Motorway Dreams

John Nielsen-Hall was first active in UK science fiction fandom from the late 1960s to the late 1970s as a central member of London’s iconoclastic “Ratfandom”; in the early days he signed himself John Hall or John N. Hall. He returned to fandom in the 1990s, participating in email lists, and in 2005 began to publish again with Motorway Dreamer, a title he’d chosen early in his fan career but never before used. Motorway Dreams echoes this title and (in the cover lettering) his fondness for Comic Sans. It’s an eclectic mixture ranging from knockabout Ratfan reminiscences and convention reports to travelogues and thoughts on rock music, living with John Brunner and his wife Marjorie (an uninhibited and much admired memoir), Buddhism (which he adopted during his long absence from fandom), big cars, collecting ancient artefacts, the horrors of dialysis, and even some literary criticism. He died in September 2024 and is much missed. This collection was assembled as a memorial. Over 66,000 words. Cover cartoon by Harry Bell (2006). All proceeds from sales of this paperback go to the Corflu 50 fan fund associated with “Uncle Johnny’s” favourite regular convention, the small and fan-oriented Corflu (https://corflu.org/).