SF fans flock to Glasgow

IF LAST YEAR'S WORLD Science Fiction Convention put Glasgow firmly on the SF map, another gathering of more than a thousand fans next week is going to keep it there.

The annual gathering of the British National Science Fiction Convention is held over Easter - hence, they're always called Eastercons - and the one planned for Glasgow, Concussion, looks like being one of the best yet.

The guest list reflects the diversity of the contemporary scene. Take artist Brian Froud, who lovingly renders mythic subjects in books such as Good Faeries/Bad Faeries. He evokes such classic illustrators as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, while injecting more contemporary humour into works such as Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, produced in collaboration with Monty Python's Terry Jones. Froud's art inspired The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and he is currently working on designs for another production.

M John Harrison is a distinguished writer whose work has crossed mainstream and genre boundaries for more than 30 years. The Viriconium series of novels and short stories began as fantasy, touched on science fiction and wound up as unclassifiable surrealism. His mainstream novel Climbers was the first work of fiction to win the Boardman Tasker Memorial Award for mountain literature, and Light, Harrison's last SF novel, was also an award-winning success. His latest book, Parietal Games: Critical Writings by and on M John Harrison, will be launched at Concussion. Among the other guests are American fantasy novelist Elizabeth Hand, rising British star Justina Robson and major Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo.

• Concussion: Eastercon 2006 - the 57th British National Science Fiction Convention, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow, 14-17 April. Day memberships from 5. Full details of events, programme and prices at www.eastercon2006.org