British Amateur Press Association

=Original Association=

The British Amateur Press Association (BAPA) was the first Amateur Press Association in Britain. It was founded in 1890 . In September 1910 it began to publish a quarterly collection of its members publications under the title "The British amateur" from Bishop Auckland. This was renamed "The British amateur journalist" for its second issue before reverting to the earlier title in 1915. A magazine published in July 1964 by J. B. Easson of Hanworth is titled "British amateur journalist: Argo". By Christmas 1965 the magazine was being published by John Atkins of Oxted. Bob Tyson of Wimborne became General Secretary and published a monthly news bulletin until at least May 1976. [ [http://www.natlib.govt.nz/downloads/Barr-Collection-finding-aid.doc "The National Library of New Zealand Barr Collection: A Finding Aid"] Retrieved 15 September 2007]

Initially, largely literary and news oriented, BAPA became broader with members such as John Carnell, who published two collections of science fiction in 1945 and 1946, respectively. [George Locke. "Search & Research" 2 (June 1974).] A collection of poetry published for the 150 members of the Association in 1972 ("The Wine The Women and The Song" edited by Arthur Smith of Pyle was notable for having the word 'fuck' cut out of a poem by Gerald England on the last page of every copy. [ [http://www.geraldengland.co.uk/ge/gebks.htm#wine Gerald England. 'Gerald England: Books', "Gerald England" (1 May 2006)] . Retrieved 15 September 2007.] In 1990 the Secretary was Mr L E Linford of Stratford, London. [Avril Harper. "How To Succeed as a Writer" (London: IB, 1990)]

ubsequent namesake

An unrelated organisation was created by comics fans in late 1977, following a proposal from Phil Greenaway in the letter pages of the comics fanzine "Bemusing"; the first mailing (under the name "PAPA", the first initial standing for "Prime") was circulated in January 1978. Greenaway was the first Central Mailer and his successors included Maureen "Mo" James, Howard Stangroom, Les Chester and Steve Green. For most of its life up to thirty members of BAPA submitted multiple copies of at least two A4 pages to the central mailer every two months. BAPA was disbanded on 17 August 2004 [Dave Langford, 'Infinitely Improbable', "Ansible" 206, (September 2004) ISSN 0265-9816] with a final mailing distributed early in 2005. A one-off publication was also distributed under the name B-APA (sic) in 2005, in memory of Andy Roberts; a similar publication was announced in 2008, in memory of Steve Whitaker.

Notable members of this association included Eddie Campbell, Mark Finch, Steve Green, Martin Lock (later to launch Harrier Comics), Andy Roberts, Martin Skidmore (later editor of Trident Comics) and Steve Whitaker.

References