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Category Archive: Events & Conventions
Out Now: ‘Basil Copper a Life in Books’ by Stephen Jones
Posted by Darren on February 29th, 2008 at 18:09
Last Saturday saw the official launch of our bilio-biography of one of the living legends of British horror writing.
In Basil Copper: A Life in Books, horror editor and anthologist extraordinaire Stephen Jones had been granted unprecedented access to Basil Copper's notes and source material, and the result is a truly unique and in-depth study of the author and his works.
The book is in stock and shipping now (pre-order customers may already have received their copies) in two editions:
- Jacketed Hardcover - £25.00 / $50.00 (approx.) signed by Basil Copper and Stephen Jones.
- Hardcover - £15.00 / $30.00 (approx.) unsigned
And a great time was had by all at the launch event; we'll have a write-up for you (complete with photos, courtesy of master-snapper Peter Coleborn) just as soon as we've had chance to gather our notes together...
‘Basil Copper: A Life in Books’ launch event, London, February 23rd
Posted by Darren on January 18th, 2008 at 17:20
Hosted by the British Fantasy Society and PS Publishing, the bio/bibliography Basil Copper: A Life in Books, compiled and edited by Stephen Jones, will be launched on Saturday, February 23rd at The Upstairs Bar, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, 22 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1AA from 6.00 p.m. onwards.
Among those signing copies will be Basil Copper, editor/co-designer Stephen Jones, artists Randy Broecker and Les Edwards, co-designer Michael Marshall Smith and publisher Peter Crowther. Special Guests (subject to commitment) include legendary anthology editors Hugh Lamb, Michel Parry and David A. Sutton.
About the Author:
Basil Copper became a full-time writer in 1970. His first story in the horror field, 'The Spider', was published in 1964 in The Fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories, since when his short fiction has appeared in numerous collections and anthologies, and been extensively adapted for radio and television.
Along with two non-fiction studies of the vampire and werewolf legends, his other books include the novels The Great White Space, The Curse of the Fleers, Necropolis, The Black Death and The House of the Wolf.
Copper has also written more than fifty hardboiled thrillers about Los Angeles private detective Mike Faraday, and has continued the adventures of August Derleth's Sherlock Holmes-like consulting detective Solar Pons in several volumes of short stories and the novel Solar Pons Versus the Devil's Claw.
About the Book:
Concluding three years' extensive research, multiple award-winning editor and writer Stephen Jones was given unprecedented and unrestricted access to the books and papers of renowned British macabre and crime writer Basil Copper.
The result is Basil Copper: A Life in Books, a unique and in-depth study of the author and his works. Not only does this volume contain the most comprehensive Working Bibliography ever compiled of Basil Copper's productive output – including Macabre and Supernatural Novels and Collections, the 'Solar Pons' series, the 'Mike Faraday' series, Short Fiction and Novellas, Media Adaptations, Unpublished Works and much more, enhanced with commentary by the author himself – but it also features several rare and obscure articles covering everything from Arkham House creator August Derleth to a brief history of Count Dracula.
There are also a number of short stories, most of them original to this volume, ranging from his very first published work back in 1938 to a brand-new “Mike Faraday” detective adventure, along with a complete television script based on M.R. James' classic horror story 'Count Magnus'.
With an in-depth look at the author's life and career by acclaimed ghost story editor Richard Dalby, and Basil Copper's inspirational Guest of Honour speech from the 1977 British Fantasy Convention, Basil Copper: A Life in Books is illustrated with numerous cover reproductions, artwork and unique personal photographs.
The book will be published in two editions:
- Jacketed Hardcover - £25.00 / $50.00 (approx.) signed by Basil Copper and Stephen Jones.
- Hardcover - £15.00 / $30.00 (approx.) unsigned
Special Offers:
If you cannot make it to the signing, but still want to pre-purchase a personally-signed copy (or copies) please contact us for details of how to place your order. Dealer's enquiries welcome – trade discounts available.
BFS BONUS!!! On the night, a number of specially-priced copies of the PS hardcover anthology Don't Turn Out the Light will be available on a first-come basis. Edited by Stephen Jones, this third volume in the acclaimed new 'Not at Night' series features work by Basil Copper, Paul McAuley, Mark Samuels, Jay Russell, Randy Broecker, Les Edwards and many others (including Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles L. Grant and Hugh B. Cave...)
