Kevin Hile of Uncle Bear Publishing put me in contact with Tim Stoddard who wrote Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom in the United Kingdom. In a short time I discovered someone who was just as curious as I about the fandom
Furry Times: What made you write Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom in the United Kindgom?
Tim Stoddard: I had gotten interested in furry history when I was reading Furry Nation by Joe Strike.
One weekend I was on a road trip to BristolFurs with two friends of mine (TyphonFox and Ozzy), and I was reading Furry Nation to pass the time.
When they asked about what I was reading, I showed them the book. TyphonFox noticed the subtitle of the book was “The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture” and asked something along the lines of “What about British Furries?”
I don’t think I had a good answer at the time, just excusing the book by saying British Furries were mentioned, but that question stuck in my mind during the BristolFurs meet, that almost all of the discussion around the history of the furry fandom is focused on America to the point where one of the most comprehensive books on the subject at the time defined the furry fandom as “America’s” fandom, not an international fandom.
The next day, I started reading what I could find about early UK Furries, eventually building up a timeline.
Then in late 2018, ConFuzzled announced it was opening event suggestions and I thought that someone should do a History of Furries style panel but for the UK, someone who knew about what the furry fandom was like in the eighties and nineties for Furries in the UK.
Moments later, another thought came into my head, “It’s gonna be me, is it?” Next thing I knew, I proposed the event, it got approved, and at ConFuzzled 2019 I was scheduled to talk about UK furry history.
I honestly didn’t think many people would watch it, the talk was scheduled at the same time the Dealer’s Den would open, but the seats filled up to the point some folks had to sit against the walls because there were no seats left. I only found out after my talk from one of the event staff that they counted over a hundred people sitting in my talk, so many that some people were standing just outside the door to listen.
I even had a few people come up to say I did great, one of them said something like “Someone should write this all down so it can be preserved”.
I agreed, and soon had the thought “It’s gonna be me, is it?”
In conclusion, the short answer to your question is that I knew early on that the furry fandom was more than just America, and I discovered there were several people who were interested in learning about the furry fandom’s history outside of America, and since I built up a knowledge base I felt I was the one to turn it into a book for people to read.
Furry Times: So is there a point where you can say the fandom started in the UK there?
Tim Stoddard: There have been furries in the UK for almost as long as there have been a furry fandom, thanks to imported comic books and British sci-fans able to travel to the USA.
While there was a furry hotel room party in Brighton during the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention, I’d say the UK furry fandom got its start in 1992 when Ian Curtis organised a furry housecon at his residence in Yateley, being host to British and American fans.
That housecon would become regular, and a few British furry artists made their own fanzines to compete with the American ones. The rest is, as they say, history.
Furry Times: In all your research have you ever come across something that totally surprised you?
Tim Stoddard: There have been a few, comments from one of the co-founders of Eurofurence being inspired by British housecons for instance.
I also didn’t realise how far back the story of ConFuzzled went before I researched and learned about the wider context. It wasn’t as straightforward as how ConFurence started, there had been multiple attempts to start a furry convention in the UK for years, all of them failed, so when a team got together and announced plans for a convention in Manchester, some people assumed it wouldn’t happen. Meanwhile in the present day, ConFuzzled 2023 happened earlier this year and 2661 people attended from around the world.
Furry Times: Are you planning more books?
Tim Stoddard: I have a few areas of research in mind. Writing about the media presence of furries for the book got me curious about expanding that research.
One of my friends joked that I should do one to cover furries across Europe, though that’s a much more enormous undertaking. The benefit of working on Furtannia was that I am a British furry. I used to post regularly on the UKFurForums. I’ve attended furmeets across the country and most of the UK conventions at least once. That background helped me know where to look. The idea of doing that again, but for multiple countries? That’d be like reaching the peak of Ben Nevis and being told next to climb the Matterhorn.
Furry Times: I like to know your feelings from a US Perspective Eurofurence is a heavy influencer some cons actually delayed announcing their dates.
Tim Stoddard: Oh yeah, I’m one of the organisers for Wild North, a small UK convention in September, so we keep an eye on Eurofurence’s date.
You sent
Furry Times: Is there anything you like to add?
Tim Stoddard: Well, I have a few stories from doing research.
Instead of just reading a scan of a magazine article, I went out of my way to the British Library to read the original magazines in full and get a broader context behind the articles themselves.
Turns out some of the magazines are really hard to come by and the British Library are serious with keeping them taken care of in their archives.
For one in particular, I was only allowed to read it in their “Rare Books” room, and even then the magazine issue was provided to me in a box, and I had to take it to a specific “restricted section” of the room so I could sit down and read it. It felt very weird knowing I was reading something very secure just for an article about furries back in the day.
Furry Times 