The name "Ansible" is taken from Ursula K. Le Guin's science-fictional communication device. The newsletter first appeared in August 1979. Fifty issues were published by 1987, when it entered a hiatus. Since resuming publication in 1991, "Ansible" has appeared monthly (with occasional extra issues given "half" numbers, e.g. "Ansible 53") as a two-sided A4 sheet and latterly also online. A digest has appeared as the "Ansible Link" column in "Interzone" since issue 62, August 1992. The complete archive of "Ansible" is available at Langford's personal website. "Ansible" issue 300 was published on 2 July 2012.