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The Harrison Saga
The Extraordinary Exploits of Sir William Makepeace Harrison
“Harry Hurstmonceaux and Cyril Faversham”
ISBN 978-1-913451-85-1
In these ripping yarns written from 1957 to 1975 by the UK fans John Owen and Stanley Nuttall (writing as Hurstmonceaux and Faversham), the awesome figure of Sir William Makepeace Harrison bestrides the world like a Roman-nosed colossus. The British Empire’s last unflinching bulwark against Nazis, Commies and duplicitous foreigners in general, Harrison upheld the banner of Civilization – or at least the Union Jack – o’er palm and pine. His magnificently silly adventures are threaded with tongue-in-cheek echoes of Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Buchan, “Sapper” of Bulldog Drummond fame, Dornford Yates, Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler, Frank Hampson and a million Victorian/Edwardian boys’ adventure stories. It would be wrong to giggle at such unstinting heroism, swordsmanship, gunplay, gourmandizing, fine-wine-bibbing and deus ex machina escapes, but nevertheless one does.
The first four thrill-packed episodes appeared in the fanzine Triode under the overall title Beloved Is Our Destiny, and Michael Moorcock himself wrote in to say: “Beloved Is Our Destiny was a lovely bit of satire.” (Triode #12, Winter 1957-1958).
For The Harrison Saga, Rob Hansen has assembled all Owen’s and Nuttall’s tales of Sir William Makepeace Harrison with an explanatory Foreword, an Afterword and (assisted by David Langford) some learned notes on literary references and in-jokes. For readers who crave something “a little stronger”, there is also a bibliography.
Added to the TAFF site on 1 March 2022. Cover illustration by Eddie Jones as interior art for the episode “Foiled Again” in Triode #14, Summer 1958, edited by Eric Bentcliffe and Terry Jeeves. 32,000 words. Updated October 2024 to add the newly discovered exploit “The Fandromeda Strain”; now 36,000 words.
