ZOOL, M.H.

   Group pseudonym used by members of the Oxford University Speculative Fiction Group for the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy (1989), a compact and knowledgeable biographical and bibliographical dictionary whose usefulness would have been considerably enhanced had its authors been granted more space. "M. H. Zool" stands for Massed Hordes of Zool, a recurring phrase found in "Time Warriors of Zool"(1979) by William Bains, a narrative - distributed in mimeographed form only - which memorializes the Oxford SF Group in spoof recursive terms. The main editors/authors involved in the Bloomsbury book were NealTringham (1966-), Ivan Towlson (1967-) and Mo Holkar (1967-). Both Tringham, as writer of several entries, and Holkar, as coordinator of entries from other members of the Speculative Fiction Group (not all of them part of the original Zool enterprise), participated in this encyclopedia, as did Zool participants Tim Adye (1964-), Matthew Bishop (1968-), Adrian Cox (1968-) and Penelope Heal (1970-); other members ofthe Zool enterprise included John Bray, Malcolm Cohen, Paul Cray, Melanie Dymond, Paul Marrow and Simon McLeish.

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