Welcome to ALPHA 17, a site inspired by and dedicated to the world and works of Robert Rankin - author, poet, artist, would-be rock legend, 12th Dan Master of Dimac, Magus to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Sprout, the drinking man's H. G. Wells, and general all-round nice guy. Never heard of him? Well, you don't know what you're missing. Go at once and familiarise yourself with his genius, and I'll see you back here when you've finished, OK?

Webmaster's Log - Update - June 4th 2005

New Photo Gallery - Large 2 - The Larger Event. Photos from the "Larger" event held in Derby on the 27th and 28th May 2005.


Webmaster's Log - Update - January 22nd 2005

Update 1 - New Photo Gallery - More Brentcon Photos! The number of photos from Brentcon has almost doubled with the addition of a new gallery of photos from my good mate Darren. You can access it from the main Brentcon gallery, or by clicking here.

Update 2 - Newspaper clippings from Brentcon. I came across these whilst sorting out the new gallery and realised I'd never done anything with them. Well, better late than never, so here are some scans from "The Brentford, Chiswick & Isleworth Times", reporting the events of Brentcon with some excellent pictures - anyone who was there will amost certainly be able to spot themselves in at least one.

WARNING: Large files!

Front Page mini-feature
Full Page 4 feature
Close-up of text from Page 4 feature


Webmaster's Log - Update - August 10th 2004

New Photo Gallery - Brentcon 1. Photos from the convention and book launch held in Brentford on the 6th, 7th and 8th August 2004.


Webmaster's Log - Update - April 30th 2004

New Photo Gallery - The opening night of The Antipope play in Brentford. A gallery of photos kindly provided by fellow Sproutlorian Darren of the opening night of The Dreaming's production of The Antipope, at The Watermans Art Centre in Brentford.


Webmaster's Log - Update - February 21st 2004

New Photo Gallery - Large in Derby. I've added a gallery of photos from the Sproutlore "Large in Derby" at the end of January.


NEWS - "The Witches of Chiswick" Signing Tour Dates - July 12th 2003

Robert's 25th book, "The Witches of Chiswick", is released on August 1st 2003. Below are the dates of the accompanying signing tour. Sproutlore will also be holding a launch event on August 2nd - click here for more details.

Saturday August 2nd, 4.00pm - Waterstones, Chiswick High Road, London.
Tuesday August 5th, 6.30pm - Waterstones, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Wednesday August 6th, 7.00pm - Waterstones, 36/38 Albion Street, Leeds.
Thursday August 7th, 6.30pm - Waterstones, The Wool Exchange, Bradford.
Friday August 8th, 1.00pm - Waterstones, Trafford Centre, Manchester.
Friday August 8th, 7.00pm - Watertones, Deansgate, Manchester.
Saturday August 9th, 1.00pm - Borders, 34 Coliseum Way, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
Tuesday August 12th, 6.30pm - Ottakar's, 27 Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes.
Wednesday August 13th, 1.00pm - Waterstones, Cathedral Lane, Broadgate, Coventry.
Wednesday August 13th, 7.00pm - Waterstones, New Street, Birmingham.
Thursday August 14th, 12.00pm - Andromeda, Suffolk Street, Birmingham.
Thursday August 14th, 6.30pm - Kulture Shock, 10-12 St. Benedicts Street, Norwich.
Tuesday August 19th, 1.00pm - The Gamers Guild, Redhill Shopping Centre, Redhill, Surrey.
Tuesday August 19th, 7.00pm - Waterstones, Broad Street, Reading.
Wednesday August 20th, 7.00pm - Waterstones, Union Galleries, Broadmead, Bristol.
Thursday August 21st, 1.00pm - Ottakar's, Middle Street, Yeovil, Somerset.
Thursday August 21st, 6.30pm - Waterstones, 48-49 High Street, Exeter.


Webmaster's Log - Update - July 12th 2003

New Photo Gallery! I've added a gallery of photos from the recent KILT.con event in Glasgow - a sort of semi-official Sproutlore meet which consisted of a bunch of people drinking alcohol and talking toot all night. A grand old time was had by all!


Webmaster's Log - Update - January 26th 2003

OK folks - the first version of the ALPHA17 Forum is up and running! At the moment it's just a free hosted forum on Bravenet, so I apologise for the popup ads - although they do seem to be fairly minimal and unobtrusive. If it works out, I should have some better hosting soon which will allow me to put up a much more sophisticated forum, but let's see how it goes for now. Clickey mousey on the Forum button to give it a spin!


Webmaster's Log - Update - January 2nd 2003

Happy New Year to all Rankinophiles - just a quick update. I've made a couple of cosmetic improvements to the photo gallery section, and the Brentford FC Cabaret Evening gallery now has some better pictures in it. I also hope to have a Forum up and running very soon.


Webmaster's Log - Update - December 2002

I finally got around to giving the site a much needed facelift in an attempt to turn it into something people might like to look at. I hope you like the pretty colours and burnished copper fittings - or maybe they're polished walnut, I haven't quite decided. The design was inspired by the cover of "Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls" - the one with the Satanic Hairdryer on the front. Anyway, what I really need now is some content, so please feel free to send me any photos, artwork, stories, links or anything else that you'd like to see here. There's a freshly shined E-mail button over there on the left for your convenience!