'Entertainment was provided by Ina Shorrock and Shirley Marriott who danced a hula (complete with grass skirts) on Dave’s bed' (Sidereal). In a letter to Relapse #14 in 2009, 53 years later, Shorrock said, '[Eric] didn’t say that Doc Hammett came out from under that bed with a lighter, trying to get rid of those skirts, which belonged to Dave Newman'.

Marriott attended Loncon I in 1957 but may not have been in evidence after that.

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