By Victor Gonzalez
This article previously appeared in
Progress Report 1
There are a lot of ways to introduce yourself to Peter Weston, for he is a well-rounded fan. You could offer him a drink, a cigar, or a fanzine; perhaps a vintage automobile door handle, or a vintage Amazing Stories. Pete is one of those science-fiction fans who really likes to learn something new, read something original, or meet someone he can have fun with.
Pete's heyday as a fanzine fan started about 1963, when an obsession with reading science fiction led him into fandom and he produced the first issue of Zenith (later Speculation). In 1973, he won the very first Nova award – British fandom's highest honor – and then withdrew into career and family life. Right.
In 1979, Pete chaired Seacon, the British worldcon. Twenty odd years later, he still has the energy that helps make fandom twirl. Peter is also an industrialist – now retired – who owned and managed a factory that produced door handles for some of Britain's more prestigious makes. He lives in a mansion with his beautiful wife Eileen; he has three gorgeous daughters who are far more sensible than he; and he's a member of the local Rotary. For at least the last decade, the Hugos themselves – the rocket part, that is – have been forged by his workers.
In the foremost sense, Peter Weston is a man with a sense of wonder. While hawking door handles at a car show that attracted tens of thousands in November, he found the time to stop in at Novacon and discuss Peter Hamilton, Ken Macleod, the future of online fandom, the economics of vintage car shows and the origins of the Hum & Sway. It was a few years ago when I first met him at an Eastercon in Manchester, staked out at a table with the rest of the waistcoat fans in a massively crowded bar, trading cigars and fannish war stories. In should be enough to say that like any promising friendship, the two of us found new energy in the association.
Peter Weston is a well-rounded fan. He's both sercon and fannish; he is both opinionated and open to new ideas. He will be an excellent spokesman both for science fiction's literary underpinnings and its social effulgence.