Eurocon 2007: SF Authors take Copenhagen!
Posted by Darren on October 9th, 2007 at 12:07
PS author Zoran Zivkovic sent us a few photos taken at Eurocon 2007, which took place in the lovely Danish capital city of Copenhagen over the weekend of September 21st - 23rd (the same weekend as Fantasycon, which is why none of us were able to attend) and where Zoran was one of the Guests of Honour.
L to R, above: Harry Harrison, Zoran Zivkovic, Klaus Mogensen, Anne McCaffrey and Stephen Baxter. Cheryl Morgan (who was in attendance) says, via the comments, below: "It isn't a GoH panel [correcting my earlier mis-captioning - Ariel]. I think it is the Saturday morning 'why do we go to conventions' panel."
PS is proud to be the UK publisher of the following titles by Zoran Živković:
- Impossible Stories
- Twelve Collections and the Teashop
- The Last Book (forthcoming, 2008)
- The Bridge (forthcoming, 2008)
- The Book, The Writer, The Reader (forthcoming, 2008)
And we're equally proud to have published three Stephen Baxter novellas to-date:
The Largesse of the Gentleman Publisher…
Posted by Darren on October 8th, 2007 at 11:08
There is a Gentleman Publisher
And he stoppeth one of three
"By thy short grey beard and glittering eye,
Are those free books for me?"*
The photo above was sent in by Peter Coleborn - publisher, photographer, editor of the BFS magazine Dark Horizons - and shows our very own Peter C demonstrating his generosity during the British Fantasy Awards ceremony at this year's Fantasycon in Nottingham.
You see, there were a few PS titles left in the dealer's room at the end of the weekend and so our Mr Crowther - rather than cart them all back to PS HQ - decided to give them away to any Fantasycon 'virgins' who were brave enough to stand up and be so-identified at the start of the ceremony. A certain scoundrel of the Lebbon clan, who we suspected of being far from virginal, had to be sent packing with a flea in his ear, 'tis true, but otherwise the operation was a great success.
One lucky recipient actually went away with a particularly rare item - a slipcased (no less!) copy of the original (mis-)printing of Ramsey Campbell's (according to the spine, anyhow) The Darkest Part of the Wods [sic] (dammit, Pete told me he'd had all of those pulped... he must have missed one!)
And a couple of weeks later, we received a very nice thank-you email from one such virgin, by the name of Kelvin, who said: "I would just like to say a very big thank you for the copy of Moby Jack and Other Tall Tales by Garry Kilworth that you gave me, after the banquet, at FantasyCon '07 ... A most excellent compilation of diverse and different long (short) stories; each one delivering a point, through differing characters, in wonderfully diverse settings. Mr Kilworth’s imagination is a treasure to behold."
There's nothing we at PS like more than a happy customer, and we reckon they probably don't come much happier!
*With sincere apologies to the the shade of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who must be approaching at least 200 r.p.m. after that one...
Looking forward to Fantasycon… and a PS special offer for attendees
Posted by Darren on September 20th, 2007 at 14:10
It's that time of year again, when the miscellaneous members of the British Fantasy Society, crawling from their foetid dens and dank cellars, make their lurching, shambling way to the appointed place of congregation for the annual festival of book-talk, beer-consumption, acquaintance-renewal, prize-giving, human sacrifice and general merriment* that is Fantasycon ... which, for the second year running takes place in the Brittania Hotel, Nottingham, this coming weekend, September 21st - 23rd.
Here at PS Publishing we always look forward to this once-a-year opportunity to undo the rusty ankle-shackles, swing wide the dungeon door and creep forth into the blessed daylight - blinking myopically and shrieking in consternation at roar of the passing horseless-carriages - and wend our way to gather with others of a similar ilk and persuasion. It's always a special occasion for us, particularly as for five out of the past six years we've been honoured to win the British Fantasy Award for Best Small Press. And as we've been shortlisted again this year, there's a damn good chance you'll find us in attendance at the annual BFS Awards banquet, with assorted appendages firmly crossed...
