Editing David Langford (section)

===Non-fiction and editorial work===
{{Infobox magazine
|title = Ansible
|editor = David Langford
|staff_writer =
|frequency = Monthly
|category = Science fiction related
|company = Ansible Information
|firstdate = August 1979
|country = United Kingdom
|website = http://news.ansible.co.uk/
|issn = 0265-9816
|italic title=no
}}

Langford has won numerous [[Hugo Award]]s<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://christopher-priest.co.uk/essays/contemporaries-portrayed/david-langford|title = David Langford – Christopher Priest}}</ref> for his activities as a fan journalist on his free [[science fiction fanzine|newsletter]] ''Ansible'', which he has described as "The SF ''[[Private Eye]]''{{-"}}.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=February 1996|title=The Lid Ripped Off!|url=https://ansible.uk/sfx/sfx009.html|journal=SFX|issue=9}}</ref> The name is taken from [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s [[ansible|science-fictional communication device]]. The newsletter first appeared in August 1979.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D44dBAAAQBAJ&q=David+langford+fandom&pg=PA79 |title = The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction|isbn = 9780199838844|last1 = Latham|first1 = Rob|year = 2014| publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> Fifty issues were published by 1987, when it entered a hiatus. Since resuming publication in October 1991, ''Ansible'' has appeared monthly (with occasional extra issues given "half" numbers, e.g. ''Ansible 53{{frac|1|2}}'') as a two-sided A4 sheet and latterly also online. A digest appeared as the "Ansible Link" column in ''[[Interzone (magazine)|Interzone]]'' from issue 62, August 1992, to issue 295, September 2022. The complete archive of ''Ansible'' is available at Langford's personal website. ''Ansible'' issue 450 was published on 2 January 2025.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.ansible.uk/a450.html |title=Ansible 450, January 2012 |publisher=News.ansible.uk |access-date=9 April 2025}}</ref>

''Ansible'' has for many years advertised that paper copies are available for various unlikely items<ref name=spoilers>{{cite web|url=https://news.ansible.uk/spoilers.html|title=Ansible Masthead Spoilers |publisher=News.ansible.co.uk |access-date=5 March 2019}}</ref> such as "SAE, Fwai-chi shags or Rhune Books of Deeds".<ref name=A344>{{cite web|url=https://news.ansible.uk/a344.html|title=Ansible 344, March 2016 |publisher=News.ansible.co.uk |access-date=5 March 2019}}</ref> In 1996, [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] wrote: "Tell me what I can send in exchange for ''Ansible''. In Oregon we grow many large fir trees; also we have fish."<ref name=A104>{{cite web|url=https://news.ansible.uk/a104.html#02|title=Ansible 104, March 1996|publisher=News.ansible.uk|access-date=19 January 2020}}</ref>

Langford wrote the science fiction and fantasy book review column for ''[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]'' from 1983 to 1988, continuing in other British [[role-playing game]] magazines until 1991; the columns are collected as ''The Complete Critical Assembly'' (2001). He has also written a regular column for the magazine [[SFX (magazine)|''SFX'']], featuring in every issue from its launch in 1995 to #274 dated July 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ansible.uk/sfx/|title='Langford' SFX Column Index|publisher=Ansible.uk|access-date=5 March 2019}}</ref> A tenth-anniversary collection of these columns appeared in 2005 as ''The SEX Column and other misprints''; this was shortlisted for a 2006 [[Hugo Award for Best Related Work|Hugo Award for Best Related Book]]. Further ''SFX'' columns are collected in ''Starcombing: columns, essays, reviews and more'' (2009), which also includes much other material written since 2000, and ''All Good Things: The Last SFX Visions'' (2017).

David Langford has also written columns for several computer magazines, notably ''[[8000 Plus]]'' (later renamed ''[[PCW Plus]]''), which was devoted to the [[Amstrad PCW]] word processor. This column ran, though not continuously, from the first issue in October 1986 to the last, dated Christmas 1996; it was revived in the small-press magazine ''PCW Today'' from 1997 to 2002, and all the columns are collected as ''The Limbo Files'' (2009). Langford's 1985–1988 "The Disinformation Column" for ''[[Apricot File]]'' was about [[Apricot Computers]] systems; these columns are collected as ''The Apricot Files'' (2007).

A collection of nonfiction and humorous work, ''Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man'', was published in 1992 by [[NESFA Press]].  This was incorporated into a follow-up collection, consisting of 47 nonfiction pieces and three short stories, and published as ''The Silence of the Langford'' in 1996. ''Up Through an Empty House of Stars'' (2003) is a further collection of one hundred reviews and essays.

Much of Langford's early book-length publication was futurological in nature. ''War in 2080: The Future of Military Technology'', published in 1979, and ''The Third Millennium: A History of the World AD 2000-3000'' (1985), jointly written with fellow science fiction author [[Brian Stableford]], are two examples. Both these authors also worked with [[Peter Nicholls (writer)|Peter Nicholls]] on ''[[The Science in Science Fiction]]'' (1982). Within the broader field of popular non-fiction, Langford co-wrote ''Facts and Fallacies: a Book of Definitive Mistakes and Misguided Predictions'' (1984) with Chris Morgan.

Langford assisted in producing the second edition of ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'' (1993) and contributed some 80,000 words of articles to ''[[The Encyclopedia of Fantasy]]'' (1997). He is one of the four chief editors of the third, online edition of ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (launched October 2011), and shared this reference work's 2012 [[Hugo Award]] for Best Related Work. He has also edited a book of [[John Sladek]]'s uncollected work, published in 2002 as ''Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek''. Langford's critical introduction to ''Maps'' won a [[BSFA Award]] for nonfiction. With [[Christopher Priest (novelist)|Christopher Priest]], Langford also set up Ansible E-ditions (now [[Ansible Editions]]) which publishes other [[Print on demand|print-on-demand]] collections of short stories by Sladek and [[David I. Masson]]; essays and review columns by [[Brian Aldiss]], [[Algis Budrys]], [[Peter Nicholls (writer)|Peter Nicholls]] and again Sladek; and ebooks of historical interest to [[science fiction fandom]], downloadable at no charge from the [[Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund]] site.<ref name=AE>{{cite web|url=https://ae.ansible.uk|title=Ansible Editions|access-date=22 August 2022}}</ref><ref name=TAFF>{{cite web|url=https://taff.org.uk|title=Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund site|access-date=9 April 2025}}</ref>

Excluding collections, Langford's most recent professionally published book is ''The End of Harry Potter?'' (2006), an unauthorised companion to the famous series by [[J. K. Rowling]]. The work was published after the publication of the sixth volume in the Harry Potter series, but before publication of the seventh and final volume. It contains information, extracted from the books and from Rowling's many public statements, about the [[Wizarding World|wizarding world]] and popular theories concerning how the plot will develop in the last book. A revised version was published in the US in March 2007 by Tor Books, and in paperback form in the UK in May 2007. The book was commissioned from Langford by [[Malcolm Edwards]] of [[Orion Books]], who were seeking a book about the Harry Potter series.

Since 2011 he has devoted most of his time to ''Ansible'', Ansible Editions and ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]''.

He has been a guest of honour at [[Boskone]], [[Eastercon]] twice, [[Finncon]], [[Microcon]] three times, [[Minicon]] (see [[List of past Minicons]]), [[Novacon]], [[OryCon]] twice, [[Picocon]] several times, and [[Worldcon]] (see [[List of Worldcons]]).