Wednesday, October 29, 2008

OT: Wiffle Lever to Full!

I've just finished reading Wiffle Lever to Full! in which author Bob Fischer visits cult tv and sci-fi conventions the length and breadth of Britain. Bob's aim by the end of the year is to ask a question at a talk.

Wiffle Lever to Full! is very funny and nostalgic and though the author's a few years younger than me, I feel I'm from a similar era :-). The title is derived from a phrase that Steven Pacey (Tarrant in Blake's 7) would say in rehearsals when he couldn't remember the dialogue.

The official blog is here.

Synopsis from amazon.co.uk:
He may not have a TARDIS or an X-Wing Fighter, but Bob Fischer is boldly going where, um, lots of men have gone before. And, to a lesser extent, possibly even a few women. Encountering gay Cybermen, obsessive Janet Ellis fans and Douglas Adams devotees hell-bent on destroying Blakes 7 lovers with water-pistols, Bob embarks on a marathon twelve-month journey around the country's sci-fi and cult TV conventions. Part fun travelogue, part field report, part misty-eyed childhood memoir, Bob freewheels his way from Doctor Who to Discworld, Star Wars to Star Trek and Robin Of Sherwood to Red Dwarf. In space, no one can hear you scream. And don't expect much sympathy in Peterborough, either.

Crime Fiction conventions differ from sci-fi conventions in that very little fancy dress is required (a similar amount of drinking seems to be involved though).

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