Well, Pete will definitely be there, because he's been press-ganged accepted an invitation to act as the Master of Ceremonies for the event (so I hope if you're attending that you've warmed up your heckling muscles). And yours-truly will be lurking in the vicinity as well, quite possibly acting in some sort of hosting capacity for the PS table. And of course, prior to that we'll both be around and about pretty much all weekend, just in case you want to ask either of us anything about PS Publishing, or the News Room, or the new website, or what we think of the new Arcade Fire album, or what our favourite single malt is (a double one, thanks, wahey!), or the state of the economy, or global warming, or... well, anything, really.
But the main point to this post (and there is one, I assure you, despite evidence to the contrary) is to tell you that if you're at Fantasycon this weekend, you should definitely bring your pennies along with you (or even better, your plastic!) because we'll be making a very special offer via our table in the dealer's room... we'll not spoil the surprise here, but suffice to say it's a bit of a stonker... brace yourselves!
*Human sacrifice optional (additional charge may apply), general merriment all-but guaranteed!
PS Publishing scoops five BFS Award 2007 shortlist nominations
Posted by Darren on August 7th, 2007 at 14:06
Here at PS Publishing we're extremely pleased and proud to have heard - just this morning - that we have been nominated in no fewer than five categories of the British Fantasy Awards for 2007.
Our nominations this year include:
Best Novel
The Face of Twilight by Mark Samuels
Best Short Fiction
'The Veteran' by Conrad Williams, published in Postscripts #6
Best Small Press
Peter Crowther, PS PUBLISHING
Best Artist
Les Edwards*
Best Non-Fiction
Cinema Macabre, edited by Mark Morris
Pete is, naturally, chuffed to bits, and had the following to say on the subject: "The announcement of this year's BFS Awards shortlists prompted the usual run of good-natured badinage about PS being up for the Best Small Press Award for the umpteenth year (Tim Lebbon even quipped that there were moves afoot to change it to the PS Publishing Award! What a fine idea!)
"But all such banter aside, I'd just like to say this: Award nominations put forward by the great book-buying public - and the BFS Awards are exemplary in this respect - are the only measure by which a publisher - or, indeed, a writer, an editor or an artist - can guage the esteem in which his or her work is held and the entertainment quotient that such work promotes. Of course I want for PS and PS books and stories to win, but I have to say that looking through recent years' shortlists (and this year's is a particularly fine example), it really is enough just to be nominated.
"For instance, in the actual Best Small Press category, we're up against Andy Cox's TTA, Andrew Hook's Elastic, David Howe's Telos and Chris Teague's Pendragon. I'm honoured for PS to be considered an equal of those imprints.
"And whoever picks up the Award on the day, there'll be drinks to be had and old friends (as well as new ones!) to spend some time with. Maybe we'll see you there..."
Looking forward to it immensely, meself...
*Okay, we might be stretching it a bit to claim Les Edwards as a fifth PS-specific nomination, but we do like to think of him as most definitely one of ours. In fact, it's not particularly widely-known, but Les actually resides in a dank cellar here at PS-HQ, where we keep him chained to a radiator with little more than a sketch pad and easel within arm's reach; only occasionally letting him out (suitably electronically tagged, obviously) to do bits and bobs for other publishers... :)
Close encounters of the Readercon kind
Posted by Darren on July 10th, 2007 at 15:31
PS's chief book designer, Robert Wexler, was an attendee at the recent Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts, and sent back the following photographic evidence of his experiences:
Robert says: "Apparently, Paul Witcover took a picture of Scott Edelman attacking me and Elizabeth Hand [Illyria, Bibliomancy]. I think we survived."
Steve Aylett reading, London, July 22nd
Posted by Darren on July 9th, 2007 at 10:16
PS Author Steve Aylett (Fain the Sorcerer) tells us he'll be "doing a reading / performance on July 22nd at stand-up venue the Troy Club - CROBAR, 17 Manette Street, London W1D 4AS [Google Maps], just next to Foyles Bookstore - which starts around 7.30pm.
"Other performers are Toby Hadoke, Liam Mullone, Eric's Tales Of The Sea. MC is Andrew O'Neill (Saxondale etc)."