So, there it was, Peterborough 1976. Christine Wakelin and her husband Dave were local SF fans, who, through the pages of SF Monthly (keep your eyes open around second-hand stalls for copies) had been to a couple of Star Trek cons but wanted something more to chat about. Then they saw an advert for Man Con 5, that year's EasterCon. (A legendarily bad convention, whose only good point was a football match ref'd by Bob Shaw). At that con Chris had a chat with Keith Freeman who convinced her to start a local group.

     The first meeting was held on May 10 and two people turned up. More people contacted Chris and numbers swelled. On August 24 the group organised a talk at a local bookshop by the Spalding-based author Dan Morgan. He made a good impression on the club, I don't know what he felt about the visit but that year saw the publication of his last SF novel after a career spanning about twenty-five years.

     The following year the club organised a talk by Bob Shaw. The first of a few visits to Peterborough by this writer. A current member of the club from that time is Tony Smith. Other people who were then members were Richard Newcombe and the local artist Pete Walker. During the seventies the club continued to meet regularly and as a group attended such conventions as the Anglicons and Seacon '79, the 37th World SF Convention held in Brighton.

     The story so far: after forming the Peterborough SF Club, which captured such members as Norman Baxter and Tony Smith, Chris and Dave Wakelin flee the country for Africa.

     The early eighties were a low point for the club with membership falling away. Until, that is, Niall Gordon joined. Niall was an experienced gamer who introduced the joys of the then relatively new game of Dungeons and Dragons to the club. People who joined during this time included Dave Brzeski and Jill Paddock. Other games that the club played at this time included the board game Cosmic Encounter. In February 1981 the Writers in Peterborough group brought Brian Aldiss to give a talk at Bretton Library. I remember it was very a well attended event at which Brian chatted and read his short story "Last Orders". Unfortunately, the club managed not to hand out any info about itself at the talk, or else I and others would have probably joined there and then. Or perhaps they didn't want oiks like me.

     In 1982 Chris and Dave returned to find their club in a state of disarray. Acting quickly Chris got an ad into the Personal column of the Evening Telegraph. I just happened to be browsing through the classified section and noticed the ad and quickly persuaded a few friends from school to go along to a meeting, (i.e. they could drive and I couldn't). People who joined about then included Stuart Borgognoni, Chris Ayres, Julian Ransome, Bakul Patel, Pauline Cromwell and Mick Hook.

     1983 and Jimi Hendrix hoped to be a merman. The Peterborough Science Fiction Club had been revitalised by the return of it's founders. It's chair was then Norm Baxter.

     We were then meeting once a month in the back room of the Crown, often in competition with a jazz band. Other nights during the month were gaming and video nights. That year my brother (then manager of Martins (now Menzies) in Queensgate) brought Douglas Adams to the city. That autumn I move to Bedford. In 1984 many of the club went to Eastercon in Brighton, Seacon '84. This was a combined national and european convention and proved to be a good intro to cons for the new members. (I didn't go). The following year the Unicon went to Cambridge for the first time. Unicons started in 1980 at Keele and were held at different colleges and universities each year. They had a definate studenty feel, relaxed and a mix of the scientific and the artistic sides of SF. Camcon's guest was John Christopher who told us tales of the filming of Tripods as well as his long career in writing. Many of the club went to this and Connote8, the Unicon two years later, when it returned to Cambridge.

     In the meantime in Peterborough, the authors Garry Kilworth and Chris Priest had given a talk at the Writer in Peterborough group. This was recorded and broadcast on Radio Hereward, back when it believed in giving a local service, not being part of a chain playing safe music. Also, in this period, the club produced the first issue of it's own fanzine, "A Change of Zinery". A club event was a visit by the author Bob Shaw.

     As I said, in 1987 the Unicon was again held in Cambridge. The guests at that con were childrens author Diana Wynne Jones and local fantast writer Geraldine Harris. This was especially important to the club as by now it was busy organising it's own convention. So a visit to Connote8 helped boost membership. As indeed, a few months later, did the visit to Conspiracy. This was the 45th World SF Con, held that year in Brighton. The guests there were Doris Lessing (who seemed to be never there), Alfred Bester (who actually wasn't there, due to illness and who died shortly afterwards), the Stugatsjy brothers from the then USSR (who almost weren't there), Ray Harryhausen, Jim Burns, Ken and Joyce Slater, Dave Langford and as toastmaster, Brian Aldiss. I've not got the space to tell any stories of that con, but a good number of club members were there including Niall Gordon, Mike Gould, Mike Hook, Peter Irving, Keith Mitchell,Tony Smith, Mike Stone, Richard Taylo and Sue Thurston, who can no doubt tell you tales of their own.

