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The 34th Novacon, a small annual convention run by the Birmingham SF Group, took place in Walsall at the beginning of November. Guest of honor I an Watson, was joined by an array of the finest British SF writers including Jon Courtenay Grimwood, lan McDonald, Charles Stross, as well as a plethora of fans including Alison Scott, Pat McMurray, Claire Brialey, Mark Plummer, Tony Keen, Dave Hicks, Cat Coast - and Peter Weston, who talked about his new history of British fandom, With Stars in My Eyes. The highlight, for some, was the Sunday night awards ceremony, in which Ian Watson handed out the Novas. Nova Awards are voted on by Novacon members who can demonstrate a basic knowledge of current fanzines. The results were remarkably similar to last year's: Pete Young's Zoo Nation won Best Fanzine, with Claire Brialey awarded Best Fanwriter and Sue Mason Best Fan Artist. The Fanwriter award was won on second-place votes: Claire was equalled in total points and first-place votes by Tony Keen (who was also runner-up in 2003), but had more second-place votes. Martin Tudor, taking a break after three years of chairing Novacon, also presented the occasional Best Fan Nova (awarded by the Novacon committee) to Ray Bradbury (the British fan, not the American author), who joked that he'd have taken more care designing the trophies if he'd known he was going to be taking one of them home again!
As winter draws on, literary London is in the grip of a variety of strange and unpleasant diseases: not the usual run of coughs, colds, influenza and the like that breed so merrily in the dank, dark British winter, but such evils as Buscard's Murrain, Razor Nail Bone Rot and Fruiting Body Syndrome. Before you all go rushing to your doctor for a full list of the symptoms, may I refer you to The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases! This new anthology, featuring the best of British and American writers, is edited by Doctors Jeff Vandermeer and Mark Roberts, and has been the focus of not one but two recent soirees in London. At the first of these, Mark Roberts was on hand at the Phoenix Arts Club to celebrate the launch...