As one of the most important writers of his genre and generation the BFS has been privileged to have him as president.

Sadly, all good things end, and Ramsey has indicated that for various reasons he feels that now is the right time for him to step down from this position, and it is with great sadness that we are announcing his retirement as president.

The committee hopes you will all join us in wishing Ramsey well for the future, and in thanking him for his tireless work in promoting and representing the British Fantasy Society.

We will be contacting all members again soon, with regard to the appointment of a new president, who will need to be proposed and voted for at the next AGM.

Regards,
The BFS Committee

Imagine the Sixties and Seventies… Hammer films and American International Pictures… The time of Plague of the Zombies, Lust for a Vampire, Quatermass and the Pit, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace and The Masque of the Red Death. Imagine we’re back there now. No mobile phones, no videotapes or DVDs, no personal computers. And iPads and Kindles are decades away. Where we are now, music is played on vinyl records with a stylus picking up the recorded sound on an old fashioned “radiogram” or a “portable” record player.
Horror stories had their emphasis on strong supernatural themes; this was an era when you could believe in vampires and strange otherworlds. Ghosts, demons, monsters, maniacs, black magic. These are the subject matter of this anthology of yarns from the deathly realm. A stage magician and his horrific secrets revealed to a meddling assistant. The bizarre appearance of an Arabian market in a Surrey garden. A railway station from which none of the ill-fated travellers can escape. A man searching for his lost wife in a dreamlike realm. A film director trying to capture the essence of a witches’ coven and its sacrifice. The writers in this book offer up their weird and peculiar offerings for your reading pleasure.

Twenty-three short stories,  including fiction by Ramsey Campbell, David A. Riley, E. C. Tubb, Kenneth Bulmer, Robert Holdstock and Rosemary Timperley… start your journey now!

Ordering & more Information: http://www.shadowpublishing.webeasysite.co.uk

All BFS members receive the BFS Journal on a quarterly basis along with their other benefits of membership. If you haven’t yet joined the BFS but would like to do so to secure your copy of The Journal please go to the “join the BFS” page HERE

Brad Watson is attached to direct, this being the second collaboration between Watson and Kane, after Watson directed the short film Wind Chimes, also penned by Kane.

Watson, whose work has spanned several short films, an award-winning feature, and following on from the success of the globally released supernatural thriller 7th Dimension (aka Beacon 77) said: “I am very excited to be attached to this project at this early stage, Paul Kane is fantastic to work with and I am a big fan of his work.”

Paul Kane is an award-winning writer and editor, renowned for his bestselling Arrowhead Trilogy, a post-apocalyptic reworking of the Robin Hood mythology.

Kane said, “It’s great that I’m finally getting to work with Brad on a feature, especially after working on the short film Wind Chimes together. I’ve been a big fan of his since I watched and reviewed Asylum Night a few years ago, and he’s gone from strength to strength with 7th Dimension. I’m really looking forward to being a part of this project and I know Lunar’s in very safe hands.’

Kane’s latest novel, Lunar, is in the tradition of books like I Am Legend and films like Night of the Living Dead, and is introduced by noted horror author Ramsey Campbell. Published by Bad Moon Books in the US – in hardback and trade paperback – Lunar was launched on the 30 September 2012 at FantasyCon in Brighton.

Red Splat Pictures is slated to complete production in the UK in early 2014.

James Herbert’s The Rats was published in 1974 with a first printing of 100,000 paperback copies. Within weeks that first printing it was completely sold out, and the book has never been out of print since.

Since then he has reigned as Britain’s undisputed number one author of chiller fiction, with more than twenty best-selling novels to his credit, including The Fog, The Survivor, Fluke, The Spear, Lair, The Dark, The Jonah, Shrine, Domain, Moon, The Magic Cottage, Sepulchre, Creed, Portent, ’48, Others, Once, Nobody True and The Secret of Crickley Hall (set to air as a three-part drama on BBC1 this Hallowe’en).

With world-wide sales of more than fifty million copies, James Herbert is one of the world’s most popular novelists. His books are translated into more than thirty-five languages, including Russian and Chinese.

James Herbert will be signing his latest novel, Ash, from noon until 1:00 pm on Saturday 29 September 2012. Ash is the eagerly awaited third volume in the trilogy featuring psychic investigator David Ash, which began with Haunted and The Ghosts of Sleath.

