Vintage Wargaming: Literature by Wargamers #1

Monday, 25 June 2012

Literature by Wargamers #1 - The Forgotten Don Houghton

A real oddity - one of the things I stumbled across when compiling my Wargamer's Newsletter index - is this book by Don Houghton, of At the Colonel's Table fame. I had absolutely no recollection of seeing any of this before. The whole thing is given a slightly surreal air by the idea of a competition for those fighting the engagements in it as wargames and writing them up, plus Don Featherstone's review suggesting using Airfix 1/32 figures (including Airfix footballers as the female contingent...????). As far as I know no Battle Reports from this competition were ever published (though I may have missed them).

I bought a copy off Abebooks the other week for 64p - a whole 1p less than it cost when it first came out.

Reproduced below are the advert in Wargamer's Newsletter #172 from August 1976, together with the announcement of the competition, and DF's book review from the following month.

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This site uses a range of sources to provide access to information about wargaming, for the most part from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. These sources are mainly paper based, may be ephemeral (catalogues, price lists, painting instructions etc), and in general are not easily accessible elsewhere.

I am particularly grateful to Don Featherstone and to John Tunstill, who have both given their permission for the reproduction of materials from their ground breaking magazines, respectively Wargamer's Newsletter and Miniature Warfare (and later Miniature Wafare and Model Soldiers).

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Monday, 25 June 2012

Literature by Wargamers #1 - The Forgotten Don Houghton

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Sources, permissions and editorial policy