Paperback & Pulp Fair, Bloomsbury, Sun. Oct 28 2018

[dem bones]

The Paperback & Pulp Book Fair returns to The Royal National Hotel, 38-51 Bedford Way, Russell Square, London WC1H 0DG on Sunday 28th October 2018 (9-30 – 3pm). Admission £1.50. Dealers tables £55.
Organiser Neil Pettigrew: Email harry.npATvirgin.net

[dem bones]

No idea if any of the contributors to this thing will be in attendance, but the very wonderful Pulp & Paperback Fair is now only a weekend away (Sunday Oct 28th).

If you're in East London on Tuesday 23rd, there's also the Amnesty £1 Book Fair in Shoreditch.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

I shall be going, hope to see a healthy vault presence 😈

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Don't forget, the clocks have gone back!

I should be at the fair before 12 (will be in London earlier, but may go exploring with the travel card)
Looking forward to meeting the usual suspects (hope you can make it this time dem) and even the unusual ones,👀

[dem bones]

Special day, special company. Many thanks to the Vault contingent/ Fanatic Fanatics, the stallholders, and organiser Neil Pettigrew for your charming company at yesterday's event. Really lovely to spend time with Crom, Sev, Mr. Saucecraft, Anna, Nigel Taylor, Maurice Flanagan, and Martin Heaphy; was also introduced to PF stalwart Graham Andrews and Mike Chislett of Supernatural Tales/ G & S fame.

Rolled up around ten which was about right. Hadn't realised before, but it's kind of two social occasions in one, in that there's something of a changing of the guard around midday, some of the early birds heading home to be replaced by an afternoon shift. I'd not long exchanged goodbyes with Nigel and Martin when Sev, the first of the Vault delegation, arrived.

Books. Prices range from £1 to on-the-spot coronary. Sleaze and SF again much in evidence, otherwise pretty much all taste's catered. No one stall devoted to horror & supernatural paperbacks, you have to hunt around which adds to the thrill of discovery. Spent less than usual but come away with more than ever, that largely down to the generosity of my friends who gifted me some very beautiful stuff! No anthologies for once, but a stack of novels reflecting personal obsessions old and recent - mummies, werewolves, witch persecution, plant people, space vampires, mad bastards in the woods & Co. Thanks to the eagle-eyed Crom, also landed an ex-lib copy of wants list perennial, John Christopher's Pendulum. Also very pleased to cop the initial Paperback & Pulp Fair souvenir booklet (Sept. 1991: contributions from Steve Holland and Phil Harbottle plus original fiction by GNS, Sydney J. Bounds, E.C. Tubb and Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe) and issue 7 of Maurice Flanagan's Paperback Pulp & Comic Collector (Zeon, 1992: Peter Haining, Mike Ashley, Syd Bounds, Andrew Darlington, etc.).

Great chat with Nigel re Mystery Tour, including the lowdown on The Coach & Horses from one who knows it well. Am seriously considering a pilgrimage.

The pulp grapevine is a many tentacled beast! It sure didn't take long for word to get around about the *ahem* "spot of difficulty" the Pulp Horror mummy special ran into. Put it this way; if you bought one and were planning to get rid, might be worth hanging on for a bit. If you didn't, it's unlikely copies will be exchanging hands at cover price any time soon.

Ad break for deserving causes:

No Hit Records

[helrunar]

That all sounds awesome, Kev. I hadn't heard about what happened with the Pulp Horror Mummy special--beware the beat of the bandaged feet!

I saw some mouth watering photos from various stalls on social media yesterday. The two titles that stick in my mind are a paperback of Daughter of Fu Manchu with a cover I do not recall having seen before (no doubt, a 1950s or 1960s UK reprint), and something called Through Beatnik Eyeballs which looked as if it had lively flown across the great Atlantic from somewhere over here.

The photos actually made me wonder if someday, I'd do a holiday trip over to Blighty just to attend one of these.

Best, Steve

[dem bones]

Am sure you'd be made very welcome, Steve and not just by your friends on here. Can only go by personal experience but I find it a very easy going occasion, warm. The back room might have been designed with the P&P fair in mind. Not too cramped, but intimate enough to encourage conversation. Have attended book events before where the atmosphere was sub-morgue. Walk into the Royal National and the hubbub hits you soon as you reach the main hall (books & ephemera), whole place buzzing, bags of goodwill.

Oct 29, 2018 22:16:39 GMT helrunar said:

I saw some mouth watering photos from various stalls on social media yesterday. The two titles that stick in my mind are a paperback of Daughter of Fu Manchu with a cover I do not recall having seen before (no doubt, a 1950s or 1960s UK reprint), and something called Through Beatnik Eyeballs which looked as if it had lively flown across the great Atlantic from somewhere over here.

If it's this Daughter Of Fu Manchu I even know who bought it, and he says thank you to Andreas and yourself for ordering copies of his 'novelisation'! Didn't see Through Beatnik Eyes, though, probably got snapped up early. Must say some of the Sleazy cover artwork is as gorgeous as it is outrageous. Was seriously tempted ....