Also, don’t forget to go to the FantasyCon website HERE and vote for your favourite ghost story of all time. Just fill-out the electronic form and submit it. No novels or novellas please, just short stories. One vote per person, and you cannot nominate your own work (otherwise your choice will not be counted).

We will then tabulate all the votes and the winning short story will be announced during a panel at the convention on the Saturday evening. A carefully selected group of experts will discuss their own favourite ghost stories and what it is that makes a classic spooky tale, before acclaimed author Ramsey Campbell reads the winning entry as the clock strikes the Witching Hour of midnight!

For more information about FantasyCon 2012 visit the website HERE

Tickets are available for just £3. Copies of both the first chapbook, Joe & Me by David Moody, and Thin Men with Yellow Faces by McMahon and Bestwick, will be available for the special price of £4 in Manchester for one night only. More information on the This Is Horror website HERE

FantasyCon 2012 is giving you the opportunity to answer the question: What is the best ghost story of all time?
Just go to www.fantasycon2012.org/ghoststory.php, fill out the electronic form and submit it. No novels or novellas please, just short stories. One vote per person, and you cannot nominate your own work (otherwise your choice will not be counted).

We will then tabulate all the votes and the winning short story will be announced during a panel at the convention on the evening of Saturday September 29th. A carefully selected group of experts will discuss their own favourite ghost stories and what it is that makes a classic spooky tale before acclaimed author Ramsey Campbell reads the winning entry as the clock strikes the Witching Hour of midnight!

This poll is open to EVERYONE – you do not have to be a member of the convention to vote. The more people who participate, the more representative the winner will be. So don’t delay – vote today!

FantasyCon 2012 is being held at the Royal Albion Hotel in the historic seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex, over the weekend of 27 – 30 September 2012. Membership is selling fast, so if you haven’t joined up yet, then please do so now. All you have to do is go to the “How to Join” page on the website (www.fantasycon2012.org/join.php), submit the form with your details and then pay via the PayPal buttons. Alternately, you can print out the form and mail it with a cheque to the address given. A limited number of Saturday-Only memberships are also now available.

With many fantastic Guests of Honour, interviews, panel discussions, readings and numerous authors, editors, publishers, artists and actors in attendance, this is one convention you cannot afford to miss! Visit the FantasyCon website HERE

• The Darkest Part of the Woods
• Secret Story
• The Overnight
• Told by the Dead
• Creatures of the Pool
• The Seven Days of Cain
• The Inhabitant of the Lake
• Just Behind You

They will be priced at £6.99 each plus postage (£2.99 in the UK, £4.99 in the US and £7.99 everywhere else). Alternatively, you can buy four titles for £27.96 and just one postage charge or all eight titles for £49.99 plus just one postage charge.

For further information and ordering details see the forthcoming titles section of the PS website HERE

Authors include: Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeff Strand, Ray Garton, Joe McKinney, Lisa Morton, Laird Barron, Gary McMahon, Monica O’Rourke and many others.

The book is now available in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon.

Stephen Jones

Authors are asked to forward stories of exceptional quality published between these dates, whilst publishers are invited to send novels, collections, anthologies, magazines, art books, graphic adaptations, DVDs and anything else connected with the horror field which could be mentioned in the comprehensive overview of the year in horror. Publisher contact information will also be included in the list of useful addresses contained in the volume.

The deadline for receiving material is January 2013, and all material must be sent to the postal address provided in the guidelines detailed HERE.

Also, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 23 edited by Stephen Jones is now available for pre-order from Amazon. To be released in October 2012, it contains stories by Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Paul Kane, Joel Lane, Alison Littlewood, Mark Samuels, Peter Atkins, Thana Niveau, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Reggie Oliver, Steve Rasnic Tem, Joe R. Lansdale, Evangeline Walton and many others. The cover artwork is by Vincent Chong. Full details HERE

Ramsey – who is a HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner -  will be participating in all aspects of the convention, including an in-depth interview, panel discussions, a mass signing, and presenting during the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet.

See the website HERE for further details.

