Marianne was born in Western Australia and now lives in Queensland with her husband and three sons. She has a BA in Film and Television and is currently completing a Graduate Certificate of Arts (Writing, Editing and Publishing) at the University of Queensland. Her passions are basketball, books and avocados. She has been actively involved in promoting Speculative Fiction in Australia and is the co-founder of the Vision Writers Group in Brisbane, and ROR - Writers on the Rise, a critiquing group for professional writers. She was involved in the early planning stages of Clarion South and is a tutor at Envision.

You can find out more about her at www.orbitbooks.co.uk and on her website www.mariannedepierres.com.

Fan Guest of Honour: Mervyn Binns

Thylacon 2005 is pleased to announce that Mervyn Binns has agreed to be our Fan Guest of Honour. He and his wife Helena plan to be in Hobart for the Australian NatCon June 10th-13th 2005.

Mervyn has been the mainstay of Melbourne fandom ever since the Flood anyone can remember. While employed at McGills, the central-city newsagency and bookshop, he managed to persuade them to allow the twin fan groups, the MSFC and the MFFG, (Melbourne Science Fiction Club and the Melbourne Fantasy Film Group) to use the top floor of their nearby warehouse in Somerset Place.

A central meeting-place to store stuff! People in cities as far away as Boston and Los Angeles will tell you that is a great way to foster fandom. In this case, the stuff included a ping-pong table, and fandom was Foystered. Other stuff on hand included 16mm film projectors, which indirectly contributed to ceasing fandom's connection with McGills: but maybe we should let Merv tell that story!

One of the early Melbourne conventions was held in these rooms - I think it was 1968 - and was such a success that the following year larger quarters has to be found, Carnegie Hall - or was it Murrumbeena?

Mervyn branched out with the help of Sydney fan and book collector Ron Graham, and started Space Age Books. After a short interregnum in the Beehive Building, nearby to McGills in Elizabeth Street, the business moved to Swanston Street, near what is now Melbourne Central.

Merv generously made space again for the MSFC, and its growing library, upstairs. Over the years, he employed many Melbourne fans there.

By this time, he was travelling overseas on book-buying jaunts, which often coincided with conventions. In Australia, preparations were underway for the bid for the 1975 World SF Convention. Space Age Books, and Merv himself, featured in the John Litchen movie, Antifan, made to promote the Convention. We hope to show this at Thylacon 2005.