Michael Moorcock

Not many people know and Harry probably doesn't remember, but if it hadn't been for him my most successful character might never have seen the light of day. Harry is, if not Elric's father, the matchmaker who got his parents together. Which in this case was me and Ted Carnell. In the very early sixties, Harry and I both worked for Fleetway Publications, perhaps by then already IPC, but since neither of us worked for the same magazines (I was on the staff, he was freelance) we hardly ever ran into one another at the office.

One afternoon, however, Harry was visiting another editor and, since it was getting towards going home time, he suggested we have a drink across the road at the White Swan, where he was also seeing Ted Carnell. I'd already sold Ted a few short stories and knew him pretty well so I said it would be a pleasure and over we went. Somehow the conversation turned to sword and sorcery and Ted said that he would like to run some in Science Fantasy. Harry mentioned to him that I'd been doing a Conan story for another mutual acquaintance, Hans Stefan Santesson, editor of Fantastic Universe, but the magazine had folded before I finished it.

Ted said he'd love to see it. He got it the next day. But there'd been a slight misunderstanding, he said. He didn't want a Conan story. He wanted a similar kind of story, but with a new hero. Elric had already been around for a while. I cleaned him up a bit, wrote a new story and that was the first of a series which hasn't ended yet and which has kept my family's bodies and souls together almost as well as the Rat has looked after Harry & Co.

Harry brought a breath of fresh air to England when he decided to live there and I suspect it wasn't just my life that was changed for the better by him and Joan, who proved generous and agreeable friends. I miss that foghorn bellow. I miss the creative driving ("You're not driving on Harrison's time, buddy"), the energy, enthusiasm and sheer good spirits of someone who is large as life can be. Thanks Harry. And yes, it is too late to negotiate a percentage.

Happy birthday.

Lots of love

Mike Moorcock.