Discuss Mike Ashley

Dec 2022: The Mike Ashley who is the (intended) subject of this article -- call him MA1 -- reports that fanac by one (or even two) other British Michael Ashleys has been mixed in:

I [MA1] did not run for TAFF in 1993 and I did not get the Nova Award for fan writing.  I presume this was my doppelganger, who tended to write as Michael rather than Mike so that we did not get confused, though I didn’t know he was still involved with fandom in the 1990s. He cropped up in fanzines in the late 1960s and early 1970s but I thought he’d gafiated after that."

MA1 also points out that the Michael Ashley who won TAFF -- call him MA2 -- published a platform:

True Confessions: I [MA2] went to my first convention -- Novacon 7 in 1977 -- aged 15. Been to one or two more since then plus have written innumerable fun-packed fanzine articles. Been voted best British fanwriter in 1988 and 1991 Nova awards. Edited eight issues of award-winning Saliromania. Member of all-powerful Leeds Group Mafia for last seven years, with intimate knowledge of all leading UK fans. Interests: drink, gossip, and good writing. TAFF pledge: will write trip report to end all trip reports. Why vote for me? Easy -- the alternatives are too dull for words. Plus I'm young, cute and single. You want fannish fun? Sorted.

MA1 continues:

So he’s my doppelganger, but not the same guy with whom I used to get confused in the late 1960s. He was about my same age and lived in Croydon before moving up north somewhere. This guy was only 15 in 1977, so born in 1962, when I was already 14. There may be enough info in that snippet to help start his entry, and he’s clearly the same guy who won the Nova award, more than once. 

There's also some information about MA2 in Saliromania:

In TommyWorld # 46, Tommy Ferguson writes, "Ashley once again shows by his disparaging remarks on Corflu UK that whilst he proclaims to be outside of fandom, his insights are vitally important to any of us willing to see beyond the social life it gives us." Saliromania won the Nova Award for Best Fanzine in 1991. Michael Ashley also won the Nova Award for Best Fanwriter the same year.

The dates also suggest that MA2 may be two people: the Croydon guy is and the TAFF guy.

Dave Langford reports:

I don't know anything about the other 1960s Mike Ashley, but the 1980/1990s Michael Ashley (he didn't use "Mike") is reasonably well documented. Yes, published Saliromania and won a Nova Award for it in 1991 <https://news.ansible.uk/a53.html#15>, as well as winning the fan writer category of the Novas. Stood for TAFF with the platform given but did not win as stated on the Talk page (that was Abi Frost's year):

* https://taff.org.uk/taffhist.html#1993
* https://taff.org.uk/ballots/taff1993.html#platform [NB italics not given in Talk page]

As indicated, was associated with Leeds fandom.

Bottom line

There are three Mike/Michael Ashleys in British fandom.

• One active mainly in the 1960s: Call him MA3
• One mainly active in the 1980-90s, ran for TAFF: Call him MA2
• One active since the 1960s and known for his history of the SF magazines: Call him MA1

The current (pre-December 2022) Mike Ashley bio is MA1, but contains some MA2 material.

The plan is to set up Mike Ashley (Disambiguation) and have both Mike Ashley and Michael Ashley point to it. Create three new pages: Mike Ashley (1), Michael Ashley (2), and Mike Ashley (3). Repoint existing references to the new pages.

–mlo 10:17, December 17, 2022‎

Joseph Nicholas in Prolapse 3

... there are in fact two Michael Ashleys. One is the boring simple-minded cretin you describe, addicted to the production of meaningless checklists of, say, Ten Recent Lithuanian Authors Who Wrote Stories About Computers (or Comets, or Barnacles from Mars, or Giant Intelligent Vegetables Who Built Stonehenge, or whatever). While the other is in his early twenties, has been around on the fringes of fanzine fandom for the past three or four years, and reckons we’re all a bunch of posy middle-class wankers addicted to nostalgia and fakery, who should be liquidated by the organs of internal state security without further delay. (Or something like that).

Anyway, I’ve taken a stab at a profile for the guy from Leeds. And changed #1 to Mike Ashley (Kent) and removed (I hope) what doesn’t apply to him. The one from Croydon is still mysterious.

—Leah Zeldes Smith (talk) 01:03, 15 April 2023 (PDT)