Anyone know Bob Shaw's books?

[SJHigbee]

This evening at our local writing club, I sat next to a lovely lady who knew Bob Shaw very well and enthused about his books, particularly "A Wreath of Stars". I was wondering if there were any Bob Shaw fans amongst this well-read group of SFReaders...

[che2000]

Who Goes There? is one of the funniest SF novels ever. Night Walk is rather good, too, as are the Orbitsville novels (and he was, of course, a fellow Northern Irishman).

[Jaqhama]

Night Walk. Vertigo. Are still on my bookshelf. Plus others I don't recall the titles of.
Read all of his books that were available when I was younger and they were in print. Still got a few of them.
Is Bob still with us?

[che2000]

Afraid not, he passed away in '96.

[Jaqhama]

I guessed.
Can't be many of the Masters of SF still with us?

[SJHigbee]

Thank you for that. I'll have to see if I can track down any of his books.

[Bablake]

The questions prompted me to check up on my stock of BS paperbacks. I have 17 titles.
In the early seventies, Bob and I both worked at Vickers Shipbuilding in Barrow-in-Furness; he was PRO there. Several girls in my section had the then latest in electronic typewriters. Bob would bring his manuscripts to me and have them typed up. All very under-the-counter stuff.
He was a great guy and one of the funniest writers ever.

[Jaqhama]

Hey Bablake

Thanks for posting.
It's always great to read inside stuff about authors and their books.
Feel free to relate any Bob Shaw stories you want to share, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying we'd love to read them.
I remember when the electric typers first came out, I remember the golf ball typers too.

[Bablake]

Hi, kjl

Don't have lots of tales of BS but do recall with horror one day arguing with him (of all people) that a light year was a time span and not a distance. Where on earth I got that idea from, I'll never know, Although it was nearly forty years ago, I still cringe at the very thought of it.
You're right; they were the golf ball typers.
At the time that we worked together, Bob had a problem with one of his eyes. The pupil would enlarge to twice the size of the other, causing him some distress.

On a personal note: seeing your home city. Although I live in England, I have a daughter who works at Taronga Zoo and a son who is a policeman up in Queensland.

Good luck with your trip over here.

[SJHigbee]

Thank you for your memories about Bob Shaw - Stella was full of what a kind, funny man he was. I spent half term with my mother, taking my granddaughter with me and am still catching up. But hopefully, I'm hoping to track down some of his books in the next couple of weeks.

[Jaqhama]

Hi, kjl

At the time that we worked together, Bob had a problem with one of his eyes. The pupil would enlarge to twice the size of the other, causing him some distress.

On a personal note: seeing your home city. Although I live in England, I have a daughter who works at Taronga Zoo and a son who is a policeman up in Queensland.

Good luck with your trip over here.

I suffer from a problem with my left eye myself. Every year about Nov/Dec it becomes infected with live cells and I have to use a dilation drop and a powerful antiseptic to stop the infection.
I was bitten by a Goanna some years ago, and the Aboriginals say the poison from a Goanna bite re-occurs every year at the time you get bitten. Strangely enough I was bitten in the month of Dec.

I did a two week night shift at Taronga Zoo myself, many years ago, security patrol, a nutty group of people killed some animals at Melbourne zoo and the thought was the same might happen in Sydney.
Wandering around Taronga at night is much better than being there in daylight.

Our UK trip was excellent. We were there in your summer and what a great summer it was
I see it's a bit chilly now.
My mate just did the Dragon motorcycle rally in Wales...yeah, he's a bit of loony.