K53

---

K53, an APAzine for PIECES OF EIGHT from A. Vincent Clarke, 16 Wendover Way, Welling, Kent, for the May '95 mailing.

---

UPDATE

Went to the EasterCon, which may not be a big deal for you, but it was my first Con for several years. I just couldn't let a London venue go by. And, small home-loving critter that I am, I hadn't even been to Docklands before. No bookshops, y'see?

Anyway, I went up to London Bridge, singing hosannas under my breath to the London Boroughs because they'd got together and decided old buffers like myself needn't pay for any public transport in London. Went by a special bus to Docklands 'cos the Light Railway had shut down for the holiday (the theory being that the rail only catered for office workers – why was the bus crowded out with Japanese and German tourists?), was whisked past slums, Chinese take-aways and then gleaming white office buildings, thousands of windows, water, and was soon chatting with the extended family.

Didn't see any PoE crew (did they see me first?) but met all sorts, including Arvid Engholm, a Swedish fan who was one of the prime movers in the contentious, hoax-ridden Swedish fandom of the early '80s. Slightly embarrassing actually – he was expecting me to provide him with virtual floor plans of the Epicentre, a fan-flat I'd inhabited around about 45 years ago. You may think I live in the past, but Arvid was something else.

I didn't spend all the weekend at the Con, commuting back home earlier and earlier each day, but did attend a session on fanzines (about 15 present) and also the Bob Shaw Serious Scientific Talk which drew everyone into one hall.

I managed to get through the Con without buying more than four books, which I thought in the circumstances (weak minded collector confronted by goodies) was pretty good. All old stuff too.

---

DISC WORLD NEWS

Terry Pratchett fans should note that the May '95 Book & Magazine Collectors had a 13-page survey of TPs work from a collector's viewpoint. The first edition of Colour of Magic ('83, Colin Smythe) could fetch £500+.

---

BOOK REVIEW

The Weight, by Allen Steele (Legend '95) is a pretty straight-forward SF yarn in the style of Arthur C. Clarke and/or Robert Heinlein. Before you rush out (hah!) please note that the book has 98 pages and costs £12-99. That's 13+p. per page – and they're not even gilt-edged. Rip-off of the year?

COMMENTS ON APRIL '95 MAILING

CULTURE ATTACK – Mike Gould

The details of your finances make me feel a bit better – you know, troubles shared. This very word-processor is showing its age, and something costing about £100 will have to be done to it soon, either a replacement of the drive (which has lasted 7 years, so is practically antediluvian) or a brand new drive capable of taking a bigger disc (3½"). Can't make up my mind at the moment. Meanwhile, it can take up to half-hour to get the thing working properly in the morning.

Agree on your remarks about the sad loss of Joyce Slater.

RYCT Barry re. lack of bookshops in Sidcup (two miles from here): a firm called Wordsworth has opened several shops in SE London outskirts, including one in Sidcup. A mixture of 10% new and 90% remainder books seems to be the right mix. And Sidcup, as most other towns in the area, has an increasing amount of charity shops which sell 2nd-hand books amongst the 2nd-hand clothes. I hardly dare visit Sidcup these days for fear of adding to the book-piles here.

ALL AT SEA – Pauline Plant

Fascinating how your initial research has blossomed. You don't say, however, if you will continue the novel someday.

ROPE OF SAND 17 – Brian Jordan

Internet stuff interesting as usual. Haven't heard from Chuch Harris since he brought the new (second-hand) copier down – hope you don't mind if I send him a copy of your first page. Nice feeling of enthusiasm there!

The copier, by the way, turns out to be a Nashua 4115, so big and heavy that it hasn't been taken upstairs to the fan-room but broods in one corner of this sitting room. Have a lot of stuff waiting to be put through it – for instance, Jenny wanted a selection of fanzines to show off at Intersection to benighted visitors who didn't know what a fanzine was. I didn't want to spread genuine originals around, so will take copies of a dozen or so titles. Then Arvid Engholm (see UPDATE) wants a copy of the FANCYCLOPEDIA, and I'd like to produce another run of the 5-year old Arthur (ATom) Thomson Memorial volume.....

