A
(Arthur) Bertram Chandler was born in Aldershot, England in 1912, Chandler sailed
the world in every-thing from tramp steamers to troop transports before emigrating
to Australia in 1956. Here he commanded merchant vessels under the Australian and
New Zealand Flags up to his retirement in 1974.
Up until his death in 1984 he published over 40 science fiction novels and over
200 works of short fiction writing as A Bertram Chandler, George Whitley or Andrew
Dunstan. Many of the novels had a nautical theme, with the plot moved from the seas
of earth to the ships of space in the future. Many of the stories revolved around
the character of John Grimes some times referred to as “Hornblower of Space”. While
most stories are set in the future, they also have a distinctly “Australian” theme
with places and stories relating back to Australia today.
Chandler was the last master of the aircraft carrier Melbourne. Law required it
to have a master aboard for the months while it was laid up and waiting to be towed
off to Asia to be broken up for scrap, so in a sense he really was briefly the master
of the Australian navy's former flagship. Apparently he had his typewriter aboard,
and worked on his novels!
Chandler received four Australian SF Achievement Award "Ditmars" for his
novels. Nearly all of his novels were published in the USA. Two of his short stories
'The Cage' and 'Giant Killer’ are regarded as some of the best SF stories
written in the 1950's. He was also very popular in Japan winning the prestigious
SEIUN SHO, the premier Science Fiction award. The Japanese editions have some of
the best covers of any of the published editions.
Missing Chandler Story Published
A
new John Grimes story has finally been published more than 24 years after A Bertram
Chandler's death. The story is called
Grimes and the Gaijin Daimyo and
is part of the Kitty Kelly series. It is part of a new Australian Anthology called
Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann and is a follow up to Jack Dann and
Janeen Webb's successful
Dreaming Down Under anthology. The book
has been published by Harper Voyager in Australia and and should be available in
all good bookshops as from July 2008. Dreaming Again has now be published
in the USA and Amazon has stock available using the following link
Dreaming Again: Thirty-five New Stories Celebrating the Wild Side of Australian
Fiction
)
Thanks to Paul Collins for making the story available more than 30 years after he
purchased it.
Letter
This letter was published in Famous Fantastic Mysteries (February 1949).
"George Whitley" Replies
Unfortunately I did not receive the February copy of Famous Fantastic Mysteries until a short while ago. It is therefore somewhat late in the day for me to rush to my own defence. I am referring as you may have guessed, to the letter headed "Australia Protests" from Mr Stirling Macoboy of Sydney, criticising the dialect used by the supposed narrator in my story, "Boomerang".
Doubtless many of your readers, like myself, peruse an occasional sea story when there is nothing better to hand. Doubtless they are familiar with the excellent stories from the pen of Mr. Guy Gilpatrick. But, unlike myself, they will not be pained by the mutilation of the Kings English by Captain Ball, Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Levy. Were I either a Scot or a marine engineer - or both - I should be even more pained by Mr. Glencannons conversation and conduct.
At one time I used to be frightfully miffed by the Glencannon stories and used to regard them as libel on the British Merchant Navy. Then common sense asserted itself. Much as I hate to have to admit it - some officers do talk like that. Not in the big ships, not in the employ of the companies that try, at times to be more naval than the Royal Navy, but in the humble but essential tramp steamers. Lest I be accused of libelling the tramp fraternity as well as Antipodeans I will assure you that your chances of boarding such vessels and finding them manned, or officered by Gilpatrick characters, would be very slim. But the possibility is there.
Well - as Mr. Macoboy admits - a few Australians do talk like the narrator of "Boomerang." And in the event of a book-burning, which would almost certainly a certain slaughter of the educated as well, it is reasonable to suppose that anything smacking of culture would become - unfashionable. The standard of language would deteriorate - and fast.
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. Macaboys drawing room - any more than he would expect to hear Cockney - and I live in Greater London - spoken in mine. But I shouldnt 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 - wont 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?
A. Bertram Chandler,
(George Whitley),
Troop 2nd Officer.