Ron Bennett

(May 14, 1933 – November 5, 2006)

Ron Bennett was an active British fan writer and publisher, particularly in the 1950s and ’60s, even after he moved to Singapore in 1967. In 1958, he was the TAFF delegate to Solacon. He chaired the Eastercon Ronvention at Harrogate in 1962 and ran the dealers' room at Conspiracy '87. he was an avid collector and was a used book dealer for more than thirty years.

He was a member of the Leeds SF Association and the Liverpool SF Society.

He is probably best known as editor of Skyrack, a highly influential British fanzine of the late ’50s and the ’60s that evolved from the Skyrack Book Service.

He was one of the editors of the apazine The Wall, a member (and OE) of OMPA, claimed to have a pet elephant named Cecil, and published Ploy a hoax fanzine which got away. He also published AWOL, Antwerpse Letterkundige En Wettenschappelijke Gazet for OMPA (with Jan Jansen and Archie Mercer, also for OMPA he published Burp, and for FAPA, Qurp. Additionally, he published Through Darkest Belgium with Dave Vendelmans and Contact with Jan Jansen, John Hitchcock, Steve Schultheis and Ellis Mills. He was also a member of The Cult. He also published They're Off (with Norman Shorrock for OMPA).

He published several editions of the Directory of Science Fiction Fandom between 1955 and 1966. He was on the Brumcon committee in 1959. He won TAFF in 1958 and published a trip report, Colonial Excursion. He engaged in a Great Stationery Duel with Bob Pavlat and tried to turn Alan Dodd into a hoax.

In 1958, ATom published a one-off apazine for OMPA called Ron Bennett Appreciation. He was a Knight of St. Fantony.

Penelope Fandergaste

Penelope Fandergaste was a pseudonymous author of a column, “The Old Mill Stream,” that appeared in Aporrheta, Foop, Scottishe and Erg. In 1960, Fandergaste was identified as Ron Bennett.

The Fandergaste column, subtitled ‘A Country Column of City Life’, first appeared in the debut issue of Aporrheta in July 1958. In #2 Ethel Lindsay speculated that the author was Bobbie Gray and in #3 Gray denied this (via Ella Parker) while editor Sandy Sanderson confirmed it wasn’t him while somebody else suggested to Archie Mercer that the author was Vin¢ Clarke. In #4 Ron Bennett disingenuously wondered if it might be Ellis Mills while in #5 Chuck Harris and Bryan Welham thought it might be Sid Birchby while Barry Hall proposed Alan Dodd. Ethel Lindsay was now detecting ‘faint touches’ of Chuck Harris, Belle Dietz thought it was Ken Slater, and Archie Mercer suggested ‘Penelope’ might be trying to pretend to be him and ‘she might well turn out to be Ron Bennett’.

In the 1959 Skyrack poll, Fandergaste polled ninth for Best British Fanwriter.

In Habakkuk #4 (June 1960) a letter from Ron Bennett said, ‘I don’t mind admitting to having written the first couple of instalments but since then… Your guess about there being several contributors is as good as any, I guess.’

Fanac #61 carried the news that ‘Ted White mentions that Ron Bennett has admitted to him that he (Bennett) wrote all the Penelope Fandergaste columns. Hmm.’

In a letter to Banana Wings in 1999, Ted said,

I recall Ron, as the 1958 TAFF winner, asking various of us what we thought of “Penelope” and her column, encouraging us to speculate over who “she” might be, and never giving the slightest hint that “she” was he. Around 1960 I found a couple of clues which suggested to me that Ron was “Fandergaste.” Rather than just confront him with my suspicions – which he could easily deny, if he wished – I wrote to him to ask him what he was going to do, “Now that the news is out that you’re Fandergaste,” presenting him with a fait accompli. His response confirmed the truth.

In the 1990s, Fandergaste/Bennett revived the column in Terry Jeeves’s Erg. As late as July 2007 Arnie Katz was still confusing the issue by confidently asserting in Vegas Fandom Weekly #99 that Fandergaste was F. M. Busby while Peter Weston seemingly only learned that Bennett was behind the pseudonym when he found an old issue of Fanac in 2009.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• 'Antwerpse Letterkundige En Wettenschappelijke Gazet (for OMPA, with Jan Jansen and Archie Mercer)
• AWOL
• Burp (for OMPA)
• Contact (with Jan Jansen, John Hitchcock, Steve Schultheis and Ellis Mills)
• Crudbin Quarterly [1954] (with Jan Jansen for OMPA)
• Directory of Science Fiction Fandom (various editions, 1956–66)
• Haggle [late 60s]
• Harrogate Crudbin Quarterly [1956] (for OMPA)
• Orbit [1956] (final issue only, for the 1950s incarnation of the Leeds Science Fiction Association)
• Ploy
• Qurp [1957–1966] (for FAPA)
• Through Darkest Belgium (with Dave Vendelmans; for OMPA)
• They're Off (with Norman Shorrock for OMPA)
• The Wall (with others)

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1957 — Knight of St. Fantony
• 1958 — 1958 TAFF Race winner
• 1972 — SfanCon 3

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Person

1933—2006

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