Sunday 27 September 2009

Gollancz Autumn Party 2009

I had an awesome time at the Gollancz Autumn party in London last Thursday night; it was great to meet a load of authors, editors, bloggers and other industry folk that I'd never had the pleasure of meeting before. The free drink was nice too! The event was held in the refined surroundings of the October Gallery in Bloomsbury, moving on later to a pub around the corner. As well as meeting my fellow bloggers Gav, Graeme, Adam and Mark, I managed to have a chinwag with James Barclay, Joe Abercrombie, Chris Wooding, John Jarrold, Gollancz editor Simon Spanton and publicity guru Jon Weir, and a new author called Gavin Smith whose first book is due out next year (and who is clearly as crazy about A Song of Ice and Fire as me!). 

So overall, a great evening. Here's some photos!

The three blogateers: yours truly, Graeme (Graeme's Fantasy Book Review) and Adam (The Wertzone)

James Barclay and myself

Myself, some small-time author called Joe Abercrombie, Gav (NextRead) and Mark (My Favourite Books)

Mark, Gav and myself

Chris Wooding, myself and a rather inebriated-looking Adam(!)

My fellow bloggers have already posted their own reports of the event here, here, here and here.

Many thanks to Jon from Gollancz for organising such an enjoyable evening (and kudos to him for managing to keep 100+ authors/editors/bloggers from trashing the gallery, despite all the free booze!). 

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That picture of Adam does is suggestive of an altered mental state engaged in deviant thought.

Gollancz is the shit, though!! They have the best authors, best releases and clearly best gatherings. Now, if I can only get myself relocated to London, or thereabouts.

James said...

Well, Adam certainly wasn't drunk (as far as I could make out!) so clearly he was engaged in 'deviant thought' at this point... ;-)

And yes, Gollancz are mighty fine.

Adam Whitehead said...

Are you kidding? I was pretty wasted by this point. The free wine they were dishing out was pretty good!

James said...

Well, you did a commendable job of hiding it!

Jon said...

James, thanks so much for such a cool write up, really glad you enjoyed it and I'm just sorry there so little chance for me to chat to anyone!

thanks for this, and for your continued positive support of Gollancz and the authors, this was our little thank you to everyone who contributes to making the list as good and successful as it is!

Jon

gav (NextRead.co.uk) said...

Oh great pics! It was brilliant to meet you. Sorry I kept running off. Liz and Mark had to drag me away in the end. Too many great people.

I hope you both had a great time on Friday and found a few things to keep you occupied.

Adam was drunk?? He didn't wobble once!

James said...

Jon - no worries, thanks for such a fun evening! Feel free to invite me back next year... ;-)

Gav - yeah, cool to meet you as well, it was like a mini blogger convention! And yes, it was an impressive display of false sobriety from Adam.

James Barclay said...

Really good to meet you, James. It was indeed a fine night. I have to confess to feeling a little fragile the next day but I feel the pain was worth the gain. Take it easy...

James said...

Great to meet you too Mr B. I hope I didn't babble too incoherently...