Milford 1978

From Andrew Stephenson's Archive and Dave Langford's Checkpoint

Sun 8 Oct 1978 - Sat 14 Oct 1978
@ Compton Guest House, 59-61 Keyhaven Rd, Milford-on-Sea, Lymington, Hampshire, SO4 0QX

Brunner, John: "Six Guesses, One Sure Thing", 2000ww
Buckley, Kathryn (= Bulmer, Pamela): "Well, Who Are You Anyway?", 6000ww
Bulmer, Kenneth: "The Quick And The Dead", 7500ww
Cowper, Richard: "The Attleborough Poltergeist", 10000ww
Duvic, Patrice: "The Eyes On The Bufferflies' Wings", 4000ww
Franke-Winheller, Charlotte: "One Damn Thing", 3500ww
Garnett, David S.: "Crossing The Line", 8000ww
Goddard, James: "Sacrifice", 7500ww
Holdstock, Robert: "Where The Time Winds Blow", 8000ww
Kilworth, Garry: "Institution", 6000ww
Lamming, Bobbie: "The Ink Imp", 10000ww
Langford, David: "The Eyes", 2000ww
LeConte, Marianne: "Hyra The Vamp", 3000ww
Lunan, Duncan: "The Day And The Hour", 5000ww
Parkinson, Bob: "The Early, Imaginary Adventures Of God", 2700ww
Priest, Christopher: "Schubert's Eighth" (part of 5000ww), 4000ww
Redd, David: "MegaSweep", 6000ww
Stephenson, Andrew: "The Crimes And Punishments Of Edward DuLaine", 4000ww

MILFORD (UK): (Dave Langford, literary mobster, reports) "The 1978 Milford (UK) Writers' Conference rocked the foundations of the universe in a series of spasms from the 8th-15th of October. Members included some exotic foreigners -- Charlotte Franke from Germany, Patrice Duvic (Leroy Kettle look-alike, imagine the horror of it) & Marianne Leconte from France, Duncan Lunan from the barbaric Pictish provinces -- and enough boring old Britons to justify starting a new sentence. These were: John Brunner, Ken Bulmer, Pamela Bulmer ("Kathryn Buckley"), Richard Cowper, Dav Garnett, Jim Goddard, Rob Holdstock* (whose submission included exotic characters such as "Rian Burgess"), Garry Kilworth* (next year's Chairman), Bobbie Lamming* ("Robin Douglas"), Dave Langford* (me), Bob Parkinson, Chris Priest, Dave Redd (still secret master of Haverfordwest), and Andrew Stephenson*. Asterisks indicate wretched elitist members of the "Pieria Mob", the mere mention of which is sufficient to turn Ritchie Smith's stomach (no mean feat). Now the greatest force in literature since R.L.Fanthorpe, the Mob totally controls the '79 Milford committee... But I digress.

The savage criticisms and learned discussions all took place in the cheap and friendly Compton Hotel, Milford-on-Sea; feared tensions resulting from the hugeness of one or two (well, one) of the above Names somehow failed to materialize. Manuscripts were torn to pieces and flung in the face of the author, but in the most amiable fashion; virtually the only bit of exciting scandal was the Great Fire-Alarm Hoax which proved to be Ken Bulmer and Ken's pipe committing abominations near a smoke-detector. A micro-party at the weekend brought along half a dozen publishers' representatives. All these people, rather than hang about the writers' necks offering huge advances, preferred to play pool, darts, or drunk..." (DL)

Back to reports index