The contents include:

FICTION:
Don’t You Like The Bird Man? – Jonathan Oliver
The Call of Chavthulu – Neil Fulwood
Jenny Khan – Rhys Hughes
Mother’s Boy – Grant Quimper
Listen – Marie O’Regan
Faerie Mails – Allen Ashley
The Fabulous Beast – Garry Kilworth

NON-FICTION:
Why YA? – Tom Pollock
Worlds Which Never Were – Sarah Pinborough & Will Hill in conversation
A Glow Born of a Different Process – a cover artist spotlight on Chris Roberts
Laying the Foundations – Simon Bestwick
A History of THE SERVANTS – Michael Marshall Smith
BFS Masterclass #2: Writing for Children – F E Higgins
Enterprising Minds – Andrew Reid
Progressive + Inclusive = Popular? – Amanda Rutter
Anne McCaffrey: A Tribute

POETRY:
Morningmares – Zoe Elizabeth Barrett
Shadow Whisper at Black Hole Hotel – Kelda Crich
Doorways – David Glen Larson
The Wheel of Whumpus – John DesPlaines

Plus regular columns from Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris, Sophia McDougall, and a special feature from Jared Shurin, interviewing Jane Rogers.

We would love to hear what you think of the edition. You can leave feedback at our Facebook page and at the forum.

For the first time, members will also be able to download the journal as an ePub, mobi or PDF file. Members should watch their email inboxes to find out how to access their digital editions.

John Jarrold

“I and my sub-agents will be talking to publishers around the world about Ramsey,” said John Jarrold.  “I have read his work since the sixties, and known him personally since the eighties as a fan, publisher and agent.  I am delighted to make this announcement.”

Kay McCauley continues to represent Ramsey in the US.

This volume follows the first anthology in the series, Terror Tales of the Lake District, also edited by Paul Finch.

For further details and information on how to order see the Gray Friar website HERE

Appearing in the book will be stories by Jack Ketchum, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Garton, Lisa Morton, Jeff Strand, Shaun Hutson, Joe R. Lansdale, Laird Barron, Gary McMahon, Stephen Bacon, and many more.

This is a charitable anthology. All revenues, less direct costs for production, marketing and distribution (net profits of each purchase, estimated to be at least 10% to 15%) will be donated to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

You can read the BBC article HERE

This is the first new edition of the long out of print Transworld/Corgi Book The Satyr’s Head & Other Tales of Terror, first published in 1975. With stories by Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Joseph Payne Brennan, Eddy C. Bertin, David A. Riley, James Wade and others, this new edition will bring back into print some ten chilling tales of the supernatural and the sub-human, of ghosts and demons, strange phenomena and the inexplicable.

More information HERE

Corvus Books

“Horrifying ghouls, decaying corpses, body snatchers, grave robbers and flesh-eating monsters. In this gruesome anthology of the living dead, all these and more will try to catch your eye and devour your brain.

From the macabre pens of the world’s most spine-tingling horror and fantasy writers, the grisliest, goriest, ghastliest stories from the last two centuries have been plucked from the shadows by legendary editor Otto Penzler, to form the most monstrous volume in zombie history.”

Authors include: H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Clive Barker, Richard Christian Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe, Joe R. Lansdale, Lisa Tuttle, Graham Masterton, Robert Bloch, Charles Birkin, Mort Castle, Kevin J. Anderson, W.B. Seabrook, Steve Rasnic Tem, F. Marion Crawford, Michael Marshall Smith, Karen Haber, David A. Riley, Guy De Maupassant, Richard Laymon, Thomas Burke, Anthony Boucher, John Knox, Theodore Sturgeon and Seabury Quinn, among others.

Details and ordering information HERE

‘The Century’s Best Horror Fiction

Featuring Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Robert Bloch, Charles Beaumont, Jack Ketchum, Gary Brandner, Dennis Etchison, Michael Bishop, Ramsey Campbell, David Schow, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Thomas Ligotti, Robert Aickman, Poppy Z. Brite, Lucy Taylor, Stephen Laws, Brian Hodge, Glen Hirshberg, Tim Lebbon, W.W. Jacobs, H.G. Wells, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, Manly Wade Wellman, Theodore Sturgeon, David A. Riley, Joel Lane, Fritz Lieber, Ian Watson and many others!

Cemetery Dance Publications commissioned a spectacular two-volume anthology project under the editorship of noted author and historian of the horror genre, John Pelan.

