Lives in passing: Charles N. Brown
Charles Brown is no longer with us. I only met him the once, down the pub in London with a bunch of fen on his visit to England about five years ago. I was still a bit of a neofan, and in the crush I somehow got jammed into a seat between him and Stephen Baxter. It felt a little unreal. Meeting Charles that day, along with several other stars in the firmament for the first time, was one of those occasions that always reminds me of how I like to think of fandom: welcoming and ordinary.