Armistead Maupin

At the announcement of the new book in the 'Tales of the City' series 'Mary Ann In The Autumn' I e-mailed the 'Gays The Word' bookshop to see if Armistead Maupin would be signing books at their store. The reply was yes but the agony was prolonged as they weren't going to announce the tickets sales for a month or so and then it would be on a first come first served basis..

I have loved the 'Tales of The City' books since i first read them in the early nineties, during that time I worked in hotels, the life within the gates of Barbary Lane was not too dissimilar to the life i was leading in hotels. I know it sounds like a stretch but we were a young group of people living under the one roof sharing our day to day adventures. We were a mixed bunch some gay, some straight and some unsure... So these books found me at a perfect time in my life. On occasion we would have 'Tales of The City' evenings - this comprised of a group of us getting together with wine and beer and spending the evening watching the whole of the first series all the way through. Lots of my friends then read the books and fell in love with the world as much as I did.

Now all these years later I have in my life my own Mrs Madrigal, a lovely lady called Margaret who either I have adopted or who has adopted me, she is 91, fit as a flea, great company and doesn't give a damn about who people are and who they love. 

It was with great excitement that I called 'Gays The Word' on the morning the ticket sales were announced, hoping against hope that I would get to meet Mr Maupin surrounded by a group of  friendly like minded people and hosted by the lads from the book store, as opposed to the cold walls of your average book signing. It took a while but I got through, Uli said how pleased he was that I had managed to get tickets.

Sunday 28th November, we wrapped up warm and headed off to the 'New Bloomsbury Set' Bar it was already jam packed when we got there. There was a 'Mrs Madrigal' selling cakes in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust. We weren't sure if they were laced or not... The audience, as expected, mainly comprised of men but there were a few token women. Armistead arrived at 7.30 accompanied by his husband Chris Turner. He was introduced firstly by Uli who shared all our sentiments by telling us what a life changing event it was to discover that there could indeed be a world where people like us could happily co-exist with straight people and have a wonderful life whilst we were at it.

Uli was followed by the Mayor and Mayoress of Camden, Amy Lame and Jonathan Simpson. Jonathon told us of a flight back from San Fancisco. He was reading 'Michael Tolliver Lives' he was sat next to an older lady who smiled at him when she saw the book, he naturally assumed it was because of the gay content but read on and when he got to an emotional part and actually shed a tear the lady looked at him and remarked: 'I knew you would get upset at that part!' Proving that Armistead crosses many boundaries - basically he writes a damn good book that is suitable for all!

Armistead then stood and read a part from the book that he said he wouldn't have been able to read at the normal book signings. For those who have read the book it's the Sound Of Music section :-) There was such a great atmosphere in the crowd, we have all shared this journey, after the reading he answered lots of questions from the group, ranging from how does he make all the characters so loving, to does he want to shave his moustache off for charity!

Armistead was very generous with his time and his answers. After the Q&A we joined the huge queue to get our books signed. I joined the queue at the end as I had bought ten books with me hoping Armistead would sign them all! About four of mine but also ones for my friends who enjoyed the book as much as I did.

I rambled on inanely to him in my nervousness but he didn't seem to mind!

So all in all it was a wonderful night spent with a rather wonderful man! Oh and if you haven't read the review yet check it out here. It's a wonderful book and I was very sad to read the final page and leave those friends behind until the next time.

Sky-Riding around London

What a wonderful day we had taking part in Boris's Sky Ride around London.... I must admit I was really looking forward to the opportunity to see those wonderful landmarks that we all know so well from the vantage point of my bike, with no cars to worry about!  We set off from Enfield station, having cycled into town and found we

were not alone in this notion, lots of families got on with their bikes at the station - we had decided the easiest thing to do was to get to Liverpool Street. I must say it was very odd to be wheeling my bike round a station in London and let me tell you it's not actually that easy to get a bike up an escalator!  Liz took me through all the back streets as it's right near where she works. Suddenly we turned a corner and there we were in amongst literally thousands of like minded people in bright yellow tunics, madly cycling round London. We later learnt that approx. 85,000 people had turned out for the event! So as you can imagine the going was not exactly fast paced but that was fine as it gave us the opportunity to look at all the sites. We went under a tunnel that they had designated the loud zone - people rang their bike bells in sheer joyous abandon. Liz was very sad to discover she hadn't actually got one! There were also people on weird and wonderful bikes, a very cool lady adjacent to us for a time had a tricycle on which she had added a massive speaker!  She played some awesome music as we peddled along, I really wanted to stay by her but she was soon swallowed up by the masses. We passed alongside the Thames and got a wonderful view of the Millennium Wheel, as we reached Big Ben we came to a grinding halt as lots of people like me wanted their picture taken beneath it... The pace picked up as we zoomed past Buckingham Palace and decided to see if the Queen was in, judging by the flag she was!  That was my favourite part of the journey, there was more space and it felt rather wonderful to be hurtling through London on those red roads on my bike from Rugby!  We had a  spot of lunch in St James Park and they had laid on a bike repair centre where we got our tyres pumped and Liz's bicycle saddle fixed...  All too soon it was over, I was in half a mind to go round again, but instead it was back to Liverpool Street!  Can't wait for the next one Boris!