     In May 1998, Cambridgeshire Libraries hosted an SF/Fantasy festival called Exploring other Worlds. Amongst the authors who appeared accross the county were a large contingent from the publisher Unwin Hyman. In Peterborough this meant we had visits from M. John Harrison, Louise Cooper and (heavy sigh) Tanith Lee (twice). (You bet I was happy). Other events included a "design a world" competition sponsored by TSR. (Products of your imagination are copyright).

     In Bretton the local games shop, the Peterborough Dungeon, organised a very successful Games Fest. This featured dealers and demo's from across the country and was great fun. The club's demo game featured Cybermen infested by Aliens on a prehistoric world.

     But on to June. Congregate was held at the Moat House Hotel and the theme was humour in SF/fantasy. The guests of honour were Bob Shaw, Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks, not a bad line up. The film programme included Forbidden Planet, Brazil, Enemy Mine, The Deadly Mantis, The Green Slime, and The 5000 Fingers of Dr T (Dr Seuss meets Fritz Lang). The people who brought you this weekend of unbridled pleasure were Norm Baxter (chair) and Chris Ayres, Pete Bullivant (accountant with more creative skills than J.R.R. Tolkien), Mike Gould, Malcolm Mortimore, Tony Smith and Sue Thurston. I was also on the committee but joined only in the last few months. The con had twin programme streams, dealers room, art show and a relaxed atmosphere. With around two hundred people attending, everyone had a chance to mingle. Thanks mostly to Pete Bullivant's skill with the figures we made a bit of money too.

     As a result of the convention, which I remember being reviewed as one of the best of the eighties, the club fanzine started up again. The second issue was mostly a review of the con. The third featured some good local fiction, including Jill Padock who has gone on to a few professional sales. The next had an interview with the cast of American Eagle (squeaky squeakyy, Ah jar er ist) and Brian Lumley. He also told me that night some ideas for horror stories which I don't think he ever sold. Believe me, they gave me nightmares. The Christmas issue included an interview with the then creative team on the comic Hellblazer. At this time most of the writers and artists being brought to Peterborough were as a result of our local specialist shop, "The House on the Borderland".

     The Peterborough SF Club was founded in 1976 by Christine Wakelin. It was kick-started again by her in 1982. Then run by Norm Baxter, the club organised a successful convention in 1988 with the special guests Bob Shaw, Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks.

     In late 1988 Norm announced that he wanted to give up running the club to concentrate on his O.U. course. We all did out best to ignore this but finally he forced us to have an election. For some reason Pete Cox became the new Chairbadger, and he set about trying to do something. Also at this time, Richard Newcome, (a founder member) started his own professional SF magazine, "The Gate". Over the next few years this gave some of us an insight into the problems of publishing in this country, how distributors work, and the underhand methods some people will go to to try and sell something. Pete ended up smuggling copies into Norway and conning shops shamelessly.

     Back to the club. It's fanzine of spring '89 included an interview with Paul (Avon) Darrow and a look forward to the Stamford Literary Festival. Guests at that included Geoff Ryman, M. John Harrison and Trevor Hoyle. During the summer Mike Gould and Pete Cox organised an art exhibition at the Lady Lodge Art Centre. As well as the artists from the convention, this gave a chance of promotion to other talented individuals. The club continued to bring guests to the city by co-presenting an evening with Writers In Peterborough. Autumn 1989 saw a visit by Josephine Saxton who impressed club members.

     In spring 1990 Peterborough hosted the Filk Con, Con2bile. Filk is the putting of SF/fantasy lyrics to old tunes, or not, sort of. July saw two conventions in Cambridge. The first was Uniconze, the eleventh Unicon. Guests at that were Barrington Bayley, Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe, Dave Langford, artist Bill Sanderson and Ian Watson. Later in the same month was Conjunction, the first RPG convention. A fun event covering all aspects of gaming (except CCG's coz there weren't any back then).

     1991 was the club's fifteenth anniversary and started with a visit by Penelope Lucas in April, promoting her historical fantasy "Wilderness Moon". Another art exhibition was held, at the David Holmes Gallery this time. Visitors in May were Iain Banks, Ramsey Campbell, James Follett, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Gallagher, Mike Jefferies, Graham Joyce, Brian Stapleford, Bryan Talbot, Freda Warrington, Ian Watson and Jonathon Wylie. Another event was a figure painting competition co-sponsored by local shop The Dungeon. As a result of the visit by Grant Naylor, twenty or so club members went to form part of the audience for the filming of an episode of Red Dwarf. Around this time the local media group "Peladon" was restarted by Simon Stabler (KPH) and a guest at one of their meetings was Adrian Rigelsford.

