- quite a few british artists, like chris moore, found their ways into work on uk p/b publishers' sf lists starting off with an art director's brief ''do me a chris foss cover'' for their first commissions, just as others were told, ''do me a bruce pennington cover''; good art directors picked up on those that actually produced better cover art that wasn't simply pastiche - and were prepared to consider their more than merely competent artists' completely original work. (this comment is from another edition of this book)
licensed from abp/eyre-methuen, who published the first uk edition the previous year, in 9/1975
not for sale to the general public nor via the book trade, only to members of the science fiction book club, initially, and then to members of other readers union ltd. book clubs.
cover (d-j) art (should be b+w by tim newling (or possibly by terry james); seen reported to be by peter tybus - i'm not sure by whom - and it must surely be a mistake; peter tybus did the eyre methuen h/cvr full-colour d-j art)
cover price (none)
224pp. including titles, indica etc, end pp.
renumbered cat# 5114 under david & charles's ownership of the readers union group: this mayn't've been explicit anywhere upon the book or its dust-jacket. (this comment is from another edition of this book)
third printing of the methuen/abp p/b setting, first mandarin imprint printing
cover art unsigned, uncredited
cover price £3.50, australia $8.95, new zealand $12.95
224pp. including titles, indica etc, end pp. advertising
methuen/abp group received an out-of-the-blue unsolicited offer for the entire publishing group and the abp board decided that, if they were worth that much to one prospective buyer when they weren't trying to sell themselves off, they ought to see what the publishing group'd fetch in a public open auction...
- ipc/reed hamlyn publishing group plc ended up with the spoils, and after a little waffling about, renamed themselves the "octopus publishing group" and ''methuen", "mandarin", sold off bits, booted elsbeth lindner, the general fiction editor, out into what was intended to be a dead-end h/cvr imprint of her own that mustn't publish commercial fiction - but mustn't lose money - and stopped paying yr hmbl srppnt. for work done - and that was that, for me. and, pretty soon, for the sf list i'd spent most of the decade or so - less the holocaust^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H happy hamlyn paperbacks period - working on.
(elsbeth lindner embarrassed the octopus publishing group editorial board even more, by making her lime tree books imprint profitable in very short order, and was either sacked for this dreadful crime, or just made redundant. she's since moved to the states, where good commissioning editors are - mostly - properly appreciated.) (this comment is from another edition of this book)
first methuen/abp group p/b printing, first uk p/b edition
cover art by chris moore (unsigned, uncredited; in ''journeyman: the art of chris moore '' (2000), q.v.)
cover price 60p, australia $1.90, new zealand $2.10
224pp. including titles, indica etc, end pp. advertising (this comment is from another edition of this book)
second methuen/abp group uk p/b printing, first magnum books imprint printing
cover art by chris moore (credited on back cover)
cover price 85p, australia $2.95, new zealand $2.75, canada $2.50
224pp. including titles, indica etc, end pp. advertising (this comment is from another edition of this book)