An Accidental Life: Volume 2, 1965-1970: The New Worlds Years

This volume focuses on Platt initially designing New Worlds but then gradually taking more and more control of all aspects of the magazine. He goes into all the technical detail about typesetting and what the succession of different printers did. Also about his earliest novels, going to America, meeting various science fiction writers and writing what would have been one of the last Essex House novels. It's very gritty and he shows that New Worlds was never a true success by their criteria and he has quite a bleak assessment of what the new wave really achieved. There's a few alarming scuffles (especially Moorcock chasing his close friend Barrington Bayley with a smashed bottle) and enough unpleasantness that I wonder what it was about his work at a fetish magazine was too embarrassing to write down. This is a great series.

If you are familiar with New Worlds magazine as it was in the 1960s, you will find this autobiograpical volume from Charles Platt a fascinating read. He designed and later editied the magazine. A tale of literary high endeavor and financial failure.

Charles Platt was a witness and active participant in the London Literary, Cultural, and Music scene in the 1960’s. Mr. Platt delivers, in his second volume of experiences, so many great, highly personal yarns from his tumultuous and fascinating life. Elucidating his story as a young man coming of age as, at various times, a hopeful musician, writer in several genres (some rather salacious), contributor to, graphic designer, and ultimately editor for a time, of “NEW WORLDS” ( the most significant and influential science fiction magazine of its time), in great detail with many insightful reminiscences. These many times hilarious stories, bring the Era covered to light in a highly engaging volume, interleaving his own relationships with women, rock ‘n’ rollers, writers, unscrupulous publishers, and the struggle to keep “New Worlds” financially afloat and continually relevant. His interactions with writers that I have followed all my life were revelatory and made them all the more personal to me. This is a compelling, fast paced read for anyone interested those “trippy” days of yore in Swinging England. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and looking forward to more volumes as mentioned by Charles in his foreword to the book.

Platt's self published autobiography AN ACCIDENTAL LIFE Vol 2; 1965-1970: The New Worlds Years arrived in the mail today, and I've just finished a quick read of it. Much more than his work with that iconic British sf magazine is covered here, though the magazines seems to permeate every aspect of Platt's life during those years, often to his considerable disadvantage, though it's clear that Platt loved that time of his life at least as much as he hated it. His romantic life, his financial misadventures, his odd fixation with his 1961Vauxhall Cresta which he and Graham Charnock would eventually push over a cliff near Edinburgh for no apparent reason, and much more are all written about with (possibly unintentional) humor and apparent honesty, and without a trace of pathos. This is, frankly, the most entertaining thing by Charles Platt that I've read since THE PATCHIN REVIEW. Available on Amazon for a very affordable $4.31, I highly recommend this memoir - although I'm not at all convinced that it is a reliable reference work on the history of the British sf scene of those years. But I am quite convinced that AN ACCIDENTAL LIFE will tell you things - maybe important things - that no conventional history of those years and that place ever could.

If you are at all interested in the British SF scene in the late 60's, this is the book for you. Many interesting anecdotes about British fans and pros alike. Lots of photos which made it come to life. I was only aware of the author through his two books of SF/Fantasy author interviews (Dream Makers and Dream Makers 2), but he does give a vivid overview of that interesting period in SF history.