Lord & Lady Probert live at Brighton!

Thanks Mr D!

WHC was loads of fun and the Vault was mentioned loudly more than a few times!

The convention was a great success, Kev - with an atmospherically slightly decrepit hotel that had seen much, much better times - back when Brighton Rock was filmed, I think.

It was great to be able to meet so many people I only really knew via the net - or only very occasionally in the flesh.

I even managed to get my yellowing 1967 copy of Basil Copper's Not After Nightfall signed by him, though he sadly needed the steadying hand of his wife to do it.

Reggie Oliver's performances, narrating some of his brilliant stories, was something not be be missed - and I hope these pop up soon on Youtube, just like JLP and the lovely Kate's very much shorter version of Corruption, which was something else not to be missed.

The fish and chip banquet was fine, from the point of view of the Stoker Awards ceremony, etc - though I thought the food attrocious. And the promised wine far from plentiful enough!
Still, it was nice walking back to the hotel at night along a brightly lit pier, with a quite turbulent sea underneath.

My wife enjoyed it so much, in fact, that she has pushed me into registering us both for this September's Fantasycon in Nottingham!

David

And I missed out on all the fun again .. thanks to this bloody illness of mine

Right up until the last minute I thought I'd make it to Brighton, but alas it wasn't to be. Really sorry to miss meeting up with all of you. Maybe FCon if I can make it there come September ...? ;D

(oh, and to make matters worse, I missed another Jethro Tull concert - I'm absolutely gutted )

It was a real pleasure to meet you and yours John. I managed to get a fair chin wag in with David and his lovely wife, Johnny and Mr Black but you appeared to be the busiest man on earth. It'll take me about a year to recover but it was a superb event. Couldn't fault it really except on the grounds of overabundance of great things.

No, no refund I'm afraid - too late for that. But the lovely Johnny AllThingsHorror - when he realised I wasn't there - got several of the contributors (probably several of them here?) to sign a copy of his Book of Horror for me as he knew I wanted one.

Meanwhile I've splashed out on a really big bar of chocolate ...
(I always turn to chocolate to cheer me up)

It certainly was a golden opportunity to get your books signed, as there were people there you'd be hard pressed to meet again, especially from overseas.

I managed to get my 1967 copy of Basil Copper's Not After Nightfall (which I bought when it was first published), plus my entire collection of Reggie Oliver's books (I reciprocated by signing Reggie a copy of Back from the Dead!) I also managed to get Gary McMahon and Paul Finch's new releases from Ash-Tree Press signed too, while my wife got James Herbert to sign the name card she "liberated" from the table at which he had previously given a talk, complete with WHC logo.

I must admit I have never had to sign my own name as often before - and some people must have delved far and deep before attending the convention to get their collections signed. I had only been at the hotel a short while and was on my way to the bar for my first drink of the convention when an American stopped me with a 1977 copy of First World Fantasy Awards, edited by Gahan Wilson for Doubleday, plus a copy of Whispers from the same period. I wondered then how big his suitcase must have been, because I'm sure he must have brought a lot more books with him for loads of other writers. This one had a yellow postit attached to my story. That's efficiency for you. Perhaps I should have taken more books there too, though our bags were heavy enough already!