Hartlepool: Paul Screeton, N.d. [1978]

10pp. review magazine, secured with four staples to left edge. Letter: single sheet of branded stationery, 21 x 15cm. Horizontal crease to magazine, probably sustained when folded into an envelope. Staples rusted. Horizontal fold across centre of letter.

Issue no. 5 of the quarterly review magazine, WITH AN ALS FROM THE EDITOR TO HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS. Williams' copy of an extremely scarce esoterica title.

The folklorist Paul Screeton [b. 1945] was editor of The Ley Hunter, which ran for 71 issues between 1969 and 1976; more recently, in 2014 he published the possibly less than authoritative Haunted Hartlepool and West Durham. In between, Screeton published this mimeographed quarterly which, according to the Editor's note at the beginning of the first issue, was 'designed to primarily review books and magazines on subjects occult/parapsychology, prehistory (leys, megalithic monuments etc.), folklore, UFOs, geomancy, New Age thought, and Man.' ASWR for 17 issues between 1977 and 1982. Most of the reviews were written by Screeton himself: in this issue he runs the rule over Coven, Sut Anubis, The Great Arturian Timeslip, Pulsar and Stonehenge Viewpoint, as well the comparatively mainstream International Times -- to which Heathcote Williams was a regular contributor.

Screeton's cover letter forwarding the magazine to Williams is dated 21 July 1978 and written on a sheet of pale blue promotional notepaper advertising Ringo Starr's 1978 album Bad Boy, with the album's artwork reproduced in the top left corner and with Starr's facsimile signature and the Polydor logo at bottom right. It reads: 'Dear Heathcote, When in London weekend before last John Michell showed me an I.T. with a piece on conspiracy and I'd very much appreciate if you could send a copy. Herewith the latest ASWR. I'd be pleased if you reprinted any reviews (no doubt it would be too much to expect for you to wangle an entry for the one of my latest book reviewed on page 1 by Jan Hoult?!) Looking forward to hearing from you, Cheers, Paul Screeton'.

Very scarce, with an impeccable provenance, and stationery to match.