Friday 4 December 2009

A Good Time Was Had By All


I wasn't sure what to wear for the Hachette party on Wednesday, but in the end I decided to dress up (there are not enough opportunities these days), so I wore my red, spotty, dancing dress (several people said I looked like a ladybird). No heels though - far too many hours of standing!

I felt a bit over-dressed getting on the train at 11am though, and wouldn't you just know it: I was sitting opposite a nun. She had wonderful buck-teeth, so I just had to draw her. I found out she was 69, but still the youngest one in her community, when she got into conversation with the man below, by coincidence, someone big in the C of E:

As last year, we were in the Century Club on Shaftesbury Ave. There is a room at the top called the Roof Terrace, which is indeed on the roof (there is a large chimney stack poking up from the floor) but it's under a marquee-like cover, so very civilised and remarkably cosy.

At one end of the room there is a little grotto of plants in tubs, and what I thought was a water feature: a little waterfall tumbling down into one of the bigger pots. then I realised it was rain pouring in off the edge of tarp!

Things were already in full swing when I arrived. It was lovely catching up with people. Amongst many others, I met up with Cassia Thomas and Saviour Pirotta in the flesh, instead off on Facebook, and got very over-excited with Melanie Williamson (one of the few people I've met who's more hyper than me!)

These parties are a great way for we isolated arty-folk get to make new author & illustrator friends, and this year I discovered the lovely Sam McCullen of Billy Back to Front fame. We made a bit of an amusing couple in conversation though, as Sam is as tall as I am short: I more or less came up to his belly button!

When they threw us out of the club at 5.00, the hard-core, party types transferred to a local pub (after some confused toing and froing in the rain, trying to work out which pub we were meant to be in).

I had to head off just after 7pm to get my train, but by then I'd drunk quite enough wine for one day! You can definitely tell the difference between the 'before' (above) and 'after' (below) sketches...

Thanks to all the folk at Hachette: a great success as always. And a special thank you for being the only publisher I'm aware of that schedules their bashes in the afternoon: so much more feasible for we out-of-towners. Come on you other guys... how about it?

12 comments:

sandy said...

Ahhh love that dress, beautiful sketch. Your blog is so interesting.

Felicity Grace said...

I always have a giggle reading what you get up to but I think this is the first time I've ever seen a tipsy sketch! ;) Love the squiggly hair!

Nikira said...

I also can't stop smiling reading your blog. Besides being a brilliant artist you are an amazing writer. Thank you for bringing sun in my rainy saturday.

Sam McCullen said...

How lovely to feature on your blog! Thanks Lynne... I almost did another dance when I saw that, but I managed to restrain myself! Great to see your nun sketch again too... and your tipsy sketch made me smile. :-)

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thanks guys!

Anonymous said...

The tipsy sketch made me come over to read the blog! (I follow you on Urban Sketchers)

Lynne the Pencil said...

That's great - thank you for coming!

Lauren Tobia said...

Hi super blog and i think we were at the same party ...lovely cheery dress. :-)

Saviour Pirotta said...

You looked ravishing in that dress, Lynne

Lynne the Pencil said...

Thank you Darling - you're a sweetie!

Barbara Loring said...

Lynne,
I admire your work greatly and have been showing your sketches to my middle school students.
I see the masters, like Holbein, in your line-
So Well Done!

Lynne the Pencil said...

Wow - praise indeed. Thank you very much. And HELLO to your students!