The Science-Fantasy Megapack

by E. C. Tubb

  Another Yorkshire-born British writer, GORDON LANDSBOROUGH (1913-1983) began his career as a chemist, before switching to journalism. After active service in North Africa during the War, Landsborough returned to London. In 1949 he was appointed editor of Hamilton Co. Stafford Ltd., an undistinguished paperback publisher of pulp fiction. Landsborough made vast improvements in their list and rebranded them in 1951 as ‘Panther Books’, publishing a regular series of genre novels, most notably science fiction. He also launched the famous British SF maga­zine, Authentic Science Fiction. As part of his edito­rial duties, Landsborough wrote westerns, crime, and foreign legion thrillers, mostly under his personal pseudonym of Mike M’Cracken. His personal memoir of this period of his career can be found in the book Vultures of the Void: The Legacy by Philip Harbottle.

  In 1954 Panther Books became one of the leading British publishers, switching from original genre novels to paperback reprints of bestselling hardcover novels from other publishers. Nonfiction titles predominated, especially Second World War books, and the fiction titles were by bestselling writers. In 1957 Landsborough started Four Square Books. Michael Geare, who was employed by him in 1957 as sales manager, said of him that ‘He was a gifted, clever, likeable chap, and really knew every­thing about book publishing. On one occasion when we were a book short on the list, he took five days off and wrote the book himself. It wasn’t half a bad paper­back, either.’ Four Square Books was very successful, and were sold to New English Library in 1962. Landsborough went on to create several other successful imprints, most notably the children’s paperback company, Armada Books (later bought out by Collins), and another children’s publishing company, Dragon Books. His list included his own adaptations for children of the Tarzan and the Beau Geste series of books, and stories written for children based on the popular television series Bonanza. This was also acquired by Collins (Armada).

  During this time he continued writing, producing a dozen books under his own name, the bestselling of which in 1956 was Tobruk Commando. In 1956 he also published a book about the Battle of the River Plate, with sales revenue going to the survivors’ fund, and in 1961 (under the pseudonym Alan Holmes) the book of Tony Hancock’s film The Rebel. In the 1970s he produced another five books, including the popular Glasshouse Gang series. Later in that decade he worked on freelance publishing ventures in Hong Kong and Australia. After returning to England, he turned his hand to bookselling, opening up a remainder book­selling business, Bargain Books. Until the end of his life he was an active campaigner for several charities, as well as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

  In recent years several English publishers have been reissuing the best of his western and crime and foreign legion novels, and many of his dynamic detective thrillers are being published in the USA for the first time by The Borgo Press. among them Call in the Feds!, FBI Agent, FBI Showdown, and The Grab.

  E. C. TUBB (1919-2010) was a British writer who penned some 140 novels and 230 short stories in his career, many of them in the science-fiction field. He’s best-known today for his Dumarest of Terra series of thirty-three novels. His Wildside Press and Borgo Press books include: The Best Science Fiction of E. C. Tubb (2004), Enemy of the State: Fantastic Mystery Stories (2011), Sands of Destiny: A Novel of the French Foreign Legion (2011), The Wager: Science Fiction Mystery Tales (2011), Tomorrow: Science Fiction Mystery Tales (2011), The Ming Vase and Other Science Fiction Stories (2011), The Wonderful Day: Science Fiction Short Stories (2012), Star Haven: A Science Fiction Tale (2012), Galactic Destiny: A Science Fiction Tale (2012), Assignment New York: A Mike Lantry Classic Crime Novel (2013), Only One Winner: Science Fiction Mystery Tales (2013), and a trilogy of historical novels (2013): Atilus the Slave, Atilus the Gladiator, and Atilus the Lanista.

  English writer PETER OLDALE lives in Cornwall with his wife Adrienne, who is also a successful author, and with whom he has often collaborated. They are the authors of numerous bestselling nonfiction books on diverse subjects, including titles on plant propagation, growing fruit and vegetables, and Navigating Britain’s Coastline. His first fantasy story, “Problem Child” was published in Vision of Tomorrow in 1970, and was quickly anthologized by Richard Davis for The Year’s Best Horror Stories (1971). It has since been reprinted several times, most recently in Chilling Tales for Dark Nights; in March 2013 an Audio version of “Problem Child” was posted on YouTube.

  ERIC C. WILLIAMS (1918-2010) was a British science fiction author who began his career as one of the most prominent prewar fans, appearing in early fanzines alongside such friends and contemporaries as John Carnell, Arthur C. Clarke, and William F. Temple. His first short stories appeared in Amateur Science Stories in 1937 and 1938. The war ended his writing ambitions, and he did not reemerge professionally until the mid-1960s, when he achieved success with several short stories in Carnell’s SF magazines, and most notably with “The Garden of Paris” in the Carnell-edited anthology, Weird Shadows from Beyond (1965). This was the first ‘Delacroix of U.N.O.’ story, of whom Williams would later write several more bizarre, off-trail stories. In 1968 his first SF novel The Time Injection appeared, and was followed by another nine, his last novel, Homo Telekins, appearing in 1981. He returned to writing short stories in 1999 when he was invited by Philip Harbottle to write for his magazines Fantasy Annual and Fantasy Adventures. He contributed more than a dozen stories (some under the pen name of Cyril Wellington), including further ‘Delacroix’ stories—many of which were translated into Italian.