London Days.

I've been to London twice in the last two weeks for Forbidden Planet signings. It's all been rather lovely, bunk off work and head out to spend my time indulging in book obsessions.

Last week was Gollancz, with 5 authors, the ones I was there to see primarily being Stephen Deas, and Mark Lachlan. I've reviewed Wolfsangel and have Stephen's books two waiting their turn. Also there were Sarah Pinborough, John Meaney and Adam Roberts. I indulged in Sarah's book too while I was there. Spent far too much.

It was a nice relaxing event with everyone getting their stuff signed and then a few beers after. An extra highlight from my point of view was that Guy Adams whose book The World House I loved and who we have interviewed here turned up. I also got to hang out with fellow bloggers Neil C Ford and Sharon (dark fantasy reviews).



This week I was back and really made a day of it. At 12:30 at Victoria I met up with Stray who posts here from time to time and Kate Laity/CM Kempe who is one of our Ravenous girls as well as a fantasy author and very interesting lady. The three of us ate noodles and yapped till sadly Stray had to return to work. Kate and I then made our way across to Shafetsbury by foot stopping for liquid refreshments at a number of pubs en route (including Feathers Stray).

At about 5pm we headed into Caffe Milan and joined some of the other bloggers for a soft drink and to gather and chat before we headed across to FP as a mob. Sadly at that point Kate had to leave us to go and do stuff with other people. I also go to hang out with Cat Connor's lovely daughter in law Lizzie and eventually Cat's eldest cub Caleb.

Signing this time were Adam Nevill, Mark Charan Newton and Chine Mielville. Much to my amusement in spite of the free form nature of the event queuing still occurred. Seems we just can't help it. Everyone bought lots of books, especially Amanda who I think managed to stick to her less than ten rule. *grin*

Once again it was relaxed and enjoyable and everyone got everything they wanted signed. We all then moved to the Phoenix again for the rest of the evening. Sadly I had to head home at a reasonable hour so didn't stay as long as i'd like and missed one or two latecomers. It was really great to meet the bloggers and lovely to finally get to chat to Adam Nevill (who I reviewed yesterday) and it's always a joy to talk to Mark Newton. I didn't get to talk to China at all except to say hi, but I should be reviewing something of his soon, possibly going back in time to UnLunDun.

Great job and huge thanks to everyone involved in both signings, it's been wonderful fun. Lots more pictures on Flickr.