     In spring of 1992 a one-day convention was held in Cambridge and the guest was Ken Campbell. Back at our meetings we had Charlie Rigby along who was publishing/editing an SF mag called "Far Point". Two of the mag's authors also came along. In May the first Fantasy Fair was held at the Cresset, Bretton. These were started by Bruce King together with The Dungeon (gaming), House on the Borderland (comics), and the club (guests). The guests were gaming writer Martin Hackett, comic artist Dave Lloyd and writer Jamie Delano. The autumn saw the first visit to the club by Peter F. Hamilton, who at that time was eagerly waiting for his first novel to be released.

     In February 1993, the second Fantasy Fair was held. The guests were fantasty author Louise Cooper, comic author Pete Milligan and comic artist John Bolton. Through the spring we had meetings with local writers June Counsel and Rich Parsons. At this time some local fans organised the first Trek Dwarf con in Leicester. At this time we met Ryan K. Johnson (American Independant film maker), who has remained a friend of the club. During the summer the club was visited by Steve Bowkett and, in conjunction with the National Gothic Society, Terry Hale. Keren Guilfoyle and Freda Warrington also visited the club, and Keren came back for Fantasy Fair 3 in September. Other guests included local comic writer/artist Chuck Farley (Attom) and from Canada, Dave Sim and Gerhard.

     The next year the club pulled off a minor coup by having Richard Christian Matheson visit. He'd written over three hundred scripts and moved on to film production. He had some great stories. A second Trek Dwarf con was held in Leicester and a fourth Fantasy Fair in Bretton. For the club's eighteenth anniversary we had visits from Colin Greenland, Robert Irwin, Kim Newman and Brian Stapleford. Allen Adams and Nth Dimension organised the first Writers Gate with several Dr Who New Adventures authors present. In the summer, a Unicon was held at New Hall, Cambridge with guests Geoff Ryman and Simon Ings. In the autumn Alex Geairns and various members of PSFC and Nth Dimension amongst others organised the first Cult TV convention in Great Yarmouth. Guests at that con included Harlan Ellison, Jon Pertwee, Carolyn Seymour and loads of others. At this time a joint Nth Dimension and Peterborough SF Club team were doing remarkably well in Telly Addicts, going so far as to win the final. They remain the first all male team to win, the first to get through a sudden-death playoff and one of the few teams to have never been defeated. Not bad for a bunch who drunkenly entered for a laugh. With a final audience of over 10 million viewers, they became the best known SF fans in the country.

     1995 and the club's sponsored fifth Fantasy Fair had guests Maggie Furey, Andrew Herman, Steve Gallgher and Bryan Talbot. This was the day after the second Writers Gate which included Terence Dicks amongst its Dr Who related authors. In the summer the Peterborough SF Writers Circle organised a comic writing workshop with two British writer/artists doing rather well in America - Rik Rawling and Noel Hannon. Later that year the circle released it's first collection of short stories. In the autumn a large number of club members went to the World SF Convention in Glasgow. Guests who came to the club included John Dickson and Mike Scott Rohan. As part of the museum's festival of space flight, the club organised a talk in the library with Steve Baxter, Keith Brooke and Peter F. Hamilton. The Writers Circle helped to organise a workshop with Ian Watson. The autumn also saw the second Cult TV convention.

     Last year the guests at the Fantasy Fair included Lisanne Norman and Joe Dever, while guests at the club included Jonathan Wylie, Nicholas Royle, Garry Kilworth and Fred Clarke talking about his brother Arthur C. At a fantasy evening at the library the club brought Oliver Johnson, Mike Jeffries and Freda Warrington to the city. Waterstones, who the previous year had brought Robert Rankin, Shaun Hutson and Anne McCaffrey for signings, organised a season of genre writers. They brought Rob Grant, Haydn Middleton, Tom Holt, and Paul McAuley amongst others. Other events in the year included Nth Dimension's first relaxed Dr Who convention and Cult TV's third convention.

     And this year? We've had the seventh Fantasy Fair and Nth Dimension's second relaxed day and guests at the club. Over the years we've seen things remain, our meetings on Wednesday clashing with Star Trek and House on the Borderland selling comics; things have changed, Peladon became Nth Dimension; and things have come, new clubs like PAniC, (Peterborough Anime Club), the Sunday night gamers and Trekkers, the club website; and things have gone, Out of this World springs to mind. I'm sure you all have your own favorite memories from the history of the club, no matter how long or for how short a time you've been a member.

     But what of the future? Cult TV have another con' later this year and an eighth Fantasy Fair is planned for next May. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.