Octocon!

I spent the weekend in Dublin, for Octocon, and had a wonderful time.

I arrived (later then planned, due to Aer Lingus) on Friday, and met up with friends SpacedLaw and Raven Books for a meal (and lots of conversation)

The Con started on Saturday, but I skipped the opening ceremony and morning panels, and headed to the National Gallery of Ireland, where I spent a happy hour or so wandering around. They have a Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, an early Van Gogh and a Picasso. I also enjoyed finding some less familiar artists - they Gallery has several works by Jack Butler Yeats - I particularly like the latter, more impressionistic works.('For the Road' was my favourite)

Trinity College

 I also wandered through Trinity College and admired their public art works -

My afternoon at the convention included attending the GoH interview with Liz Williams,and panels about alternate histories, heroism and stoicism, not to mention time spent catching up with friends old and new.

The evening brought a meal out with SpacedLaw, Anabel (and her cousin) and  Ian Sharman at the wonderful 'JoBurger'

Brian J Showers, Deirdre Thornton and R.F. Long - Roots of Irish Fantasy Panel

On Sunday there were lots more panels - everything from the roots of Irish fantasy (Ruth Long had some wonderfully insane books from early 20th C writers) to writing about cultures not your own, when and how a writers words or actions in 'real' life impact on whether you can enjoy his books.

There may also have been quite a large amount of sitting around in the lobby having conversations with other attendees. It was fun.

Spacedlaw and I wound up the evening at The Winding Stair, which is a restaurant with its own bookshop. Or possibly a bookshop with its own restaurant. Either way, the food and wine were delicious.

On Monday morning there was just time to head over to Blackrock to visit Louisa at Raven Books, (and inevitably, to buy some books, before heading back to the airport for my flight home.

It was a lovely weekend, and (as you can see from the pictures) it was even sunny for about half the time!

Last Day in Dublin (sob)

Monday meant having to leave Ireland, which was sad. Very sad.

First, there was PACKING. This is interesting, when you have 9 books, one jar of honey, some jewellery and a poppet more to take home, than you had when you arrived. Not that I didn't want all those things, just that they all take up space.

Then, pausing only for pancakes and tea, we headed out to Blackrock to visit Louisa at her beautiful bookshop, Raven Books. For me it was a very fleeting visit, as I had to get to the airport to catch my flight home, but it was never the less a fun morning.

We got a train out there, and spent a long time browsing the shop (and I found a copy of Gail Carriger's 'Changeless', which is a Good Thing)

Louisa met octokitty, and then we went for lunch. And did I mention that Anabek gave me a handful of eyeballs, to make up for the fact that unlike the others (and Finn) i would not be going on a Ghost Bus  for the evening.


My Octocon Swag!

I was fortunate enough to have a smooth (if ltime consuming) jouney home And oh,so very tired!

I haven't posted all my pictures in the blog but if you want to see more the full flickr set is  here .

Oh, and did I mention the glorious steampunk earrings and Cthulhu pendent I bought, from Ukapala. Nice, aren't they?

Octocon - Books and Ninja Gig

In my memory, Dublin  seems to include a lot of interesting meals at odd times and places. Saturday night we went out for a quiet meal with Catie Murphy, which turned out to be a not-so-quiet meal with dozens of people (although I'm pretty sure I *saw* Catie, across a crowded restaurant... 

George RR Martin

 On Sunday, it was a very very late lunch  (or possibly, I suppose, a very early supper) at a place named Green 19, with Lorraine, and Brian, and Nathalie, Hellie and Anabel., which was lovely, and leisurely and relaxed. 

We got back in time to attend the Octocon closing ceremony, during which many, amnypeople were thanked, and George RR Martin was given a lifetime achievement awardin the form of a rather nice steampunky pistol, or possibly blaster.

I cannot now remember what we were pkanning to do after that, but what we actually did was make it as far as the comfy chairs in the lobby, and then stop.

C.E.Murphy, Fabulous Lorraine, R.F.Long

I seem to remember tea. and then later we bribed Lorraine with tea and hobnobs and footrubs until she agreed to play her fiddle for us. It was wonderful. And I also loved that she was able to sit down in the corner of the hotel lobby (bearing in mind the Con didn't have the whole hotel. Therre were *normal* people there too) and play, and no-one turned a hair. Maybe they have random ninja violin gigs in the lobby all the time. it wouldn't surprise me at all.

