AustLit

Chandler expresses his disappointment that The Mentor is about to be published quarterly. He also surmises on how different his life may have been (including the liklihood that there may never have been a Rim Worlds series) had he not fallen foul of his school headmaster.

Chandler expresses his discontent with the introduction of the metric system and its downside in terms of English expression.

Chandler writes about the Midwestecon he attended and his wife's visit to Japan, where she met with representatives of publisher Hayakawa.

Chandler writes briefly about his positive experiences with Japanese publisher Hayakawa Shobo and illustrator Koichiro Masahiro Noda.

Chandler responds to a negative response to his novel Bitter Pill and talks also his recent experiences with Japanese publisher Hayakawa.

Chandler responds to an article published in SFWA Forum No 32 concerning submissions to publishers in a buyer's market and reflects on some incidents that occurred in earlier times. He also complains about the overuse of some stories in anthologies, while admitting that he nevertheless appreciates the ongoing royalties.

Chandler writes about his recent retirement as a merchant seaman and his subsequent part time employment as a ship's caretaker in Sydney Harbour. He also refers to Japanese publisher Hayakawa and the connection between John Grimes and C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower.

George Whitley indicates the reasons for not having written much in recent years, laying the blame squarely on Bertram Chandler.

A belated response from Bertram Chandler (as George Whitley) to "Australia Protests," Stirling Macoboy's criticism of the dialect used by the narrator in his 1947 story, "Boomerang." The Macoboy letter was published 12 months earlier in the February 1948 edition of Famous Fantastic Mysteries (pp.121-122). Chandler, who was at sea at the time, did not receive a copy of the issue until many months later and hence the delay in responding. In concluding his defence Chander writes:

I admit that I may have caricatured, to a slight extent, the kind of language that one hears spoken on the Sydney waterfront. And is not the kind of language I should expect to hear in Mr. Macaboy's drawing room - any more than he would expect to hear Cockney - and I live in Greater London - spoken in mine. But I shouldn't mind betting that if he cares to drop in for a friendly cup of tea twenty years or so after the rockets have come he will find the survivors - if any - won't be using the kind of English made standard by the announcers of the various Broadcasting Companies and Corporations. Even now, in spite of universal education and the influence of the radio and the better films, the English spoken in all English speaking countries is deplorable. What will it be like once the schools, the broadcasting stations and the cinemas have been destroyed? (p.8).

Chandler responds to a review and profile published in Australian Science Fiction Review 3 (1966).