I got a letter from Bob

Pretty quiet with things lately, the collapse of civilization and the end of the world taking precedence over normal matters. However I did purchase a couple of items from ebay re BoSh, one I thought I had which turned out I didn’t, and an impulse buy which I came across during semi regular searches for Bob Shaw stuff. Under a tenner for both items too.

Today the first item arrived; a letter from Bob to a friend called Don, also a writer.

March 1977. I was still at school and had no inkling of Bob Shaw and not too much about Science Fiction, being into Robert E Howard a lot. Although I’m pretty sure I saw the movie Logan’s Run around this time, perhaps the Doc Savage movie too: UK generally being behind US in film releases then.

Bob states he had just rushed off his latest novel to the publishers, which was late.

Shadow of Heaven, Ship of Strangers and Vertigo came out in 1978, a year later so I’m wondering which one it was that was late? Vertigo I would suspect, Ship of Strangers being a patch up of short stories. Vertigo came from the one short story. Shadow of Heaven came out as a paperback in 1978 and is just a reprint of the earlier issue as far as I’m aware: although ISFBD does note that it was “Not “abridged”, but not “revised” either. Significantly longer than the earlier British NEL editions that were “abridged.””

With the wonders of modern technology the address can be looked up. Door numbering on Google Street View isn’t clear but it shows a pub at the corner of the street and an ambulance station across from the houses. Not sure if either were there in the 70s. The houses themselves are pretty ornate, a little old fashioned and traditional compared to your modern terraced property. It’s probably a ten minute walk from there to Market Street, which Bob Shaw can be seen walking down in Encounter with a Madman.

I also came across the item below on ebay, being sold by his son.

Not of too much interest to me as a big Bob Shaw fan and I’m nowhere near enough to collect in person anyway.