John selected one story published during each year of the 20th Century (1901-2000) as the most notable story of that year — all 100 stories were then collected in this amazing two volume set to be published as The Century’s Best Horror Fiction.

The ground rules were simple: Only one selection per author. Only one selection per year.

Two huge volumes, one hundred authors, one hundred classic stories, more than 700,000 words of fiction — history in the making!’

Pre-orders now being taken at the Cemetery Dance WEBSITE

Reviewed by John Howard

Being a character in a Ramsey Campbell novel is never an easy option. Good, bad, and all shades in between: they’re all in it together and it’s usually hell – or even worse. Graham Wilde in Ghosts Know is no exception. Wilde is the presenter of a radio phone-in show. He stands up for the right things, challenging the views of his callers and refusing to let them get away with sloppy thinking or inaccurate comments. But all too often Wilde seems unable to actually say the right thing, to either his listeners or his friends. His very articulateness continually lets him down, and his rage grows. It’s Down the Line going truly toxic, barely remaining on the rails (or the air).

When a teenage girl goes missing, a psychic is brought in to provide his version of help and comfort. He also gets interviewed on Wilde’s show; the two men have something of a Past. From then on Ghosts Know develops into a narrative of the blackest humour and suspense. The novel is taut and intense. Campbell’s imagery never ceases to startle and makes sure that the reader is always kept off-balance and uncertain – just enough. Questions get answered with more questions; the main characters are always on the edge, ready to fall or get pushed by the unintended consequences of words and actions.

Ghosts Know is a story of seeing and sight. There is what a psychic sees and says he sees; what is seen through the eyes of anger, suspicion, and grief; and what can only be seen when un-regarded pieces finally and laboriously come together and understanding dawns into sight. The truth that Wilde eventually confronts is messy and ambiguous, in contrast to that apparently declared through psychic revelation. And then for our sake (as well as Wilde’s) Ghosts Know doesn’t seem to end entirely in the darkness, but rather in a new light made all the more worthwhile because of what had to be endured in order to be able to see it.

This anthology brings together some of the best works from The Horror Zine, an online magazine dedicated to giving you chills and thrills. Edited by Jeani Rector, each story, poem and art work within showcases an international talent that will give you shivers.”

Available from Amazon in paperback in the US and as an e-book in the UK.

David Sutton

First, The Satyr’s Head: Tales of Terror, edited by David A. Sutton, cover art by Steve Upham. This is the first new edition of the long out of print Transworld/Corgi Book The Satyr’s Head and Other Tales of Terror, first published in 1975. With stories by Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Joseph Payne Brennan, Eddy C. Bertin, David A. Riley and others, this new edition will bring back into print some ten chilling tales of the supernatural and the sub-human, of ghosts and demons, strange phenomena and the inexplicable.

The Writers From the Shadows series will revive the work of some of the genre writers whose work has been overshadowed and overlooked down the years.

The first of these will be The Female of the Species and Others by Richard Davis (1945-1990). The author worked in the 1970s as a script editor for the BBC’s Out of the Unknown series and edited the first three volumes of The Year’s Best Horror Stories, published by Sphere Books, as well as editing a string of other horror and science fiction anthologies. He published a number of short stories which have remained uncollected and this new book will remedy this. Also included will be an interview conducted with the author in 1969, in which he discusses his writing, his film Viola and working as story editor for Late Night Horror and Out of the Unknown, plus a comprehensive introduction.

Next, Temple of the Fox: Writers from the Shadows Series # 2, by James Wade (1930-1983), collects a number of the author’s genre short stories from the 1960s onwards. After army service, James Wade settled in Korea and he wrote widely on music for a variety of periodicals. His symphonic and chamber music has been performed in many countries, and he completed an opera based on Richard E. Kim’s best-selling novel of the Korean War, The Martyred.  James Wade’s work includes the Cthulhu Mythos yarns, The Deep Ones and A Darker Shadow over Innsmouth and others such as Temple of the Fox, which only ever saw print in Korea. His work has been anthologised by such noted editors as August Derleth, Ramsey Campbell and Herbert Van Thal. The collection will also contain an essay, The Mass Media Horror, a short article first published in 1971, plus some verse and a comprehensive introduction.