[helrunar]

That sounds really delightful, Kev. I'll add, so as to seem at least marginally less insane, that I'd probably be taking buses out to some ancient sacred sites that are of personal religious interest to me. Have always wanted to visit the Rollright stone circle. I did Stonehenge and Avebury (long before I ever even knew of the existence of Children of the Stones) in an epic trip in the Summer of 1995--my friend, who is American but has no fear at all of driving all over your roundabout-littered roadways on the wrong side of the thoroughfare, took myself and another buddy on an extended car trip through Southern England and a bit of Cornwall. Tintagel was thronged with magical beauty and almost no humans, miraculously.

I had the feeling that if I had bothered to rummage around here before posting, I would find that I had indeed seen that particular Fu edition! Lovely that your talented friend was able to secure the copy.

cheers, Steve 

[Shrink Proof]

Oct 30, 2018 15:13:40 GMT helrunar said:

That sounds really delightful, Kev. I'll add, so as to seem at least marginally less insane, that I'd probably be taking buses out to some ancient sacred sites that are of personal religious interest to me. Have always wanted to visit the Rollright stone circle. I did Stonehenge and Avebury (long before I ever even knew of the existence of Children of the Stones) in an epic trip in the Summer of 1995--my friend, who is American but has no fear at all of driving all over your roundabout-littered roadways on the wrong side of the thoroughfare, took myself and another buddy on an extended car trip through Southern England and a bit of Cornwall. Tintagel was thronged with magical beauty and almost no humans, miraculously.

cheers, Steve 

Miraculous indeed. I lived in Cornwall for 4 years, visited Tintagel several times, and never found it free of humans, since the vast majority of the inhabitants of this pestered isle live in the south of it. That said, should you make a trip to Britain take time to see some of Scotland. More sacred/atmospheric/spooky sites than you can shake a stick at and some of the best scenery on the planet too. For instance, this is less than an hour from Shrink Towers and (especially in the current weather) really does look like this:-

[helrunar]

That's an incredible photo, Lord Shrink. I would LOVE to visit Scotland but I don't know about trying to do both England and Scotland in the same trip. Would also love to visit the Orkneys and some of the other isles. I did visit Ireland back in 2011 and was able to perform ceremonies at a couple of sites with my friends. Really beyond words beautiful.

cheers, Helrunar

[Dr Strange]

I grew up in the far north of Scotland, just across the water from Orkney (Orcadians don't like you calling it "The Orkneys", but either "Orkney" or "the Orkney Islands" is acceptable). I've been there a few times, and it's certainly an impressive place to visit if you are into pre-Christian archaeology - though my visits were not always motivated by such respectable pursuits, as I went a few times with my older brother to the infamous Orkney biker rally, held annually near a tiny village called Twatt (just imagine it). But somewhere I've wanted to see for a long time and haven't yet is Callanish on Lewis - arguably more impressive than Stonehenge, and much harder to get to, but at least you can freely wander amongst the stones when you get there.

[helrunar]

Thanks for the correction, Dr Strange. What can I say, I'm just another clueless Yank.

I doubt I will ever make it to Callanish, but who knows. The old sites hold such magic... these sites, I personally believe, were selected for very specific reasons, related to Earth energies which people who need to have fancy names for everything like to call "telluric currents."

I'm in danger of becoming a candidate for the "kook book" column if I continue--I appreciate the memories you shared.

cheers, Helrunar

[helrunar]

Also, somebody really needs to pen a volume with the title of The Twit of Twatt.

Irrepressibly, H.

[Dr Strange]

Believe me, it's got nothing to do with being a Yank - unless you're from the immediate area, or had met a few Orcadians, there'd be no reason to suppose you would know about their, ummm, peculiarities. They also have a tendency to talk about "going down to Scotland", though I think that might just be because the biggest island in Orkney is called Mainland. I might not (or then again, I might) totally agree with you on why these places feel special - but there's no doubt in my mind that they do.

[Shrink Proof]

Nov 1, 2018 16:10:09 GMT Dr Strange said:

I grew up in the far north of Scotland, just across the water from Orkney (Orcadians don't like you calling it "The Orkneys", but either "Orkney" or "the Orkney Islands" is acceptable). I've been there a few times, and it's certainly an impressive place to visit if you are into pre-Christian archaeology - though my visits were not always motivated by such respectable pursuits, as I went a few times with my older brother to the infamous Orkney biker rally, held annually near a tiny village called Twatt (just imagine it). But somewhere I've wanted to see for a long time and haven't yet is Callanish on Lewis - arguably more impressive than Stonehenge, and harder to get to, but at least you can freely wander amongst the stones when you get there.

Orkney certainly has a ton of world-class prehistoric sites; Maes Howe, Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar are must-sees. Unlike many must-sees on this planet, they really are worth the trip, and even in summer comparatively deserted. I've had the Ring of Brodgar to myself on a July evening. There are literally hundreds of other places straight out of a ghost story, and not just prehistoric - Kirkwall Cathedral is marvellous.

Callanish on Lewis is equally terrific, even impressive on a grey, drizzly day. With good skies and/or the moon and/or snow, truly magical.

And no, I don't work for VisitScotland....