Okay, so maybe we were a little early.
From our stakeout on the handily-placed plastic chairs, we watched the growing crowd of geeks gather outside Waterstone's for the signing.Eventually we were allowed inside, where we all hung about the deserted shop idly flicking through books. This could have been quite enjoyable except there were no seats. I belatedly decided I'd better have something to get signed and bought a copy of Neverwhere (only my second ever Gaiman purchase after Stardust). We already had a copy of the book itself -- in the US edition, which has illustrations by Dave McKean.
After another age or two, we were admitted to the top floor, and nabbed some seats at the front. The crowd fidgeted, and stared at the empty chair and the stacks of Coralines.
Until, finally: Neil Gaiman walked in! I swear he looks older than this in the flesh -- kind of like your dissolute uncle who's served his time in the Hell's Angels -- but the guy is amazingly photogenic, and looks the same tousled 30 in his photographs as ever. Freaky.Neil read a section from his book, then took questions from the floor, which somehow led to him singing a song about Count Olaf from the books of Lemony Snicket.
Then we all queued up to get stuff signed. There were maybe fifty people there, so there wasn't too much fuss about getting exactly one thing signed and moving on as quickly as possible, which was exactly the point of us trekking out to Canterbury in the first place, so that worked.
The guy sitting behind us was a keen amateur photographer, and was only too happy to fiddle with my camera, which is why we were both able to pose with Neil at the same time. He was even nice enough to give the camera back afterwards.
Not quite sure what's going on between Neil and me here, though. Neil was actually more interested in Storme's Good Omens t-shirt, which we'd picked up for $2 in a thrift shop in New York a few weeks back. Apparently this was never actually sold when new -- it was a promotional item for bookshops, and only about 500 of them were ever made. Very cool indeed.
There were rumours that Dave McKean might turn up later, but we decided to leave early and dash through the rain to the train station, to be sure of getting home at a reasonable time. Here's Storme holding up our copy of Coraline with the worried-looking rat Neil drew on it. And that wasTHE END
* * *
...or was it? There were still two more signings, and although we hadn't planned on going, there was still the possibility of further HOT NEIL GAIMAN ACTION to come. And don't forget the TV interview!