Finally comes The Shadow Book of Horror – an anthology of new and obscure short stories. No further details yet on the content or format. Writers may wish to contact David Sutton to receive writers’ guidelines when available. Please use the contact form on the Shadow Publishing website.

Tickets cost £3 for library members and £4 for non-members, please contact the library to book your place.

Chester Library, Northgate Street, Chester, CH1 2EF
Tel: 01244 977 380

Also selling well are the new PS titles launched at FantasyCon:

•     The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants by Ramsey Campbell
•     Ghosts Know by Ramsey Campbell
•     Gutshot edited by Conrad Williams
•     Rotten Row by Chaz Brenchley
•     Red Gloves by Christopher Fowler
•     Wake Up and Dream by Ian R. MacLeod
•     Long Shadows, Nightmare Light by Mark Morris
•     Dark Dreams, Pale Horses by Rio Youers
•     The Butterfly Man by Paul Kane
•     Osama by Lavie Tidhar

Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris and Peter Crowther will take part in a reading, panel discussion and book signing at the event at Ilkley Playhouse, Weston Road, Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

Tickets cost £6 (£4 concessions) and can be purchased from the festival website.

“The Lake District — land of mountains and megaliths, night-black lakes and fathomless woods filled with spectral mist …

The eerie entity on Striding Edge
The living corpse of Croglin
The demented clown of Muncaster
The winged horror of Langdale
The drowned bride of Windermere
The hairy brute of Beetham
The nightmares on Burnmoor

Chilling tales by Ramsey Campbell, Adam Nevill, Simon Clark, Peter Crowther, Reggie Oliver, Gary McMahon and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

This wild, mountainous region in northwest England is famous for its towering crags, deep woods and majestic lakes. It is still one of the most popular holiday destinations in the whole of the UK, particularly for climbers, hikers, campers and yachtsmen. But some corners of it are extremely remote and even now in the 21st century remain wreathed in rural mystery and spooky superstition.

This brand new anthology, edited by master of chills, Paul Finch, contains ten works of original horror fiction all set in England’s haunting Lake District, and three classic reprints. It also features numerous anecdotal tales concerning true incidents of Lakeland terror which will ensure you’ll never regard that scenic part of the world in the same innocent light again.”

Not so Just Behind You. I read far more short story collections than I do novels, but still of all the volumes I’ve read in the past year (be it single author or multi-writer anthologies) Campbell’s is by far the best. And the reason he’s the best living horror writer today is because he has the ability – unequalled by any other practitioner – to imbue his prose with a sense of foreboding and menace. On every single line. Of every single paragraph. On every single page. The story lines themselves are enough to haunt, but combined with his (in the strictest dictionary definition of the word) unique style causes the reader’s arms to run cold with gooseflesh.

As superb as this book is, it is notable for the absence of three recent tales, “The Decorations”, “Peep” and “The Long Way” – all selected for the annual Best New Horror anthology. Still, that only bodes well for the next collection…

Just Behind You, Ramsey Campbell, PS Publishing. 2009 £20 hb. £50 signed slipcased hb.

Prism features the editor’s report on the World Horror Convention, along with dozens of reviews, an interview with Shaun Jeffrey, columns by John L. Probert, Ramsey Campbell and Mark Morris, and without a doubt the finest, most lovingly crafted Chairman’s Chat the British Fantasy Society has ever seen. Prism is edited by David A. Riley. Cover art by Howard Molloy.

New Horizons issue five, edited by former Elastic Press supremo Andrew Hook, features stories by Craig Hallam, Frank Roger, Terry Grimwood, Mark Finnemore, Allen Ashley and Douglas Thompson, and a series of bite-sized interviews by Andrew with literary luminaries at the World Horror Convention 2010, including Neil Gaiman, Ian Watson and Paul Cornell. The fantastic cover art is by George Cotronis.

