After Wigan, my appetite was whetted and when Andy Fairclough decided to hold an MOT day in London, I put my name down straight away.
I travelled down by train, tubed it to Oxford Street and found Forbidden Planet. After wandering around for a while - and wishing I'd taken more money with me - I bumped into Paul Finch. A crowd of writers then turned up, amongst them Simon Clark, Tim Lebbon, Steve Lockley, Gary Greenwood, Tony Mileman and Chris Teague (there were many others, forgive my memory).
We wandered towards The Princess Louise and decided to stop off for a bite to eat and virtually took over the lounge of the pub we picked. By the time we reached The Princess Louise, things were starting to come together. Simon Clark bought me a drink, clutching a Tesco plastic bag. I asked what was in it - he told me it was his latest manuscript (which was, I later discovered, the 'Triffids' sequel).
My experience at Wigan had not prepared me for this and the afternoon went by in a flurry of meeting people, talking, debating, drinking and laughing. I met, in addition to those mentioned above and those, sadly, whose names I don't know, Andy F, Paul Lockey (Unhinged editor and great bloke), Simon Morden, David Howe (BFS man), Derek Fox, Rob Rowntree, Lisa Negus, Mike O'Driscoll (with whom I shared a very entertaining conversation about the cinema of David Cronenberg) and Stephen Jones. Oh yes, the man who'd re-invigorated my interest in short horror fiction was there and he was more than happy to sit at our table (me, Paul, Simon, Rob, Lisa and Tony), listening to us and telling us his literary adventures.
All too soon, it was time to catch my train back. I said a lot of goodbyes, shook a lot of hands and then headed for St Pancras beaming, my rucksack full of purchases.
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