Friday I went to see Emily St John Mandel at Waterstones in Liverpool for a Station Eleven book event. (March is a month of authors!) To my amusement she was interviewed by a guy who didn't ask many leading questions because he was too busy fanboying - I would be the same in his shoes, ha - but we learnt that she used to be a ballet dancer, the deer in the book has no significance there's just a lot of them in the area, she threw in the ghost moment just for fun, and she's currently writing the script for the comic featured in the book so hopefully that will get a life of its own. There was a lot of talk about book genres, as Station Eleven is one of those lovely books that are difficult to categorise, and technology as well as appreaciation of the now.

Her earlier books have now been released in the UK and the shop had stocked a bunch for the event, which was great because I've been looking for them without success since I finished Station Eleven.

Also, she looks really young, maybe 20, and I had that moment of 'how can she be that young and have written four books already, and have a husband and live in New York, and be all successful and have such a life?!' And I googled and found out she was born in 1979, so she's older than she looks and this made me feel a little better ;)

Then on Saturday I was under instructions to be at the train station bright and early for a surprise trip out, as a birthday present from a friend. The surprise turned out to be a day trip to London for a Sherlock Tour she'd put together! We started at the BBBC Sherlock's 221b with brunch in Speedy's, saw the actual 221b address, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, spent some time searching for that St Barts building at the end of the BBC season 2 and eventually found it (it's at the back of the hospital), and then went to the Sherlock Holmes exhibit at the Museum of London.

To enter the exhibit you "take the second bookcase on your right," which is the best directions I've ever been given, and it's full of fascinating things, including original manuscrips and notebooks for some of the stories, props from films and tv shows, and maps of the time used to write the stories with videos showing what taking those routes would look like in the modern day.

We also had ice cream. Because ice cream.


The BBC's 221B door and Mrs Hudson's cafe, where we had brunch:


The actual 221B address, which alas is rather boring these days:


The Sherlock Holmes Museum:






In the Museum of London exhibition - my favourite painting:


'Poverty' map of London at the time (so many maps!):


I was amused by this:


The Coat:


And we did eventually find the right St Barts building (with my friend hiding at the bottom of the photo):