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Pickersgill, Greg

Entry updated 21 August 2023. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor, Fan.

(1951-    ) UK fan and critic, a former civil servant, who began to publish work of genre interest with reviews for Vector in 1968. His early FanzinesFouler (six issues 1970-1972, numbered 2 to 7) edited with Leroy Kettle, the solo Ritblat (two issues 1974), and Stop Breaking Down (seven issues 1976-1981) edited with Simone Walsh – were central to 1970s London Ratfandom; they included much trenchant and influential fanzine criticism. Returning to his native Haverfordwest in 1991, he launched the solo Rastus Johnson's Cakewalk (seven issues 1993-1994). The best of his fanzine writing was assembled for Interaction, the 2005 Worldcon at which he was fan guest of honour, as Can't Get Off The Island: A Greg Pickersgill Collection (2005 chap; rev 2017 ebook). Other contributions to Fandom include involvement in organizing many UK Conventions and maintenance of a website [see under links below] which contains the "Memory Hole" fanzine Bibliography and archives selected UK fanzines plus material relating to, inter alia, the early British Science Fiction Association, the International Fantasy Award and the UK Science Fiction Book Club.

Perhaps of greatest sf importance is his editorial work with David Langford on a project originally proposed by Pickersgill: the assembly of all Algis Budrys's review columns for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as a three-volume collection comprising Benchmarks Continued: The F&SF "Books" Columns Volume 1: 1975-1982 (coll 2012), Benchmarks Revisited: The F&SF "Books" Columns Volume 2: 1983-1986 (coll 2013) and Benchmarks Concluded: The F&SF "Books" Columns Volume 3: 1987-1993 (coll 2013). Pickersgill also worked on the further Budrys collection Beyond the Outposts: Essays on SF and Fantasy 1955-1996 (coll 2020), again edited with Langford. [RH/DRL]

see also: Doc Weir Award; Eastercon; Fan Funds; Nova Awards.

Gregory Frederick Pickersgill

born Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire: 1951

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