Pamela Buckmaster, speaking on behalf of Ken Bulmer’s (Alan Burt Akers) family, has asked me to send their apologies for the delay in making available the final few Dray Prescot books (volumes 46 to 52) for publishing. This is due to ongoing illness in the family, and the difficulty of finding the manuscripts, which have been moved about a lot over the years and are therefore difficult to locate. They are confident that the manuscripts will be found, but ask for our patience for a few more months.
I am sure we all wish the family well and hope for a speedy recovery.
Please leave your comments below and I will pass them on to Pamela.
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That’s really too bad. I wish the family well. Some things are indeed worth waiting for.
I’m just dropping a note to indicate my strong love of the Dray Prescot series. If memory serves me right, I stumbled upon number 4 or 5 in a local Montreal bookstore in the mid-seventies while in my late teens. After reading the first one, I kept going back until i had found all the earlier books. Since then, I have very eagerly awaited each new volume in the series.
Needless to say, I was devastated when Daw stopped publishing in the late 1980’s, but was equally delighted when Savanti Press temporarily continued publishing the later books a few years later. Then – CRASH! – again. More years with the series stalled. Finally Mushroom Books resumed the task.
GREAT!
The only problem is that I am now in my early 50’s, a diabetic for 34 years, and a month ago diagnosed with heart disease. I may be running out of time!
So, with that in mind, and without sounding too morbid, I would really appreciate being able to finish reading the whole series before I kick the ol’ bucket, such as it is. Consider it to be a top item on my bucket list.
In closing, if I were stranded on a desert island with only one choice of reading material, it would be the Dray Prescot series.
God bless you, Ken Bulmer.
Good things are worth waiting for! Best wishes
I am sorry for the ongoing illness in your family.I hope you are all feeling well soon.I just wanted to tell you briefly I love the story of Dray Prescot.I have read all the books in english from when I first found them back in 1975.I am very pleased you are going to publish the rest of them.As I am unable to understand the german language.Once again,I hope your family are feeling in great health and happiness soon.
always your fan,Tim
Good morning Pamela from Australia. Thanks for your ongoing efforts to find the manuscripts. Ken has a world wide audience that eagerly awaits any of his material. I wish you and your family members good health and a very merry christmas and a happy 2010. Best wishes, Lyle
Hello, and condolences.
I have always enjoyed reading and have many of Ken’s books in my small library.
At the present I am rereading the Ryder Hook books, which I found in one of my boxes of books. I know I have many of the Dray Prescott books out in the shop in the back yard, I will have to have one of my boys get them for me since I have health issues at the present and can’t get around very well. Ken was such an excellent writer, his books read fast and are a joyful way to leave this world we live in for a few hours at a time to roam around the galaxy.
I am in my early 60’s and he has allowed me to go on many trips around the galaxy in his different series over the years. I just wish I had kept all my books in better order and entered them into a database so I could find them. Having between five and six thousand books stacked here, there, and everywhere around the house and shop is not the correct way to do things.
I read book one yesterday of the Boosted Men series and am reading book two today but I don’t know if I have the others in my boxes somewhere.
I have found that for me, using business cards work well as book marks and over thirty years ago I started writing on the back of the bookmark cards when I finished reading each book, leaving the card in them, and a lot of the time would also enter if it were a fast or slow book to read. Sometimes I would also enter the date I started reading that book.
I have found I can reread most books after 5 years or so, some as soon as two years, some I have to wait close to ten years because they stuck in my memory so well.
Thus, I can grab a box of a hundred or so books containing books I have read earlier and reread them for enjoyment again. This second Ryder Hook book I read on 27 October 1998 and now, 02 September 2010 – 03 September 2010 I am enjoying it again. I am looking forward to the wonderful Dray Prescott series again too.
Yes, Ken Bulmer was a wonderful, very wonderful writer. His books will be reread many times and re-enjoyed, by me and many others. He will be greatly missed by me and others from all over the world. Thank you for publishing the last manuscripts.
Ken Chevy, Salem, Oregon, USA 03 Sep 2010
I don’t suppose there was a continuation of the Fox series, after book 14?
No. As far as I am aware, book 14 is the last one.
Martyn
Wow, years after the event I’ve only recently become aware of how many books were written by Ken. And there is now talk of releasing some of the formerly-german-only ones? If this is a forum for requesting them, any chance of seeing the other 6 novels in the Ryder Hook ( Ken as ‘Tully Zetford’ ) series? I thought they stopped at 4, then read about Ken and his German popularity. Such a shame I didn’t know about him earlier – now I find I have a number of books he wrote, all without knowing ( a Barry Sadler ‘Casca’ book, and some Ken Blake / Professionals books ). Hard to believe one man could write to many books, and to such a great quality – no pulp churn-out man, this. Anyway, consider my request made. My German is terribly rusty and no-way up to finding/reading the German originals… Best of wishes to his remaining family and fellow fans.
We are hoping to publish the Ryder Hook series, but haven’t seen the manuscripts yet. As soon as I have any more info I will post about it here.
Martyn
My best wishes to the family. I read some of the Dray Prescott books when in my teens or so in the 80s. I loved them. Recently I rediscovered the first five, and have decided to try to collect them all – and now that I know who the author really was, perhaps his other books.
I hope that the illness passes – peace and hope be with you.