KEN CHESLIN

 

Ken Cheslin died at the beginning of August 2000. He and I went back quite a long way: it was Ken in fact who introduced Dave Hale and myself to fandom in 1960. I remember well the first time I met him, in his front room at 18 New Farm Road, surrounded by the SF books he had used a big chunk of his compensation money (from the industrial accident which lost him his right hand) to buy. I shall miss him. There are lots of memories: Playing Galactic Trader at the old SADO meetings, then walking home from Amblecote together at 2am; the evening we spent together just before I left for the USA in '67; the day I went to Bradford in '69 for Ken's wedding and was so severely delayed by fog on the way that I missed the whole thing; the OMPA years when Ken was AE and I was treasurer; and later times when we didn't see one another all that much except at conventions but still kept in contact and remained good friends.

In recent years I felt that Ken wasn't moving on: that his ideal fandom was the late 50s-early 60s and that he wished the world was still like that. But he was a good mate. Have a drink for me in the bar at that celestial convention, Ken.


There's quite a lot about Ken in Peter Weston's autobiography "With Stars In My Eyes".


 

October 7th 2004

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