An Award from Belgium
April 20th, 2009
Well, I knew it was going to be great… but not as great as this! The “Trolls et Legendes” fantasy festival took place in Mons, Belgium, on the 11th and 12th of April, and I can honestly say that it was-no pun intended-one of the most fantastic events I’ve ever attended!
I was invited as a guest author by the lovely people at Bragelonne, who publish French language editions of Time Master (Le Maître du Temps) and Chaos Gate (La Porte du Chaos), and for two days I signed books, met a host of readers and participants, and was dazzled by the fabulous array of art, costumes, performances and just about everything else connected with fantasy that anyone could think of. Cas came with me, which made it even better, and came back with two souvenirs that he found among the many amazing trade stalls-a drinking horn and (believe it or not!) a kazoo! It was also our first experience on travelling on the Eurostar cross-channel train, which was terrific.
But the most exciting moment of all came on the Sunday afternoon. My French is wonky at best, so when Christophe, proprietor of Les Quatre Chemins (the bookshop in Lille who organised the signings and looked after me as if I was royalty!) asked me-or so I thought-to present the festival’s Literature Award at a special ceremony, I said, of course, I’m more than happy to present it. “No, no,” said Christophe; “I didn’t say present it, I said be presented with it. You’ve won it!” To coin a phrase, you could have knocked me down with a feather! So I’m now the thrilled possessor of an exquisite figurine designed by French fantasy artist Sandrine Gestin. That’s also a lovely piece of synchronicity, as Sandrine has created two covers for me, which grace Nestiveqnen’s French-language editions of Sacrament of Night and Our Lady of the Snow. I met her for the first time at the festival, so was able to thank her personally. The award is a great honour, and the figurine-of course-has pride of place on my desk. I even managed most of my acceptance speech in French. I don’t know how much of it made sense, but I’ll put that down to excitement! 
So it’s huge thanks to Leslie, Christophe, Morgan, Valerie and everyone else who made the festival into a truly magical experience. Cas and I came back to Cornwall on the overnight sleeper train from London, and the final touch of magic was waking during the night and looking out of the window to see the moon sailing high in the sky above the sea as the train passed the South Devon coast.
Here’s a mini-gallery of photos, from the weird to the wonderful…
Signing another book!
One very proud author…
and the award figurine
Musicians of legend – and very good they were, too
Wood spirits
Creatures of every description were there, from monsters to warriors – and even a steam-age centaur!
P.S. Simba asks me to tell all his friends that he had a great time while we were away. His friend Kim house-sat for us, and she spoils him even more than Diana-next-door does, which is saying something!