Greg Pickersgill (born 1951), is a British

science fiction fan Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

. Pickersgill's love of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

led him into UK

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...

where he has been involved in both fan-writing and convention-running. He joined the

BSFA The British Science Fiction Association Limited is an organisation founded in 1958 by a group of British academics, science fiction fans, authors, publishers and booksellers in order to promote the writing, criticism, and study of science fiction ...

in 1967, and began writing reviews for the Association's magazine, ''

Vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

'', in 1968. His

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

s include ''Fouler'', ''Ritblat'', ''Stop Breaking Down'', and ''Rastus Johnson's Cakewalk''. Convention activities include developing British fanrooms in the 1970s, fanrooms at the 1987 and 1995

Worldcon Worldcon, officially the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during Wor ...

s and the 2000

Eastercon Eastercon is the common name for the annual British national science fiction convention. The convention is organised by voluntary self-organising committees, rather than a permanent entity. Overview Eastercon attracts 800-1200 fans of scien ...

, and a key role in the British Mexicons of the 1980s. He created the ''Memory Hole'' (a combined permanent fanzine collection and redistribution system), the former Memory Hole internet forum (for discussing reading, collecting and archiving

science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" ...

s) and helped set up The Mexicon Hat (a charitable fund to assist projects related to British fandom; beneficiaries included the journal '' Critical Wave''). A collection of Pickersgill's writing for fanzines, ''Can't Get Off the Island'', was published to coincide with his fan guest-of-honour appearance at the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention, Interaction. Between 2012 and 2013 Pickersgill co-edited, with

David Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and Literary criticism, critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science-fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'' and holds the all-time ...

, a set of three volumes of

Algis Budrys Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, copy editing, editor and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome in collaboration with Jerome ...

's review columns from

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Bouche ...

covering the period 1975-1993.

Books edited

All of the following were co-edited with David Langford: * ''Benchmarks Continued: The F&SF "Books" Columns Volume 1: 1975-1982'' (2012) * ''Benchmarks Revisited: The F&SF "Books" Columns Volume 2: 1983-1986'' (2013) * ''Benchmarks Concluded: The F&SF "Books" Columns Volume 3: 1987-1993'' (2013)

Awards and honours

* Doc Weir Award (1978) *

TransAtlantic Fan Fund The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, often known as ''TAFF'', is a crowdfunding project created in 1953 for the purpose of providing funds to bring well-known and popular members of science fiction fandom familiar to fans on both sides of the ocean, acro ...

winner (1986) *Fan GoH: Follycon (

, 1988) *

Nova Award The Nova Awards were presented annually, between 1973 and 2014, at the UK science fiction convention Novacon and recognised achievement in British and Irish sf fanzines. When initiated in 1973, members of Novacon could nominate fanzines but the a ...

for Fanzine and Fanwriter (1994) *GoH: Interaction (

2005)

Notes

External links

Information on Pickersgill, Memory Hole and other interests

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1951 births Living people People from Haverfordwest {{Wales-bio-stub