ember 2009 
I am very used to rubbing shoulders with strangely dressed people and creatures. I may need to clarify this statement before I start rumours. As an actress, with a lot of experience in pantomime and touring shows, not to mention all the children’s and puppet shows I did as an apprentice, I have dined, held conversations, and worked endlessly with people dressed in a variety of attire. As well as this, I have even spent a lot of time with my husband dressed as a woman - in bouffant wig, full make-up and a lace and net, pink fru-fru frock. My only bone of contention is that he looks better in the dress than I do.
However, during many moments at Collectormania at London Olympia this year, my eyes were like saucers and my chin in danger of knocking onto my clavicle bone. I was completely in awe of all the time and trouble people went to, to dress as they did, and attend the annual exhibition.
A big thank you must go to Kirsty Long for talking the organisers into giving Mystery Women a chance to share the ten or so thousand collectors who go in and out of the exhibition over that weekend buying autographed souvenirs from various films and shows, and to Sarah Townsend and Ayo Onatade of Mystery Women for all their hard work and preparation.
We were given a good spot, easily noticed, and in between selling and signing our books, we stood and observed the attendees such as Star Wars followers who were dressed in white tin knickers, with matching helmets, who wandered up and down, carrying large flashing wands. There were Spider men in full costumes and face-paint, with webbed tattoos, and Dr Who monsters with hair brushes that fell from their mouths if you rubbed their noses, and of course the Daleks who moved speedily around the exhibition with lights flashing from all different places about them, and only stopped once while one requested, and bought, a signed copy of Leigh Russell ’s new novel, Cut Short.
I know if you weren’t there this may all sound like a bizarre dream, or an idea for a new novel based on Alice’s updated adventures inside a film camera lens, but I kid you not, this was the reality of spending the day alongside the members of Showmaster’s Collectormania. There were also actors from various productions there, signing autographed production mementos of shows they appeared in. David Soul, from Starsky and Hutch, and the Blakes Seven heart throb, Steven Pacey were there, as well as my wonderful husband who had come to do the tea and coffee runs, but ended up signing autographs until his arms went numb.
My particular highlight of the day was the man with the flashing teeth who seemed extremely smitten with our very own
Mystery Women queen, the lovely Lizzie Hayes. He flashed his flashing knashers, which also twinkled as he winked his eye and put his head on one side, adding a lift of his glittering eyebrows just in case Lizzie hadn’t noticed he was staring moonstruck at her. Who couldn’t have failed to notice him was way beyond me- but he did seem to be very taken with Lizzie. I will admit, because I know there is photographic evidence, that I was rather taken with a green squeaking parrot. In my defence, he reminded me of my childhood budgerigar, Cabbage. ( I had purposely bought a green bird and called him Cabbage so my mother could never tell me eating Cabbage was good for me)! By four o’clock in the afternoon, the events of the day had really got to me, and if someone had indicated then that there were flying pigs as well as saucers in the room I wouldn’t have blinked an eye.
The day was hugely entertaining, despite the lack of help from the District Line, which was closed due to refurbishment. (Again!)
I especially love Mystery Women events because it gives me a chance to spend time with the other authors. I am a new crime author, but not a new crime reader, and meeting the authors whose work I read and admire is still a big thrill for me. Having been a big Zoe Sharp fan for years and totally bowing in respect to her knowledge of guns and bullets, knowing that if you need a question answered on the subject of firearms there is none more knowledgeable than she, I have now seen a completely different side to her. Zoe Sharp is, to me, the Mary Poppins of the crime world. She always seemed to have exactly what was needed, exactly when we needed it. From a chocolate biscuit with our coffees to a tissue for our emergencies, Zoe was there with a smile on her face and an offer of a hand. Festivals and events would be a lot poorer without her presence.
It was also lovely to meet and make friends with other authors who I hadn’t met, which, I think is what we Mystery Women are about – working together and promoting each other as well as ourselves. I have just finished Debi Alper’s Trading Tatiania novel, and I can highly recommend it. Next I intend to buy and read Cut Short. If it stopped a Dalek in full ‘exterminate’ flow, it must be good.
I have already bought and loved all the Lesley Horton series, and books don’t come much cleverer or funnier than Suzette Hill’s zany series. Kate Stacey’s work I already know and enjoy. So now I have Joan Lock, Cassandra Clark and Alison Joseph to look forward to, from this exhibition. Mystery Women events are much more interesting than a library index for getting to know new authors.
Thank you so much to Ayo, Sarah, and Kirsty, and of course to the wonderful Lizzie Hayes for organising all our events, and helping lift our profiles. Long may Mystery Women reign, and may The Force be always with us! However, I’m not so sure about the man with the flashing teeth!