I think it was around this time that Catie Murphy turned up and gave us lots of books. Don't you love when that happens? I have a huge big stack of shiny new books (including a copy of 'Hands of Flame'  which unexpectedly starts on p.33. I asked whether Catie could summarise what was missing and she said "stuff happens" . So that's clear, and, I am sure, accurate. But I think I shall go and buy another copy, too. Maybe one which does have those first few pages, even if it lacks the author's signature.

Oh, and a certain small skeleton boy was spotted...

I think that it was round about this point that sleep deprivation really kicked in, as although I'm sure there was conversation and interesting things I don't remember any of it very clearly. I know I was enjoying myself, though.

I'll leave you with a random Octokitty picture.

I think Octokitty made a lot of friends.

In Which There Are Panels & Writers

Tragically, the cake cafe where we had breakfast on Saturday doesn't open on Sundays, so we couldn't hve breakfast there. We ended up in the Boulangerie RF Long and her family,m which was a consolation.

Then, as there was some sort of convention going on at the hotel it seemed reasonable to go to a panel or two...

I started with "Ethics in YA Fiction"; the panel included Michael Carroll, author of the 'Quantum Prophecy' series, Peadar Ó Guilín (the author of 'The Inferior', which I belive involves teen cannibals) Siobhan (who is a knitter and linguist, and may well have other qualifications I know not of) and Clare Hennesy

The panel started with discussions about what can and cannot go into books marketed for children, Michael Carroll explaining that on the basis of concerns about the sensibilities of some parts of the USA, he has had to excise the occasional "damn" or "Bloody" from the books, and has therefore invented his own expletives. There was also some discussion about age banding and labelling and how libraries are (at least in part) trying to cater to those parents who don't know what might be suitable for their child, rather than trying to censor books.

The panel then moved towards issues which I found more interesting - some of the ideas and presumptions that may be found in (some) books - one example given being that in the Harry Potter books, there appears top be the idea that 25% of wizards are evil, based on selection at age 11. I had to leave at this point which was a shame, as it felt that the panel was just getting on the area I found interesting...

My second panel was Lorraine's panel "Neil Gaiman: Behind The Curtain" - which sadly clashed with Brian's horror panel, which I should also have liked to attend. Lorraine talked about her job, and answered questions from the floor, Including revealing that she had initially said No to Neil doing "13 Nights of Fright" (Because he didn't really have time), but relented when he explained he had always wanted to come out of a coffin....!)

I thought it went well, although the room had a bit of a problem in that it seemed to have only two possible settings as far as heat was concerned - very stuffy & overheated, or frigid. . .

I stayed on for the next panel, which was about invented and inventing languages, and worldbuilding, which was fun - wandered on  into issues of Irish accents/language on TV.

As if to make up for no panels yesterday, today was pretty busy. Straight after  the language panel was a panel about the Care and Feeding of writers, which featured Lorraine (of course), Parris, (GRRM's partner) Pat Fanning (R.F.Long's husband) and Ted Lee (C.E.Murphy's husband). Topics covered included The Importance of Feeding Your Writer,  Socialisation and Human Contact, lots of anecdotes  -very interesting to hear about the writing habits of different writers. I think for me one of the most amazing was Ted saying that Catie wrote her first book while on trains commuting to and from work. How impressive is that?.

Parris spoke with feeling about how absorbed and un-distractable George can be - she once got fed up and went in to tell him that that the tyrannosaurs were invading and  the volcanos erupting, and  got a "good...." and "fine, in a minute" reply. . .
I noticed a number of nods of recognition from the other panellists!

Crypts and Bog-Bodies and Fiends (Oh My)

Today started well, with a wander down to the canal to admire the swans and the skeleton-on-the-wall, followed by pancakes for breakfast at the wonderful  cafe where we had lunch yesteday, in the company of Lorraine, Nathalie and Anabel. 
We then went to the Octocon opening ceremony, where Lorraine, and George RR Martin, and the other guests were introduced. I have to confess I have still not read any of GRRM's books, but I can report that he has a magnificant beard!

