The Crusty Exterior is a group of friends, united in their
love for the horror genre, books and, of course, a good curry.
The core of the group - James Everington,
Phil Sloman, Steve Harris and me - met up for the first time at Andromeda Con
in 2013 (
see my report here), though
Steve & I go back much further, first corresponding in the late 90s
when he ran a newsletter called The Inner Circle.
On Saturday, the Crusty Exterior rode again with a few new
members as we met up in
Leicester.
As well as the original four, this time the ranks included Stephen Bacon and John Travis (who made the mini gathering for
Steve H’s birthday last year), Jay Eales, Tim Jarvis and Linda Nagle.
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| In The Ale Wagon, from left - me, Tim Jarvis, James Everington, Phil Sloman, Jay Eales, Steve Bacon, John Travis |
I parked at Highcross and met a completely lost Steve B at the clock
tower near Haymarket. After hugs and a quick catch-up,
we wandered along to meet the rest of the party and picked up John on the way,
then Jay directed us to The Ale Wagon pub, where Phil, James and Tim
were waiting. As we waited for Steve H
and Linda, we caught up, talked writing and books, drank, laughed and
effectively set the template for the day.
Jay went off to find the stragglers, the rest of us went outside to wait
for them and there were more hugs when we finally saw them. Plus Linda had made us cupcakes, which went
down well with everyone.
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Phil points out some titles as Steve checks for them on his database.
John doesn't look at all convinced... |
We walked through the centre and had lunch at
Holly’s Coffee Shop on
St. Martin’s Square and
decided to walk as we ate, though as each of us got served we went outside and
starting eating waiting for the others.
My club sandwich was fantastic but, of us all, Phil clearly showed his
cosmopolitan roots by having crayfish!
Our hardy band went up New Walk (where we spotted one happy chap wandering down wearing rabbit ears) and, at the museum, stopped to enjoy
Linda’s cakes, which were delicious. We also got to tell the Andromeda stories - that we couldn't find a curry house in the middle of Brum (and so had an Italian) as well as the excellent
"yeah, Steve broke a seat": "I really didn't..." tale which, I swear, gets funnier every time I hear it.
After a short break - and zigzagging between rugby fans heading to the
Tigers ground - we kept moving up the hill.
Steve B & I walked at closer to my normal pace and soon found
ourselves ahead of the group and we chatted about my thriller novel, which he
recently read to critique. Once we’d
reformed, we cut across Victoria Park and the group broke off into various
changeable iterations, as we found ourselves chatting with just about
everyone. Tim told James & I about
his teaching Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to his students - all three of us loved
the story and that led us onto Stephen King’s Danse Macabre, where James &
I had each first discovered mention of it.
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| Outside the Help The Aged bookshop with the Steve's and Linda |
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Phil with one of his purchases, the cover of which
I suggested looked like Mr Benn on drugs... |
By now, we’d reached Queens Road and the two great secondhand
bookshops there - Age UK and Loros.
We hit the former first and all of us picked something up, suggesting
titles to one another and chatting about our finds. Steve H, who collects hardback first
editions, found a couple of likely candidates but decided not to buy them after checking his
database on his phone. Yes, Steve has a
book database and you know what, it sounds like a terrific idea to me.
We then trooped across the road to the Loros, where there
was plenty more chat (and James found the Futura edition of Danse Macabre I have, though it was in much better shape than mine, which has been read and re-read almost to the point of being killed). More
purchases, more suggestions, more laughter and then we left, heading back
across Victoria Park towards town. As is
my wont, I’d been taking photos all day but then asked a young woman walking her dog if
she’d take a group one. On Facebook a
while back, James pointed out that none of my blog reports include comments
about the poor unwitting passersby I co-opt into taking pictures, so that’s why
I’m mentioning her (wish I’d asked her name now). It’s also because, as we stood there posing,
John offered to hold her dog for her.
Jay led us to the Marquis Of Wellington pub on London Road where, because it was a lovely afternoon and we were seating nine, we sat out in the beer garden. We took the end booth, pulled over a couple of chairs and that was us for two hours, enjoying the weather and company as we drank and talked. Conversation ranged across the board, there was a lot of laughter and plans were hatched for future meet-ups.
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| In Victoria Park, with Steve B, Phil, Jay, John, me, Linda, Steve H, Tim and James (with thanks to the nice lady walking her dog) |
Since we wanted to eat in plenty of time for Phil to catch
his train, Jay took us up to the Rise Of The Raj restaurant on
Evington Road and
as we’d managed to beat most of the rugby crowd (who’d gridlocked the
London Road
junction) we got a table upstairs without any trouble. As we settled down, the laughter picked up
straight from the pub, conversation was breezy and the food was excellent. Steve B and I had the same starter, which had
more of a kick than I’d been expecting, the main courses were quick and tasty
and the time flew. We covered a lot of
topics, as ever and it was nice to discuss
The House Next Door (
which I wrote about here) with horror fans (only James & I had read it), as we
talked about books that weren’t necessarily explicity supernatural but which
contained a sense of mounting dread. Some intriguing titles came up that it'll be fun to explore.
All too soon, it was time for Phil to catch his train -
everyone exchanged hugs and handshakes, then he was gone. The rest of us left not long after, Tim
taking off quicker as his train was due first and the rest of us gathering at
the station as we said goodbye to James and John. Jay headed off to get his car and I led Steve
B, Steve H (still carrying the few remaining cakes from earlier in the day) and
Linda back to the Highcross car park.
More hugs, then Steve B & I went up to
floor 6 (we’d parked across an aisle from each other without realising it) and
said our goodbyes.
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| In the Rise of The Raj, with Phil, James, Linda, Steve H, Tim, John, Steve B, me & Jay |
The day went really well, everyone got on brilliantly and
the conversation and laughter flowed easily, plus all of us picked up some
decent books. As gatherings go, you
can’t ask for much more than that. Roll on the next one!
p.s. Just in case you were wondering (as Tim, John and Linda
all were - we told them in the Raj), the name of the group was explained in the
previous Crusty post here.
, the traditional age range for comics readers in the late 70s was the 8-12's (making my golden period 1977- 81). Looking back for that period of British comics (when there were plenty of them about), there was a lot of impressive cover art and a lot of it remains vivid in my mind. Mostly coming from DC Thomson or Fleetway, they were on newsprint with limited colour but delivered plenty of fun on a weekly basis. Nothing like them really exists now (take a look at the shelves in any supermarket to see what I mean) and that, I think, is a great shame.
