Frances Evans

(???? – 1998)

Frances Evans (on her second marriage, Frances Varley) was a British fan active from the early 1950s, in Manchester, UK and later in London. She first proposed the idea of a fanzine for British female fans. The result was Femizine although it didn't entirely match the conception.

Space Times #10 (April 1953) said that she 'walked in on an early meeting of the [Nor'west Science Fantasy Club] to find the members discussing when they could expect a female fan to appear on the NSFC horizon'. This was presumably 1951 as she attended the NECON in October that year. She was the only female member of the NSFC for much of its existence and the group photo shows her as the only woman among twenty-five men. Her husband Cyril Evans was also a fan although the implication of the Space Times piece is that she introduced him to fandom rather than vice versa as was more common (see Harry Warner, Jr.'s assertion at Femmefans).

Frances Evans (turned), Ethel Lindsay and Frances Glynn (w/ a cig, tsk!) launch Fez at Supermancon 1954. Photo Eric Bentcliffe

Science Fantasy News #11 (March 1952) reported that when the NSFC helped publicise The Day the Earth Stood Still in Manchester:

Frances Evans, "pin-up girl" of the NSFC had her photo taken holding Gort-the-Robot's hand and appeared in the Manchester Evening News, 14th J. [Presumably 'January'.]

The programme for Mancon in 1952 lists her giving an illustrated talk on 'Future Fashions' but it is not mentioned in contemporary reports and thus likely was one of several programme items that were dropped through lack of time.

When Sandy Sanderson conceived the hoax fan Joan W. Carr, he enlisted Evans as an ally. Evans had struck up a correspondence with Ethel Lindsay and proposed the idea of a female-only fanzine. Lindsay mentioned the idea to Carr who responded with 'a full-fledged scheme to produce one, with herself as editor and I as her assistant'. After the hoax was revealed in 1956, Lindsay wrote that Carr's plan made her

a bit miffed about this on Frances' behalf, as her idea had more or less been lifted from her. Especially as she admitted to some disappointment.

However, two years later, when resurrecting Femizine (as Distaff or #10, September 1958) and briefly 'tell[ing] you all about as many femmefans as I can', Lindsay wrote that Evans 'gleefully aided and abetted "Joan"', so it seems likely that 'disappointment admitted' by Evans to her was just a part of the original conspiracy. Also, in Femizine 1 Evans was listed as the third 'member of the organisation', collecting subscriptions.

Evans and Lindsay first met at the 1954 Supermancon and became lifelong friends. After the con, Evans and Sanderson agreed that Lindsay would need to be brought in on the Carr hoax. Femizine, the all-female fanzine, had launched at Supermancon… with an unseen man at the helm. (See more at the Joan W. Carr entry or in Generation Femizine.)

Both Evans and Lindsay were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the Carr hoax (which collapsed in spring 1956, apparently largely due to Evans's husband Cyril semi-breaking the secrecy to Ron Bennett). Evans attended Cytricon I in 1955 and moved from Manchester to London in early 1956. Cyril Evans remained in Manchester and at some point they divorced. In her 1958 Distaff/Femizine piece Lindsay said of her friend:

She has a good brain, an effervescent personality and is so inactive these days as to be practically moribund. It takes months of nagging from me to get an article out of her.

Evans later married Brian Varley (references to 'Frances Varley' start appearing in fanzines around 1961). They did occasionally still attend conventions but in Skyrack #57 (January 1961) Ron Bennett described them as 'former wheels of British fandom' implying a diminished role. In 1963 the couple were listed as in charge of the art show for the Worldcon bid that became Loncon II but in PAS-tell #18 Ethel Lindsay reported that a change of circumstances meant they would be unable to fulfil the role, and the Varleys are not even listed as members of the Worldcon in the programme book. Later in 1965 they relocated to Leeds and attended some social events with Leeds fans.

The Varleys remained in contact with Ethel Lindsay until her death in 1996. Frances died two years later.

• Femizine supplementary material at Rob Hansen website, with several photos of Frances Evans. While at the above one is she is turned away, the side-by-side there with Frances Glynn substantiates Tony Glynn's later account that fans tended to confuse the two

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Person

????—1998

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