Then out to explore Dublin!

We started by visiting Christ Church, because, as Lorraine so rightly says, it has a wonderful crypt. The cathedral on top is pretty nice, too.

We spent more time in the crypt, though. There was tea.

It turns out that Tea in a Crypt is, indeed, an ideal way to spend a Dublin morning!

It turns out also that there is a food market on Saturday morning at Temple Bar, where one can buy all sorts of cheeses (If one didn't have to worry about packing or customs)  and breads, and delicious, freshly baked blueberry scones the size of your head. 

Not that I stole any of Lorraine's scone, obviously. I would never do that.

Then, as 2/3s of the party missed out on the Bog Bodies yesterday, we went to the museum. We saw no more grafitti warning of the dangers of toast, on the way but there was other street art...

At the museum we acquired Hellie, (slightly sleep deprived) and went to look at bog bodies. I can't begin to compete with Lorraine's flawless description and archeological expertise. So you should just go and re-read her blog here .

Those people got bogged alright. Also they all had red hair.

And as well as the bog people they have other stuff in the museum. Viking and Celtic jewellery (and, for some reason, buckets).  And then there was the whole zombie arm. They said it was a reliquary for some saint's arm, but you only have to look at it to see it's really the remains of some cyborg zombie. Be very careful in dublin. Who knows wht else there may be here.

As well as mummies and zombie arms and bog bodies, they have a tea shop in the museum. I like that in a museum.

Visiting culteral sites and artifacts such as crypts and bog-bodies is wearing . Some of us found a taxi and headed back to the Con, where Q scheduled a new panel, located in the hot tub and entitled "getting bogged with Fabulous Lorraine" It was a small but perfect panel. With bubbles and hot jets. More conventions should consider scheduling hot-tub based panels.

I think the next thing which happened was the chrity auction where various things, including some of Neil's honey, boks and games signed by GRRM and other authours were autioned off - over 900E was raised, which is pretty impressive.

Then dinner, and a party, with music from th Fabulous Lorraine (on violin) a guy whose name I didn't catch (on guitar) and various rmadom people providing choral singing and interpretive dance. Musically, I think it perhaps lacked that certain something (I'm nearly sure that it traditional to sing & play in the same key) but for sheer fun, it was right up there with the best.

As was the whole day, in fact.

In Which There is Tea, Cake and Kidnapping

We had, apparently, arrranged to meet up with @Nemone7 and Brian J. Showers at 8.30 in order to go tto visit a cemetery, so we had an early breakfast, a which we were  serendipitously joined by @ickle_tayto

We walked to the cemetery,[edit to add - Anabel (@Nemone7) tells me the graveyard is Mt Jerome] where we saw the graves of Sheridan LeFanu, And of the fathers of both Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, not to mention many wonderfully named scions of Dublin, including one Hercules Ellis. There are many warning signs about hwthe gates are locked at 4p.m. SHARP. And quite a few disturbingly disturbed looking graves, which lead you to wonder whether the gates are locked to keep visitors ou, or to keep somthing else in.

But I'm sure that the little bits of bone were just from rabbits, or urban foxes. and there's a good reason for the crypts to be so securely locked.

We all go out safely, and in our search or coffee (sadly the coffee shop in he cemetery itself was not open) we found a cryptic warning:  I can't speak for the others but I for one am grateful for the warning and intend to be on my guard around toast from now on. It should have warned of tea, though.

Our morning coffee break  was a little marred when the waiitress (who was otherwise lovely) lost control of her tray, and spilled boiling tea all over my foot.

I do not recommend this. I am always open to new experiences, but I feel confident in saying that hot tea should not be used externally. They did bring me cold coke cans to use as a cold compress, and, eventually new tea. and I'm sure the blisters will heal soon. I'm told  I was lucky.Some people get bogged in Dublin, which is more permanent.

Visiting yarn shops in the company of mad knitters is not, as far as I know, a well publicised or common part of the Dublin experience, but it should be.Lorraine was kidnapped for the afternoon by some knitters she met in a pub, and I got to tag along as a spare hostage.