THE ROAD TO HELL – Dave Thomas

Can't tell you much about Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie – like yourself I've only read Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and two or three others – but was it fiction or non-fiction? If it was the former, it appears to have been a way for Steinbeck, using a rather clumsy method, to express his own views of the world. In any event, if you found it confusing it was probably Steinbeck's fault. His writings in his last years (he died in '68) weren't highly regarded. (Know the feeling).

K52 – self

I sent Steve Sneyd a copy (he's got too much to do to join PoE, unfortunately), and he says re. interest in Royals in the States that he knows a guy over there who recently edited a series of books mickey-taking various celebrities – Monroe, Nixon, etc. He was overwhelmed with anecdotes submitted on these, but when he came to do one on the Windsors so little work came in that he's thinking of abandoning the project.

Steve says even there they can no longer be bothered to excoriate that fading fandango of a family.

Who's for turning Buck House into a theme park?

I REMEMBER POPPA – John Madracki

Well told and extremely picturesque. That romantic phrase about him having no intention of relinquishing his birthright altogether makes me wonder what I'd do in similar circumstances. I think the fact that one had to stay in another country would have probably been a decider. Which raises the odd query – is it possible to change one's nationality twice, for instance once from Polish to British, then back again?

NIPPERKIN – John Madracki

That's a marvellously sad story about Pip the hamster. Real pathos there. RYCT me: Yeah, horrible when you find you've been stupid enough to set the video wrongly. Good for reining back the ego, I suppose. Re. the title of this yer APAzine, way back three years or so ago I was really droopy, mentally, energywise, everything. So I had a blood test, and they found I was deficient in potassium, 'K'. I had a course of tablets and felt so enlivened that I volunteered to join the PoE crew (mad!) and commem-orated the element in the title.

Since then I've had a lot of milk and bananas, sources of 'K', and I guess any lack of energy has to be put down to my years. There was a very short-lived fanzine called 'K' in the late '60s, but don't know why. NIPPERKIN?

THE MOON-DRENCHED SHORES – Darroll Pardoe

I didn't know "Springtime for Springers" had two sequels – only one I knew was "Kreativity for Kats" in the April '61 Galaxy. Let me know if I can copier it for you – it's only a few pages.

My main memory from the Ideal Home Exhibitions was that peculiar powder which, if you sprinkled it on two pieces of cloth, would bind the material together if ironed with a very hot iron. Certainly I think the odd bits and pieces offered for sale, proffered by some eager huckster, such as your potato peeler, were far more interesting than the more mundane items.

COLD IRON and OFFICIAL PAGES – Ros Calverley

Great piece of factual writing on the death of your friend. The contrast with the Kray death was fairly obvious, but very well done. From your account of his family George was pretty lucky to last so long – there seem to be divided opinions as to whether aneurysms are all congenital, but certainly his would appear to have been so. They're usually associated with high blood pressure, and the trouble with the latter is that you're not aware that you have it until it becomes quite obvious.

I'd urge any PoE member who hasn't had a blood pressure check to get it done – it could save lots of trouble later in life. I was rolling along merrily for many years until I went for a holiday with famous fan Walt Willis in his Northern Irish village. I pulled his leg about the pills he took in the morning. Then we went down to the village chemists, and, unusually, they had a blood pressure machine there, rather like the more familiar tell-your-weight. I put in my 50p piece, and got a reading I just didn't believe. I called the proprietor over to get him to check. No – it was OK. I was way over normal.

So I sped to the local Doctor as soon as I returned, and have been on tablets ever since. Serves me right for joshing Walt, I guess.

That was very courageous of you to expound on your family. I take off a metaphorical hat. And great of you to make the offer of copiering on the Admin page. I haven't any intention of taking advantage of your offer myself, but if you get too much work I've got this new (2nd-hand) copier as a back-up.

---

RAEBNC the rest of the mailing – ie. inspiration fails.