Bio:Eric Needham

Eric Needham joined the Manchester group of science fiction fans in 1937. He contributed poems, often with a mechanistic theme, in the fanzines of the day: Novae Terrae, Satellite, Futurian War Digest, etc. During World War II, he served in the RAF. He was a naturally shy person but when he returned to the Manchester area after his demob, he had learnt to cover up that shyness with occasional episodes of outrageous behaviour.

He was self-educated, having acquired most of his extensive but specialized knowledge from erratic reading during his RAF career. He had a phenomenal grasp of things mechanical and electronic, and a genius for building equipment of all sorts from junk parts.

An exponent of "enlightened empiricism" he was a gifted, surrealistic poet, who could pounce on an unconsidered remark and build a make-believe but logically water-tight world from it. His literary talents were widely appreciated by readers of the 1950s fanzine Now & Then, which he created with fellow Manchester SF fan Harry Turner.

His chosen mode of transport in the 1950s was a Douglas motorbike, which allowed him to travel from his flat in Longsight, Manchester, to Romiley for editorial conferences with Harry Turner, and as far afield as Torquay to visit the Torquay Happy Fans & Lampshade Makers.

He drifted out of SF fandom in the 1950s but he was encouraged to start writing again in the late 1970s for magazines like Terry Jeeves' Erg and Ethel Lindsay's Scottishe. His early death at the end of 1983 cut short this second flowering of his talent but he secured a place of honour an SF Fandom Hall of Fame by creating his much imitated verses praising the "Widower's Wonderful" range of products.