To what extent is it a bad attitude? I would certainly suggest that imposing pace for its own sake on the material is bad. One editor who looked at my novel Silent Children wanted to cut out the quotations from the tale within the tale, admitting that he had also skipped those sections of Steve King’s Misery. I didn’t, and I don’t think such cuts would improve either novel. For a while some editors seemed to take the view that because the pace of life is faster these days than it used to be, readers no longer have the time to savour prose or to allow a narrative its own pace. One – in my view, wholly deplorable – recent response to this was the release by a reputable publisher of versions of Moby-Dick and David Copperfield edited to about two-thirds their length in the supposed interest of winning the books a new readership. Of course this isn’t new – the Reader’s Digest has been truncating tales for decades – but it has seldom been applied to works of this calibre. Anthony Burgess once prepared A Shorter Finnegans Wake, but I take his intention to have been to ease the adventurous reader into the full text of Joyce’s novel. By contrast, I fear that the purpose, or at any rate the effect, of the new editions of Melville and Dickens and other classics is to convince readers that they don’t need to take the time to read the original. They should.

I’m not denigrating conciseness, and a good editor is a great boon to a writer, but that relationship should be the province of consenting adults. There’s nothing wrong with making people want to read your text, but a breathless pace or rapid prose aren’t the only ways – they certainly aren’t for me as a reader, though sometimes they work. David Morrell’s novel Long Lost (good title, David!) deftly entices us further and further in with a succession of chapters that occupy less than two pages each. I don’t recall how many times I told myself I’d read just one more – it’s an addictive process. On the other hand, his novel Testament doesn’t use this method but has an opening chapter that renders it unputdownable. Similarly, the prose in the tower scene in Iris Murdoch’s The Sandcastle is the literary equivalent of Hitchcock’s editing of the attic scene in The Birds – a great many short sentences that build up considerable suspense – but (for this reader at least) the same author’s The Flight from the Enchanter and The Bell are fully as compelling in the lucidity of their prose and the vividness of the characterisation and events. A final example, and I cite myself only as a questionable one. My old tale “The Interloper” has its admirers, but I have to admit that its increasingly breathless pace owes everything to the fact that I wrote it in a single day and lost so much of my interest in the characters before the end that I gabbled the final scenes. Weirdly, the inadvertent affect seems to work. Well, you know what D.H. Lawrence said about trusting the author.

Let me suggest that while unputdownability (a horrid word, or a useful one, depending on your taste) may be contrived, it’s worthwhile only when the content itself is worth having. Let me further propose that a piece of fiction is most likely to be compelling when the author’s imagination is fully engaged by the material. Don’t take my word for it – examine the works you yourself couldn’t put down – but I’ll name a few favourites to demonstrate their diversity. The Trial is immensely readable in Max Brod’s translation of Kafka. William Golding’s Free Fall fastened instantly on my imagination and never let go until the last page was – yes – turned, and I can say the same of much of his other work: Pincher Martin, The Spire, certainly Lord of the Flies, if you even need to ask. I would say all this of Alan Garner too, above all his masterpiece Red Shift (which shares with Golding’s prose the virtues of extreme compression and precision). Few writers pare away more than Beckett, though, and his Unnameable is a book I read in a single sitting, utterly immersed in the experience. Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying is the author’s first novel but still his finest, as exciting second time round as on first acquaintance. Richard Matheson’s early novels – I Am Legend (considerably better than any of the films), The Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes – are models of narrative suspense, and I found his Hell House more unputdownable than seemed ideal when I stayed up by myself after midnight to finish it. Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock (which he classed as one of his entertainments) is no less urgently readable than The Power and the Glory (which he regarded as a serious novel; Lawrence’s principle comes once again to mind). One more: Nabokov’s extraordinary Pale Fire, a novel in the form of a preface, a poem of nine hundred and ninety-nine lines in four cantos and a book-length commentary by the poet’s editor. It remains one of the most entertaining and compulsive novels of my experience, and yet I can hardly imagine a book less contrived to be a page-turner. The moral? Surely that there’s nothing more entertaining than great art. Let it be respected, not pre-digested, and learned from.

This article originally appeared in Prism (2010, issue 1).

Rob Shearman

My first FantasyCon – but very definitely not my last! I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t being so welcomed by some of the friendliest (and funniest!) people I’ve met in a long time. There’s this sort of artsy cliché that all writers are tortured souls who live in isolation and scowl testily at each other, but FantasyCon proves the lie to that, and shows just how mutually supportive a bunch we can be. (Even if our souls are a / bit /tortured.) Thanks so much!

