The British Fantasy Society (BFS) was founded in 1971 as the British Weird Fantasy Society, an offshoot of the

British Science Fiction Association The British Science Fiction Association Limited is an organisation founded in 1958 by a group of British academics, science fiction fans, authors, publishers and booksellers, in order to promote the writing, criticism, and study of science fiction ...

. The society is dedicated to promoting the best in the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and horror

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

s. In 2000, the BFS won the Special Award: Non-Professional at the

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy literature, fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year a ...

s. The society also has its own awards, the annual

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

s, created in 1971 at the suggestion of its president, the author

Ramsey Campbell Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...

. It held its first Fantasycon in 1975. The current British Fantasy Society has no direct connection with the earlier science fiction group using the same name from 1942 to 1946.

Publications

The BFS currently publishes two magazines, ''BFS Horizons'', its fiction publication; and the ''BFS Journal'', its non-fiction and academic publication. Each has two issues a year, with alternating schedules. These are available in both print and electronically. It also produces a monthly members only email, which rounds up news, reviews and usually includes an exclusive short story. Previous publications include ''Prism'', which featured news, reviews and columns, ''Dark Horizons'', which featured fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and enjoyed the patronage of many established authors, artists, critics and journalists, and ''New Horizons'', issued twice a year from 2008 to 2010, which published fiction and articles, but not poetry. There was also ''Shelflings'', an ezine collecting reviews from the BFS website. The society continues to produce a series of publications, including numbered

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

s of works by

William Hope Hodgson William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and sci ...

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...

, Peter Tremayne,

August Derleth August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the ...

, and

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

. Magazines previously published include ''Winter Chills'' (later renamed ''Chills''), edited by Peter Coleborn, and ''Mystique: Tales Of Wonder'', edited by

Mike Chinn Mike Chinn is a horror, fantasy, science fiction and comics writer from Birmingham, England. Chinn has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection and Best Short Story. He created the Anglerre fantasy series and Robot Kid ...

. Both these magazines were independent publications, but linked to the BFS, and in the case of ''Mystique'', absorbed into ''Dark Horizons'' after a few issues. Paperback titles include ''

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...

: Mythmaker for the Millennium'' by Suzanne J. Barbieri, and ''Annabel Says'', a modern ghost story by Simon Clark and

Stephen Laws Sir Stephen Charles Laws, is a British lawyer and civil servant who served as the First Parliamentary Counsel between 2006 and 2012. Laws read law at Bristol, graduating in 1972. He was the first in his family to go to University. After a year ...

. In 2007 it published ''HP Lovecraft in Britain: a Monograph'', written by Stephen Jones and illustrated by

Les Edwards Les Edwards (born 7 September 1949) is a British illustrator known for his work in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres, and has provided numerous illustrations for book jackets, posters, magazines, record covers and games during his ...

''Dark Horizons''

''Dark Horizons'', the journal of the British Fantasy Society, was published from 1971 to 2010, before being folded into the ''British Fantasy Society Journal''. Its contents and subject matter varied, according to the tastes of the editors and the contents of the other magazines being published by the BFS at the same time, but generally included some combination of fantasy, science-fiction and horror-related fiction, articles, poetry and artwork. Its editors included: *

Rosemary Pardoe ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was known by the scientific name ''Rosmari ...

, issues 1–4, 1971–72 * Adrian Cole, issues ?–6, 1973–? * Adrian Cole and

David A Sutton David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, issues 7–? * Stephen Jones *

and John Merritt, issues 19–22, 1979–1981 *

, issues 23–29, 1981–? *

David J. Howe David J. Howe is a British writer, journalist, publisher, and media historian. Biography David Howe was born 24 August 1961 and established himself (in the early 1980s) as an authoritative media historian through writing articles for fanzin ...

* Peter Coleborn,

and Phil Williams, issue 37, 1998 * Peter Coleborn and

, issue 38, 1999 *

Debbie Bennett Debbie (or Debby or Deb) is a feminine given name, commonly but not always short for Deborah (or Debra and related variants). Notable people * Debbie Allen, American actress, choreographer and film director *Debbie Armstrong, American athlete *D ...

, issues 39–46, 2001–2004 *

Marie O'Regan Marie O'Regan is a British horror writer and editor. Biography Marie O'Regan is based in Derbyshire where she is the co-editor of a number of books and has written for horror magazines including ''Fortean Times'', '' Rue Morgue'', and '' Death ...

, issue 47, 2005 *

and Jenny Barber, issues 48–49, 2005–2006 * Peter Coleborn and

Jan Edwards Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

, issues 50–52, 2006–2008 * Stephen Theaker, issues 53–57, 2008–2010

''The BFS Journal''

The BFS Journal is produced biannually and collects together non-fiction articles on Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction. These include academic papers, book and film reviews, author interviews and more. The current editor for the BFS Journal is

Allen Stroud Allen Stroud is a researcher and university lecturer at Coventry University. He is currently leading the Creative Futures project, a funded research partnership between Coventry University and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) ...

, who took over from Stuart Douglas in 2016.

Members

Another notable member of the British Fantasy Society is the author

Stephen Gallagher Stephen Gallagher (born 13 October 1954) is an English screenwriter and novelist. Gallagher was born in Salford, Greater Manchester. Career Gallagher has written novels and television scripts, including for the BBC television series '' Docto ...

References

Sources

* Peter Roberts, "British Fantasy Society", The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, ed. by John Clute and Peter Nicholls (New York: St Martin's Press, 1995), p. 159 * David A Sutton, “When Dark Horizons Turned Magenta”, Dark Horizons 50 (2007), pp. 4–5 * Debbie Bennett, “21st Century Horizons”, Dark Horizons 50 (2007), p. 72 * Mike Chinn, “From Dinosaurs to Disks: Fifty Issues of Dark Horizons”, Dark Horizons 50 (2007), pp. 88–89, 2007

External links

British Fantasy Society
{{Authority control Organizations established in 1971 Science fiction organizations British fantasy 1971 establishments in the United Kingdom Fantasy organizations Clubs and societies in the United Kingdom