Back from Kenya

Our youngest daughter, Cassandra, called round with her husband, Alan, last night after they came back from their honeymoon in Kenya. We spent a fascinating time listening to their tales of the monkeys that cheekily infested their hotel and all the wildlife they saw. Afterwards, she was pleased to borrow a copy of Saw 6 which I got while they were away. That was to be their night's viewing when they got home. I'm afraid Cassie's film tastes have been heavily influenced from when she was young - she was an early devotee of the Hellraiser movies.

The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey

My current reading is the new novel, The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey.

World Horror Convention - Brighton

Like everyone else I bumped into there, I found it a well organised, busy, packed convention, with surely something for everyone who is interested in the horror genre.

It was great to meet so many people for the first time, many of whom I had only met online - or knew about from what they had written. Some, like Gary McMahon, Charles Black, Dave Sutton, Des Lewis and Mark Samuels, I had previously bumped into, but others like Paul Finch, Johnny Mains, Simon Bestwick, John L. Probert, Basil Copper, etc were known only either by what they had written or by telephone and emails. I wasn't disappointed in any of them, and a nicer group of people it would be hard to imagine.

Steve Jones and the rest of the WHC committee did a splendid job in putting together a packed venue of events. Some highlights were Reggie Oliver's superb theatrical renderings of two of his best stories, Puss Cat and The Copper Wig, John L. Probert and Kathleen's production of "Corruption", and the inimicable In the Gloaming troupe.

Not only were the goody bags for this convention astonishingly well filled, but I also received copies of Johnny Mains' anthology, the strikingly well-produced Back From the Dead (which contains my story The True Spirit), and a US hardback reprint of Steve Jones' zombie anthology from the mid-nineties, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, now retitled The Monster Book of Zombies, which contains my story Out of Corruption. These on top of Charlie Black's latest addition to his long-running Black Books of Horror, now up to number six, in which I have yet another story! This is a record for me - and one it will be hard to beat at future conventions, I'm sure.