James Barclay

I was looking forward to good chatter, wide-ranging and stimulating debate, time with old friends, time with new friends and time to simply enjoy the warm embrace that is FantasyCon. And it’s always good to have your expectations exceeded, isn’t it? There’s something unique offered by FantasyCon, something that has grown organically over the last few years. It’s a sense of genuine inclusivity. More of the same next year, please.

Peter Crowther

This year’s FantasyCon was marred (though almost imperceptibly) only by a somewhat dysfunctional hotel and an even more gibberingly-incoherent than usual acceptance speech by yours truly on the momentous occasion of PS picking up the Best Small Press Award for the seventh time! The event itself, however, was wonderfully organised with some fine highlights – Nicky and I particularly enjoyed the banquet (now refreshingly bearing traces of pomp and circumstance… not to mention increasingly flamboyant attire by both girls and boys alike) and I loved the “Taboo” panel that followed the raffle late on Saturday night, when I was Guinnessed and wined to such a degree that one might have reasonably expected me simply to have keeled over (which, to be fair, I did – to Nicky’s great amusement – when the panel had ended and I returned to the room).

The guests and emcee were all fabulously good eggs, of course (it was especially good to see Chris Golden on this side of the Atlantic – excellent speech, chum!), but it was the sheer energy, good humour and pure warmth of the delegates – fans, crowd, attendees… call them what you will – that, as ever, carried the entire gig shoulder-high into the record books. Hotels and their dippy-doo bar staff and gruff-mannered reception drones may come and go, you know – and guests of honour and assorted dignitaries, too, back into their garrets with their brushes and quills – but the mass of the British Fantasy Society will continue, unfazed and undaunted, long after all of we 2008 con- goers have fallen from the perch. We are carrying forward a tradition and a collective mentality that may one day save the world. Well, shoot… somebody has to. Bravo, I say to us all!

Conrad Williams

Best part of FantasyCon for me was winning my award and then, about ten seconds later, being “volunteered” to fold raffle tickets. Apparently Glenn Close, having won her Emmy, was conscripted to wipe effluvia off the toilet floors with a toothbrush before the end of the night. So I’m in good company…

Simon Guerrier

Stayed up too late, bought too many books, drank too much beer, met too many people, talked too much rubbish, had too much fun. Sleep now.

Christopher Golden

FantasyCon isn’t the rowdy, drunken free-for-all I’d been warned it might be… mostly because all of the people I met were too professional and polite to get very rowdy. Drunken free-for-all, yes. Rowdy, no. I had a fantastic time as the 2008 Token American, and my only regret is that there were so many people I spoke to in passing that I wish I’d had more time to talk to all of them. If someone would hurry up and invent teleportation, or buy me my own airline, I’d go every year.

Ramsey Campbell

Who cares (well, not too much) about the beer or the treacherous key cards or those of the staff who graduated from moroseness class? We’re the FantasyCon, for heaven’s sake. We have the people and the panels and the community we’ve built up and are still building. Here’s to the next one! And the next, and the next, and wheel me into the bar when I’m in my box.

Steve Jones

I enjoyed this year’s FantasyCon even more than last year’s – and I was a Guest of Honour then! From the various panels to the Awards Banquet, through the Raffle to the liveliest British Fantasy Society AGM for years, this was a convention that had a genuine energy to it. I even did business. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror signing quickly sold out, and the number of writers, artists and publishers attending ensured that there was always plenty to talk about. Added to that, I won an award. And I’ve finally started to work out where the good restaurants are in Nottingham! Marie O’Regan, Paul Kane, Vicky Cook and their dedicated team of helpers are to be congratulated for bringing the convention up to a level where those who follow them will undoubtedly be able to build upon their success. Thank you to everyone who helped make my weekend such a terrific experience.

Tim Lebbon

FantasyCon’s all about the company. Well, the company, and the beer… though if you stayed in the hotel, the ale was shite (when it was actually on). The company and the food… which was OK if you ventured to one of the many excellent eating establishments around the hotel. The company and the atmosphere… which on the streets of Nottingham at midnight on Saturday when Golden forced me out for a walk and a tray of chips, was what I can only describe as “exciting”. So yes, the convention is all about the company. And if you can judge someone by the company they keep, we are fine people indeed.

Graham Joyce

“FantasyCon was real!”