Last night I attending a reading by Kim Stanley Robinson at Toppings in Bath. It was a great evening, but sadly very poorly attended. I do hope that Stan got a better crowd at the British Library today. I appreciate that the weather was dreadful, and that a lot of people had taken the entire Jubilee week as vacation, but if we want bookstores to put on good SF&F events we have to support them. It’s as simple as that.

Anyway, Stan was excellent, and my review of 2312 will be far better for having had a chance to talk to him about the book. I wouldn’t have got that opportunity if there hadn’t been so few people there. We also went whisky tasting at The Tasting Room afterwards. I finally got a chance to try Penderyn, the Welsh whisky, and I’m pleased to say that it was quite good. Now I need to persuade Iain Banks and Mark Charan Newton to try it.

Thanks once again to Toppings for staging the event, for looking after Stan well, and for inviting me along for drinks afterwards. Here’s hoping we get a better crowd for the Iain Banks, Joe Abercrombie, Peter Hamilton and Paul Cornell events later in the year. (And personally I’m rather tempted by Levi Roots in July.)