(31 December 1931 - 11 February 1996)
Occupation Novelist, structural engineer, aircraft designer, journalist
was a fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He was one of the Wheels of IF. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story "Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987. He was toastmaster for Seacon '79, the 1979 Worldcon and Confederation, the 1986 Worldcon. He won the 1994 Rebel Award.
He was introduced to science fiction as a pre-teen by reading an A. E. van Vogt short story in Astounding. He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom which met at James White's house. The group was very influential in fandom and produced the fanzines Hyphen (with his fanzine column called "The Glass Bushel") and Slant. He acquired the nickname "BoSh" during this period. He also was one of the editors on the one-shot 'Our 'Zine.
Originally trained as a structural engineer, he worked as an aircraft designer for Short and Harland, then as science correspondent for The Belfast Telegraph and then as publicity officer for Vickers Shipbuilding before starting to write full-time. During the Troubles, Shaw and his family moved from Northern Ireland to England, where he produced the majority of his work. Sadie died suddenly in 1991.
He had nearly lost his sight through illness and suffered migraine-induced visual disturbances throughout his life. He married Nancy Tucker in 1995 and went to the US to live with her, then returned to England in the last months of his life. Shaw died of cancer on 11 February 1996.
Following his early membership of Irish Fandom, he formed the Belfast Triangle, living in Oblique House with Walt Willis, and James White, he always remained a keen reader of and contributor to fanzines. For many years, at Eastercon, he would deliver a humorous speech (often one of his "Serious Scientific Talks" (which weren't)); these were eventually collected in The Eastercon Speeches (1979) and A Load of Old Bosh (1995), which included a similar talk from the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton. He also co-wrote The Enchanted Duplicator in 1954 with Walt Willis. He was the world's greatest practitioner of Fansmanship and did the drafting for the design of the Tucker Hotel. He received the Doc Weir Award in 1980 and three FAAN Awards for Best Fan Writer.
Professionally, he published his first story in 1951, and is best known for "Light of Other Days" (ASF, Aug 1966), the story that introduced the concept of slow glass. Orbitsville and its two sequels deal with the discovery of a habitable shell completely surrounding a star, and the consequences for humanity. It won him the 1976 British SF Association Award.
He was GoH at Novacon 9 West, DeepSouthCon 19, DeepSouthCon 28, DeepSouthCon 32, and Windycon V.