We visited 3 yarn shops, and some countryside, and there was coffee and cake, and Octokitty, who is travelling with Lorraine, got a shiny new eyepatch to cover up his/her/it's bengal-induced eye loss. (Patch provided courtesy of free yarn from The Yarn Shop  and mad knitting skills of Siobhan!)

And then, when we got back, Lorraine was taken away to be important as a con guest, & I got t meet up with Nathalie and Cheryl and to go out for a fantastic Indian meal.

And after that:-

Oh, and I got birthday gifts and Q got kidnapped again, and there were lots of lovely  Irish  people to talk to.

In which I travel to Dublin

I have been looking forward to, and planning, this trip to Dublin to see various fiends and to attend Octocon, for months, but as often seems to happen, it appears to have been a long time in the future for ages, then suddenly it was week away, without any warning!
I spent most of yesterday faffing about with last minute work stuff, as my quiet day in theoffice to ensure everything was up together turned into a lot of firefighting. And then the evening was taken up with packing. I don’t know whether it’s just me, but I always seem to end up in a state of panic in case I have packed the wrong things, or too little, or that I will discover that my choices of clothes etc. are wholly inappropriate to the place, or the weather, or the event. Knowing how foolish this is does not seem to change anything. *sigh*

Still, I did manage to be quite restrained when it came to packing books, on the basis that if one is attending a Science Fiction/Fantasy convention in a major city the chances of being unable to acquire extra books if needed are fairly low…

I was disappointed but unsurprised to find my first train of the day was running late (Thank you so much, First Great Western.) Probably just as well I booked the train an hour earlier than I thought was necessary, really….

However, the train did make up much of the time and I arrived at the airport with plenty of time in hand, and was able to go through security with only a minor check (apparently books look suspicious under x-rays, Who knew?) happily, Southampton is a dinky litle airport which, at least on a Thursday afternoon, is not crowded. I actually walked past the entrance to the security without realising it as I was loking for a queue, and had to turn back!

The flight was short and uneventful. I was disappointed that low cloud meant I couldn't see much.

Then Dublin, and a long bus ride brought me to the hotel.Several very friendy and helpful Dubliners ensured that I got off the bus in the right place, and shortly after checking in I met up with Lorraine and her Spirit Guide, @Nemone7. (Check out Lorrraine's blog to see what they'd been up to all day - way more exciting than my uneventful journeying!) for dinner and chat and plaanning of nNew Fun Stuff to do tomorrow. I believe graveyards will be invovled. And maybe tea. 

Also, unfortunately, Early Rising.

Mostly Grumbling.

It's been a funny old week. Lots of stress at work, and (probably in part as a result)  have not been sleeping well.

And I have been feeling very sorry for myself over the weekend. Sometime I wish I believed in Creationsim - it'd be nice to have someone to blame for the joys of female biology, sometimes, and one cannot really get a proper rage up against evolution. . .

Still, at least I have something to look forward to  - Thursday will see me off to Dublin for Octocon and, even more importantly, seeing the Fabulous Lorraine, and Nathalie and Louisa and Hellie. And hopefully to meet others, too.

If I can just get through the next three days.

Not Rocket Science, Surely?

Sigh.

I do get annoyed with with bloody utility companies. I got home this evening to find a letter from my Gas & Electricity Company, who were writing to tell me that they have noticed my bill was quite high so have decided to increase my direct debit.

Now, the payment plan I have is that I pay a fixed amount each month, rather than a variable amount based on the amount of fuel actually used, which works for me because it allows me to budget. Obviously, it also means that some months you overpay, and some you underpay, the idea being that the direct debit is reviewed from time to time and adjusted if you are building up a substantial credit or debit balance.

At the end of the last quarter, my statement showed I'd paid for more than I'd used, and had built up a credit balance of about £150. Scottish Power's suggestion was that I should pay a bit less for a while to use this up.
My suggestion, having down some sums and worked out that on their figures, they would get to keep my money for about 14 months til it was used up, was that they should give me my money back, and then set a new regular payment at a more realistic level.

After a bit of pressure, they agreed.

Today, they wrote to point out that (quelle surprise) the amount I'd paid for December-Jan was less than the cost of the fuel used, so "to help you to avoid building up a debt", they propose to increase the monthly payments. Because, obviously using the 3 coldest months of the year (in the worst winter for a decade) as representative and working out a payment schedule on the assumption that I will be using the same amount of gas and electricity in every other month as I did in January makes perfect sense.

