The Cathedral at the End of the Lane

Last night, I got to meet Neil Gaiman again, almost two years to the day since I did the first time around (not that I'm obsessive enough to have realised that. No, sir!). He was doing a talk and reading from his new novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which I talked about a few weeks ago.

I don't want to spend much more time enthusing about Gaiman and his work - I've done plenty of that on this blog already this year, but he gave a great talk. It was pretty short, and mostly repeated things I'd heard and read in recent interviews, but he also answered a few dozen questions from the audience, which was unique and insightful.

Beautiful surroundings for it

'This is my first cathedral.'

Some highlights included him dropping hints about some upcoming stuff - a short story set in the Neverwhere world (How The Marquis Got His Coat Back); 'expect some non-fiction books from me in the next five years' - thoughts on children's literature (let them come to the books that they enjoy; don't give your small child Stephen King's Carrie to read just because she enjoys Goosebumps), and what Alan Moore hides in his beard - 'the wisdom of the world'.

Neil also did a reading from his new children's book 'Fortunately, the Milk...' (or 'Fortunately, the Milk' if you live in the US), which actually sounds amazing. I'm still yet to read any of his children's fiction, but the section he read was hilarious (both in content and delivery). He's doing a full reading of the book in London in October, along with the illustrator Chris Riddell and 'special guests'.

After the talk, Neil did a signing session for the 1000+ people who were there. This took...a while. All told, I think he was signing until 2am. We were due for a signing slot at 10pm, but didn't get to the front of the queue until past 11.30. This was (probably) his last ever signing tour, so it was worth it. He was signing as many copies of Ocean as you brought along, as well as one item precious to you. I considered getting my Kindle signed (which looked really good - see below), but in the end, got my laptop lid signed, since that's something I see every day.

I reversed gravity so you could see the signature better

Neil was making a real effort to get some kind of connection with most people coming through - with me, he started a (very brief) conversation about MacBooks, and what he was using. A small thing, but something which makes the encounter that bit more memorable. It's a real feat that he can keep up that volume of signing while still making that level of effort.

Thanks for everything, Neil.