As soon as I read that there was to be An Evening With Neil
Gaiman in Portsmouth I bought myself a ticket. Neil does not always write my
favourite books, but there is no denying his imagination and extraordinary
storytelling and I thought it would be unquestionably interesting to hear what
he had to say. And interesting, it most definitely was. Neil was already in
Portsmouth that day, his hometown, to have an unnamed bus lane named after his
latest novel: The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
I arrived at 6.30 to find a very long queue and the place
packed out, which I suppose is to be expected with a Neil Gaiman event. I was
lucky enough to get a centre row seat only a few rows back, so I had a great
view. Before Neil even made an appearance, a Dalek was ushered onto the stage
which gained great laughter and applause from the crowds. Eventually Neil came
out on stage to rapturous applause, and the night got underway.
It was less of a talk and more of an informal chat. Neil
spoke about the busy year he’s had: two books, one multimedia project, Doctor Who and an
upcoming video game. He’s certainly had a full and demanding few months. He
went on to talk at length about The Ocean at The End of The Lane and how it
came about, and there was a question and answer session where the dynamic
personality you hear about really shone. He read a passage from The Ocean at
The End of the Lane, and later on one from his new children’s book Fortunately
The Milk, which is a story he seems really proud of.
I was not at all prepared for the signing afterwards. Neil
had graciously offered to sign two books per person – one copy of Ocean and
another of his books. It took an incredibly long time to even be allowed to
queue. I started resenting this, but realised that once I got to the front I
wouldn't want to be rushed through, so I waited patiently. However, I did end
up missing one train, and by the time we were allowed to line up – it was 10
minutes before I had to leave in order to catch the last train home! About half
way through the queue I had to flag the lady manning it down and say that I
only had four minutes until I had to go. Thankfully, she took me straight to the front of the queue to
get my book signed. She, and the staff at the signing table, treated me
absolutely wonderfully and didn't make me feel guilty at all.
By the time I got to the table it was half ten, and Neil had
been signing for two hours with still half the room to do. He was still the
most lovely man, who gave a really genuine smile and thanked me for coming. He
was attempting to draw a monster in every persons copy of Ocean, and a
different monster for every person, and I joked that it was testing his
creative skills – he agreed.
Follow me on:
To be
honest, I was expecting it to be terrible because the packaging is awful.
Really, Rimmel? I understand they were trying to make it look retro, it's very
much indicated by the name. But for me it just doesn't work. However, the
product. The stuff inside the garish tube? Amazing.