Cannot help but notice that it only takes them 3 months to try to change things when the balance is in my favour, and 12 months when it's in theirs.

After holding on the phone for 10 minutes and explaining several times that yes, I understand that I might end up with a bigger bill later, yes, I understand that I will have to pay for the fule I use, plus pointing out that it's fairly likely that I will be using rather less gas and elecricity in (say) April & May than I did in January, things will even out, I eventually managed to convince them to change it back to the original payment.

But honestly, they couldn't work out for themselves that January is colder than June? Or that their own selling point for this plan is that you get to average the costs out, over the year?

(Yes, I know, I could change suppliers. But I doubt any of the rest are any better, and as I have pretty low bills (one of the few advantages of living in a terrced house and only having central heating in half of it) the possible savings are not worth all the faffing about to research and change)

In more cheerful news, the organisers of OctoCon have finally fixed the dates of the Con, so I have registered, and will be going to Dublin in October, and meeting up with Fabulous Lorraine and SpacedLawyer, and no doubt seeing RavenBooks too, all of which should be fun.

Of course, this may involve flying with RyanAir, which takes the gloss off a little, but such is life.

And it turns out my library books are due back tomorrow, not, as I thought, yesterday, so no fines for me after all!

Amanda Palmer stole my photos!

I was expecting Wednesday to be anti-climactic. All the fun of Coraline, AFP and Neil reading was over, and all I had to look forward to was a Ryanair flight home and an afternoon in the office.

The airport shuttle bus goes straight past Louisa’s house, which was handy, and getting through security was no worse than it usually is, and I had settled down near the gate to wait for the flight, while I was waiting, I saw Cheryl , whom I met after the Amanda Palmer gig, and we ended up chatting while we were waiting and during the flight. This improved the day no end. I have to say, if Ryanair could guarantee me a Hugo Award winning writer / blogger to sit next to on every flight, I’d be inclined to fly with them more frequently….

It was a relief to find my car still where I had left it in the airport car park ( For some reason, I tend to assume my car won’t be stolen, except from airport car parks. No, I don’t know why, either.)

And then decided I was far too tired to work so after popping in to the office to check for emergencies (only one, and it was relatively small) I went home to snooze and start blogging . .

Incidentally, Cheryl has blogged the signing at Chapters, with video of the whole thing, including all the readings and the Q&A I think that I am there for a fleeting moment in one of the videos, but the advantage of sitting on the floor in a large group people is that you are not easy to spot! (for anyone who needs to know, I am about 3 rowa back, waering a Graveyard book T-Shirt (From Neverwear , Natch) There is also a flickr pool of pictures of the event, and on Monday, I learned that Amanda Fucking Palmer herself has used some of my picture for her blog which was another thrill, and certainly brightened up my Monday morning.

Ahh, how shall I cope with my pedestrian life now I have tasted vicarious fame?

In Which Mr Gaiman reads, and Miss Palmer sings.

The Neil and Amanda Show, at Chapters Bookshop.

Siona, her friend and I got a bus up to Parnell Square, as my ankle was still playing up. This got us a few odd looks when we started asking which bus to get, as it’s not far from Trinity, so people kept trying to give us directions instead, on the assumption that we were simply lost or confused.

We got to Chapters at about 3 p.m. and I found a lovely leather sofa in which to settle and read. There were already 3 or 4 other people hanging around in anticipation, and members of Chapters' staff were starting to prepare for the evening’s event.

They hung black drapes from some of the shelving, and these were then decorated with pairs of buttons (later, some of these started leaping from the drapes to attack Neil. It would perhaps be wrong to read too much into this…..)

There was a big 'Coraline' movie display (although later this was moved in order to make room for more people)

A little later they came and took away the lovely leather sofa I was sitting on, although I was able to forgive them, as they wanted it for Neil and Amanda to sit on. I found a convenient bit of floor to sit on.
And the shop filled up.

