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OMPA: The Rise and Fall of the First UK APA
Rob Hansen
ISBN 978-1-916508-47-7
The Off-Trails Magazine Publishers Association was a British APA or Amateur Press Association founded in 1954, taking its cue from such US examples as FAPA (Fantasy Amateur Press Association, 1937-current) and SAPS (Spectator Amateur Press Society, 1947-current). How it worked, to quote from Fancyclopedia:
Typically, each member of an apa produces a fanzine and sends an appropriate number of copies to an Official Editor who collates and (usually) staples one copy of each zine together, adding covers, an Official Organ and a ToC [Table of Contents], and sends out the collection of zines, called a mailing, to each member.
Many fans of note, both British and from overseas, contributed to OMPA in its heyday, and much high-quality fan writing appeared in its pages. Rob Hansen’s history of the organization is enlivened with quotations and additional between-chapters bonus selections of such good stuff.
OMPA in its heyday was a vibrant fannish culture with people clamouring to get in. It remains the first and only APA to have run a national convention: OMPAcon, the 1973 UK Eastercon. How did it come to fizzle out so quietly in the later 1970s? Rob explores just why.
The cover photo, taken by John Roles at Cytricon II in 1956, shows OMPA members Arthur ‘Atom’ Thomson (UK), Jan Jansen (Belgium), Anne Steul (Germany) and Ellis Mills (USA), plus Cathy Youden (non-OMPAn).
Ansible Editions ebook added to the TAFF free library on 1 November 2026. 77,000 words.
There is also a printed paperback edition: click here for more.
