Peter Weston

Peter Weston (19 October 1943 – 5 January 2017)^[1] was a British science fiction fan from Birmingham, UK.

Weston made many contributions in fan writing, fanzine editing, convention-running and in local science fiction clubs. His 1960s pseudonym "Malcolm Edwards" caused some confusion several years later, when a real Malcolm Edwards began contributing to British fanzines. They met in 1970.

He produced the first issue of the science fiction fanzine Zenith (later Speculation) in 1963 and he edited the Andromeda series of original anthologies from 1975 until 1977. In 2006, following the success of his Hugo-nominated memoir With Stars in My Eyes,^[2] Weston relaunched his fanzine Prolapse (re-titled Relapse^[3] in 2009), after a 23-year hiatus. He was rewarded with a pair of Nova Awards the following year, for "best fanzine" and "best fan" (the latter being a committee award).

As well as organising a series of science fiction symposia in Birmingham inspired by Speculation, Weston co-founded the Birmingham Science Fiction Group (BSFG) in 1971 and helped originate the convention Novacon later that same year. He later chaired Seacon '79, the third Worldcon to be held in the UK, and in October 2008 ran Cytricon V at the George Hotel in Kettering, a sequel to and commemoration of the event at which the modern British Science Fiction Association was created.^[4] At the last, a surprise ceremony was held, inducting him and fellow science fiction fan Rog Peyton into the long-dormant "fannish" organisation the Knights of Saint Fantony.

Since 1984, the Hugo Awards (modelled in the shape of rockets and presented at the annual Worldcon) have been cast by the car-parts factory which Weston owned and managed until he retired.