And got fuller and fuller. Pádraig Ó Méalóid ‏, who was in charge (you can see an interview which Cheryl did with him before the reading here - see - I said there would be more later) and other members of staff kept moving furniture, and people, to try to get as many people as possible into places where they could see, or failing that, hear, what was going on, while maintaining (with difficulty) enough space to allow Neil & Amanda to actually get through the crowd. . .

It was a very happy and good tempered crowd, and as time passed, with a marked absence of Authors or Singers, it stayed good tempered and parts of it even started to talk to each other. I regretted not having any cupcakes to pass around on this occasion. I think cup cakes and signings go together well.

Then Neil & Amanda arrived, and explained the delay...


The Plan, in case you were wondering, was that one of them would read, and one of them would play the ukelele and sing, and then there would be a Question & Answer Session, and then a signing.

Further explanation of the Plan relvealed that it would be Neil who would be reading, and Amanda singing, and that when we got to the Q&A it would be we in the audience asking the quesions and Neil and Amanda doing the answers, although I like to think that that somewhere, perhaps in a parallel universe, in the Other Chapters, there was another event at which the Other Amanda read, and the Other Neil sang, before they both asked the audience questions...






After Neil's first reading, Amanda played and sang.





Then Neil read some more









Then we moved on to the Q&A part of the evening. Questions included (for Amanda) 'Can I have the Ukelele?' Answer - "No, because it's mine (but if I had another one exactly the same you could have that)".

And for Neil "Would you like a comb?" Answer - "No thank you, it really wouldn't help"

Also for Neil, there was a question about whether he anticipated making use of Irish folklore in any work in the future, and he spoke about the 'Only sandman story that didn't happen', which would have been done with Dave McKean, and which had a working title of 'Blue and Orange and Green' , where the 'green' part would have been set in Ireland. Neil went on to say that although he hadn't written much set in Ireland, he had done a lot of writing while he himself was in Ireland, courtesy of friends such as Tori Amos who have "more houses than they have bodies" Parts of American Gods was written in Ireland, but the Graveyard Book was not, becasue Neil came to Ireland to write and had flu instead.

After the Q&A came the signing.I ended up near the front of the line (this was entitrely due to luck, not judgement, the line formed by some kind of Brownian motion, and there was a certisn amount of uncertainty to begin with as to which way it ws going, given that a certain amount of weaving between booksehleves was necessary.) Due to the numbers there was a 'one item' limit, which is fair enough (even so, I belive Neil & Amanda were there until about 10 p.m.)

From Chapters, we headed back to Trinity, where Peter Murphy was giving a talk about his book, John the Revelator - Siona and I only caught the end, mainly Q&A, which was a pity, as I would have liked to hear the whole thing: curse this inability to be in two places at once.... (But I am about to start reading the book, which is the next best thing)

The evening then ended with Thai food, followed by Guinness in Louisa's local. Mmmmmm.

In which I play some more in Dublin, and fail to see the Book of Kells

Tuesday 17th February – the day of the Chapters bookshop Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer reading and ukulele playing event….

Again, this was in the evening (due to start at 5 p.m.) and so I had some more time to play with Dublin. I headed back into the city, and made my way back o Dublin Castle to the Chester Beatty Library, which has a collection of manuscripts and includes 3 exhibitions. One, ‘ Arts of the Book’ has manuscripts ranging from Egyptian papyri to Chinese jade books to medieval illuminated manuscripts, the second had exhibits from the 3 religions – Christianity, Islam & Buddhism, which was fascinating. The Christian section included further illuminated medieval gospels, some early papyri copies of the (parts of) the gospels, and some Coptic manuscripts which were interesting as the pictures showed Christ and the disciples with a distinctly African appearance, but otherwise (to my in-expert eye) very similar to the European manuscripts. The Islamic display had a number of beautifully decorated copies of the Qu’ran – these were fascinating, particularly having seen similar patterns in tiles and manuscripts in turkey. I liked the Buddhist mandela’s and documents but didn’t find them as emotionally appealing – maybe because they are culturally more distant and unfamiliar?

There was also a temporary exhibition – ‘Artists Proof’ – 24 prints, each displayed with 2 proof copies so you could see where the artists had made changes – fascinating!

