A Tolkien Society member visits the World Science Fiction Convention

The annual World Science Fiction Convention is often held in the USA, given the large number of American fans eligible to vote for the venue (membership of one convention grants the right to vote for the one 2 or 3 years ahead).

About every 8-10 years a British committee is mustered to bring the Worldcon to Britain. The TS was well represented in Brighton in 1987, and Glasgow in 1995, and also this time when Pat and Trevor Reynolds manned our information stall and also hosted a room party in the Hilton Hotel - good hobbit grub!

After checking smoothly into my student hall of residence (£15 a night!) I searched for the Scottish Exhibition Centre, an enormous curved building by the riverside, known as the Armadillo, surrounded by several large halls like aircraft hangars, and suites of smaller rooms able to host upwards of 3,000 people in groups of various sizes, with the Armadillo Auditorium for the mass events like the Masquerade.

To enhance the fun the organising committee had decided that we were in Spaceport Glasgow, and that the Armadillo was really a giant spaceship readying to take off at the end of the convention to voyage through the galaxy. As well as the usual formal Souvenir Programme, therefore, they had also compiled a Guide to Alien Planets, entitled Ion Trails, a humorous A4 book which will come to be a collector's item. It was also good to see the publicity posters, Internet printouts from the BBC and The Scotsman, and items from the national press on display, proving how welcome we were (and to the local economy, I am sure!). Of course remarks about pointy ears and Klingons were made, and to satisfy lovers of cliché there were even a pair of Klingons at the convention, the male in a kilt, and his mate boasting a fine Klingon Kleavage.

Every day had a full diary with up to 15 simultaneous items to choose from, some from the academic track organised by the Foundation team, There were plenty of items on Tolkien and fantasy in general, and Alan Lee, a special guest, had several sessions devoted to his work: the launch of his Lord of the Rings Sketchbook; an interview session; and a slide-show. As a Special Guest, he also merited an article about his gifts written by Tolkien's publisher Jane Johnson; and if you acquire the Souvenir Programme, which is called Splitting Infinity, look at page 59 for an account of Tolkiien's reception of the International Fantasy Award, which took place during the London Convention of 1957.

After delivering my talk on Catherine Fisher and Annie Dalton, two authors of children's fantasy, I was free to enjoy the convention. The Tolkien items were usually packed out and in one case, 'Have the Tolkienistas misread Tolkien?' I didn't get into the room in time. The significant Tolkien and fantasy items were programmed as discussion panels: in the YA strand came a deliberately controversial title'Does Tolkien's misogynistic British Christian writing still have relevance to kids today?' but the attendees were mainly Tolkien fans and disputed the headline: next came 'Harry Potter has put children's fantasy back fifty years' - a well-attended and argumentative session. On Sunday there was a panel discussion on Jackson's trilogy, which rounded up the most liked and disliked features, from casting to plotlines.

On Friday night a team of experienced 'coarse actors' produced a spoof of the Star Wars sextet, Lucas Back in Anger. Some 3,000 kazoos were handed out in the Armadillo so that whenever Darth Vader came on stage we should all toot the Darth Vader theme - what a cacophony! The most famous lines were sent up to acclamation, notably 'Luke - I am your - mother!'and characters appeared in ridiculous costumes, for example C3PO as a Cyberman and R2D2 as a Dalek. When we expected to see Lando Calrissian, instead Londo Mollari appeared (from Babylon 5).

The Masquerade was its usual glittering parade, with humorous Terry Pratchett themes breaking the monotony of beautifully-crafted but thematically unexciting robes, also featuring our own Michelle Rosenblum as A Lady of Gondor, and June Rosenblum as The Eco-Borg, and Maggie Percival and Andy Armstrong among the judges; and on Sunday night the Hugo Awards were presented. Subscribers to Worldcon have the chance both to nominate entries and then vote on the shortlist, and on the night it's an Oscar-style event. Over the last 3 years the 3 parts of the LOTR trilogy won Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form), while Gollum's Acceptance Speech for the MTV Best Virtual Performance Award won Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) last year - this is still on the TORN site for 6th June 2003 in Quicktime for your viewing pleasure: a tour de force in which Andy Serkis plays himself, Gollum and Sméagol.

Our hosts were film critic Kim Newman and author Paul McAuley, and before the presentation they delighted us with some cabaret repartee based on the brilliant concept that the Hugo Awards had actually been named after Victor Hugo, 19th-century French novelist (not the American Hugo Gernsback), who had invented the concept of 'fiction-scientifique' in 1879. This was a hilarious alternate history of the world, taking in Jules Verne's Three Laws of Automata, Conan Doyle's founding of the Kirk of Spiritology, a different plot for Les Misérables more resembling 1984, and the news that France now ruled the world, its early adoption of SF resulting in a more advanced grasp of technology, while the USA languished in a backwater both politically and in SF. The whole of this brilliant double act is presently on Kim Newman's website at www.johnnyalucard.com

I marvelled at the huge network of helpers established by the committee to run Worldcon, and admired their choice of the Glasgow SECC, twice now, which seems to me an ideal space to accommodate several thousand fans. I also admire the committee's dedication, and look forward to the next British Worldcon in ten years' time or whenever it happens.

Jessica Yates