The Book Launch

Things looked grim.

The radio was reporting flash floods and hazardous driving conditions. So why were we driving down to London then? Well, a certain long awaited book was due to be launched on an eager public, and we had scored an invite to the party. No, not anything to do with a well known boy wizard - this was the swit-swoo book launch for Emma Kennedy's new book - How to Bring Up Your Parents.

The drive down to my Mum and Dad's house was surprisingly smooth, even allowing for some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen that hit us just as we were approaching Luton leaving some quite impressive flooded areas in the middle of the carriageway. Still, we arrived safely and my mum immediately sat us down and fetched a huge casserole out of the oven to make sure we were properly fed before we ventured out again. We decided that my Mum is a cross between a faffer and a blivyoid, and she is the source for the quote in the book where she asked one of my friends to 'sit in the back of the car with the other flids, thinking it meant kids. It doesn't' She claims not to remember saying any such thing, of course ...

The sun was starting to peek out again as we caught the train down to London. My phone trilled and I looked at the name on the display. Crikey - it was only the enigmatic Creepy Lesbo. We arranged to meet by the big cinema in Leicester Square and she spotted us first, along with Flaming Kitties. It's always slightly strange meeting people you have only known on line (for about four years in Creepy's case, and we first met via Emma's guest book fact fans). Creepy looked pretty much as I had pictured her (and is very lovely), although I'd imagined her with a much huskier voice for some reason. Flaming Kitties looked like exactly like her pictures online but is tiny in real life.

We decided that turning up early for the party would look a little ... keen ... so we popped into a handy pub for a drink first and then made our way down Shaftesbury Avenue looking for the address on the invite. After a bit of searching, we spotted an anonymous looking door with an unlabeled buzzer so we gave it a push and went in. Inside was not the Leaky Cauldron, but it turned out to be a very swish looking club filled with glamorous media types. Searching for a familiar face we spotted the now world famous Hysterical Mum Brenda who greeted us and took us over to meet Emma who introduced us to the other guestbookers and pointed us in the direction of the free bar. Wahay!

The evening passed in a pleasant buzz of conversation, mainly with Jim off of the guestbook and Dungeonmaster Rob off of lots of different websites. As internet nerds we decided to lurk on the unfashionable side of the line but Emma kept dragging her celeb friends over to say hello and jolly nice they all were too, especially Mel off of Mel and Sue.

The strangest bit of the night was talking to HMB about giant rats and secret tunnels under London ... no, I don't remember quite how we got onto that subject either!

All in all it was an excellent night, and the very best of luck to Emma's book and all who sail in her!