After leaving the Chester Beatty I spent a little while playing with the Labyrinth in the Dublin Castle garden, before heading over to Trinity College, where Louisa’s niece, Siona, who is a student there, had agreed to meet me to take me in to see the Book of Kells. (It’s open to every one, but students don’t have to pay )

As it turned out, the Book is not on display this month, but there is an interesting exhibition about it (with more fun facts to learn and remember ) and the Long Room , in the library (where the Book is displayed, when it is at home) is well worth visiting in it’s own right. It’s a beautiful room – and in addition to the (facsimile) Book of Kells, was hosting an exhibition entitled ‘The Body in the Library’, about the history of the Murder Mystery, with displays of early editions of lots of classics, together with the odd length of lead piping, revolver, and bottle of poison. . . lots of fun!

We decided to go straight to Chapters from Trinity, on the assumption that the event would be fairly popular, and it might be as well to get there early….

In Which I travel to Dublin, meet a Fiend, and see a rather good film

I have been looking forward to going to Dublin, both in order to see Coraline and Amanda palmer’s gig, and in order to meet Louisa, whose kindness in inviting me to visit enabled me to go!


Despite being with RyanAir my flight was on time and relatively painless, and the clouds even parted so that I could see Ireland below us as we descended to land at Dublin. Louisa and I met at the bus stop in Blackrock. A little later, I got introduced to Louisa’s bookshop , which is small but perfectly formed.

Then in the evening, Coraline ! The film was showing as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and was also, of course, the European Premiere, as the film isn’t out here until 8th May, except for this one showing. We got to the cinema very early, to find that they weren’t letting anyone in yet; so we admired the Coraline display and posters and popped out for something to eat. When we came back half an hour later, the doors had opened and the cinema was half full, so we found ourselves sitting about 3 rows from the screen. The rest of the cinema quickly filled up – the event was completely sold out (the first film of the festival to sell out) and

Neil gave a very brief introduction, stressing that everything in the film is handmade, not CGI, and mentioning the micro-knitter in particular. Then we all donned our 3D glasses and sat back to enjoy the film.

* * *

The film is superb. I had been excited but a little sceptical, I wasn’t convinced it could be as good as everyone seemed to think. I was wrong.

It is as good as everyone has said.

Maybe better.

It is also definitely worth seeing in 3D if you possibly can. In the Q&A session which followed the film, Neil commented in the past 3D had been a bit of a gimmick – used to throw things at the audience – as if when talking pictures came in the technology had been used only to SHOUT AT THE AUDIENCE, but that in Coraline the 3D is not used in that way. Things recede, and the 3D is a part of the film – it adds to what you see, rather than being something which you notice and think 'ah yes, that’s the 3D to show they’ve got it’

There were one or two things in the film which I didn’t like – some of the things which were different to the book I could see as necessary and desirable, given the different demands of different formats; the fact that Coraline needed someone to talk to, for instance. I particularly liked the fact that she had not become a ‘nice’ or ‘goody goody’ little girl. It also took me a little while to adjust to the fact that Coraline and her family are now American, rather than English, but I got over it, very early in the film.

At the end of the film I would happily have sat down to watch it a second time, as I was conscious of there being lots of things going on in the background which I wanted to see again.

At the end of the film there was a Q&A with Neil – as well as talking again about the fact that everything in the film was done by hand, without CGI. He also explained that this was only the 3rd time he had watched the film all the way through (not having stayed for the whole of the official Premiere), and that he is still enjoying it, as still seeing new things each time. He also spoke about the ‘Good Omens’ film, selling it to Terry Gilliam for a groat, and then having to e-bay farthings to pay his agent’s fee, and about the meetings which he and Terry Pratchett had with Hollywood

when originally trying to sell it. Neil was asked about the ‘Death’ movie, and directing, and finally was asked (by the JDIFF interviewer) who he would pick to direct a ‘Graveyard Book’ movie, if he had to pick someone at random from the audience, which gave him the opportunity to introduce Neil Jordan who was in the audience. (The two of them were due to have lunch the following day, and there was a brief discussion as to whether the rest of the audience could tag along, but sadly we were not invited…) Amanda Palmer was also present as one of Neil’s guests for the evening, so Neil took the opportunity to introduce her and to remind everyone of their joint signing, singing and reading on Tuesday, before leaving.

Did I mention that we liked the film?