This year John was one of the Clarke judges, which meant that on Wednesday we took the train down to London for the ceremony.

I was curious how it would go, being more familiar with awards ceremonies that have multiple categories and fill an evening. In the end it was lovely, about an hour of socializing much as you would at a convention (minus the handy badges) interrupted by a speech by the organizers, the announcement and speech by the winner, another hour of socializing and then off to the pub!

All of the authors were there, which I gather is not always the case, and everyone was supportive and there was much excited clapping when Annie Bot was announced as the winner. Aside from Nic Clarke of course, I had met a few of the judges, but I was glad to see several other friends there – the weather was too warm, but aside from that it was a very nice fannish outing.

We had arranged to stay with Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer of Croydon, in Croydon, so we excused ourselves from the pub afterparty and scurried to the nearest tube station along with Emily January, who was headed in the same direction. Eventually we parted ways and we continued on to the Craft Beer Cabin to meet Claire an Mark for one beer just under the closing time wire – a lovely porter in my case. This was followed by excellent cheese, good whisky, and maybe not so good plum liqueur of inderteminate origin.

The next morning we sadly had to get up early to make our train home, but there was still time for a classic English cafe breakfast at Eddie’s, which is one of the first places in the UK I remember visiting, and close to my heart.