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A nervous Claire poses with Annabelle
(Mad Mab) Lee and Richard Carpenter *

As you can probably imagine, there was a long line to meet Richard Carpenter. It went all the way through the lounge into the bar, where Kip and his wife, Annabelle (Mad Mab) Lee, were eating lunch and having a drink. Clutching my copy of The Complete Adventures of Robin of Sherwood, I joined the queue.

I was a little nervous – and not just because the guy in front of me had six or seven items he wanted Kip to sign. However, I somehow managed to make it through the haze of smoke and bar fumes, and Kip didn’t keel over after meeting the previous person in line. Kip immediately bade me a cheerful hello. Then he spotted the book I was carrying and instantly remarked, “Oh, I haven’t seen this one before!” I guess he hadn’t heard that the four RoS novels had been combined into one volume, or he had never seen the edition in question. I said I thought I’d save him the trouble of signing three or four separate books and just bring the one – not that I actually own the others.




Kathye and Nick dance up a storm

Sar cuts in and Nick
switches partners



















When Kip saw the Nottingham Bakery t-shirt I was wearing, he asked me if I was from there. I explained that my friend Kathye runs an RoS website called The Nottingham Bakery and had given me this shirt. I then admitted that I was from Toronto, and he told me that his grandchildren had been to Canada recently and had really enjoyed tobogganing, which was really nice to hear because I think that tobogganing should be a part of every childhood, not just a Canadian one. I remember when I knocked over my first downhill skier – but I digress. After discussing my t-shirt and tobogganing, Kip signed my book:

Nothing’s forgotten!
Best wishes Claire

Richard Carpenter


I next met Annabelle Lee, who was extremely nice. She signed my Silver Arrow programme under her husband’s signature: “From Rutterkin & me Mad Mab – Annabelle Lee”. Then Kathye showed up with her camera, and I sat down beside Annabelle Lee and Kip. I became nervous at this point and it’s blatantly obvious in the picture, I’m afraid. Yes, there’s a reason why I never took up poker.

Having a little chat with Nick *

Claire gets groped by the Sheriff *





















After the picture had been taken, Kathye told me that Nickolas Grace was signing autographs outside the banquet hall, so we proceeded there with all due haste. The queue was much shorter for Nick, but I’m sure that’s only because the Kip line was so long and there were still people waiting to receive autographs from the other con guests. In any case, Nickolas Grace was just as charming and funny this time around as he was the first time I met him. He stood up and posed for tango shots with Kathye and Sar, hamming it up for the camera.

Patti takes her act on the road!

I was hoping that maybe I would be in for the same treatment and a pose that wouldn’t involve laps this time. He must have sensed my fear or remembered me from SA 2000 because he instantly pulled me into his lap despite my cries of protest. I mean, I still have something resembling a reputation to maintain and, well, I just didn’t want to crush the poor guy. When Patti’s turn rolled round, she was smart enough to insist that Nick sit on her lap, and they ended up in a kind of ventriloquist/dummy pose.

Once we had managed to escape from Nick, we all went off on our separate ways before the medieval banquet began. If memory serves, I worked on a postcard or two (I ended up sending eleven during my ten days in Britain) then got ready for supper. I’m afraid I didn’t have a costume as I was trying to travel fairly light. However, I had managed to find a shirt that had a kind of Robin Hoody look to it, for it had these laces at the elbow and…Dammit, Jim, I’m an editor not a fashion consultant! It…it just looked the part…or so I thought until I saw the Plushies in all their frightening glory…


* Photos provided by Kathye