David Attenborough book signings

[hannahpanda]

David's signing his new book Life In Cold Blood at the following places...

19th WHSmith Meadowhall Centre, Sheffield- 12:30pm
19th WH Smith Trafford Centre, Manchester- 6:30pm (but WH Smiths website says 6pm)
20th Waterstones, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham- 1pm
20th Borders,Magdalen Street, Oxford-6pm
21st Borders, The Square, Bournemouth- 12:30pm
21st Waterstone's, Peascod Street, Windsor- 5pm
27th Waterstone's,Thames Street, Kingston-Upon-Thames- 1pm
27th Natural History Museum Cromwell Road, London- 4:30pm
28th Blackwells, Park Street, Bristol-1pm
28th Topping & Co The Paragon, Bath- 5pm

(dates in Feb)

[Fritillary]

Thanks, I tried to have my new book signed
He is my idole, it is a pitty he is retiring, there will a huge hole for TV programs of nature.

[pressld2]

Thanks for the info!

I shall try to get along to the Nat Hist Mus signing. I got my copy of The Private Life of Plants signed at Books Etc. in Victoria. Took my five-year-old son along - he's eighteen now!

Dave P.

[hannahpanda]

Fritillary he said hes not retiring Life in Cold Blood just completes "The Life" series, sooo who knows what will be next!

I met him yesterday! He is such a nice man, he started signing 20mins early! The queue was huge, i recon alot of people didnt get to meet him, we met him with 10mins until the signing finished, and we were stood about 1/4 of the way in the queue! I got a picture with him too

This is my favourite picture that I took

[external image removed - please read the forum rules]

[Adam Cheeseman]

From what I understand he is not making any more major series, but slimming down to narrations on tv programmes. He is 81 after all.

Cheers,

Adam

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Fritillary

Thanks, I tried to have my new book signed
He is my idole, it is a pitty he is retiring, there will a huge hole for TV programs of nature.

My sister met him at the RGS dinner this year - he was apparently a good laugh though it should be said that he was suitably erm... lubricated. As lubricated as a newt in fact

[Ukwildlifeo]

DA always struck me as the perfect Grandad

Im tempted by the NHM book signing but that will probaly be the busiest of the lot!

[Mr Mag00]

grrrrr, the nearest is today and i have a half term event planned, should i bin it to meet the 'man' himself ?

[RRRachel]

Mr Mag00, definately!! Advice has probably come a bit late now, sorry but only just discovered this website.

I went yesterday and saw him in Windsor. Was a brilliant experience. There were cameras there from various papers and am trying to find out which ones. Have phoned Waterstones but they're unsure. Anyone have any ideas?

Lucky sister who got to meet him at dinner!

[Mr Mag00]

well i didnt bin my responsibilities, but only 2 %&£"!(*&^ ^$% %£$^&*^ people turned up but i didnt see this thread when it was originally posted, might have been worth turning into a sticky, never mind eh!

[RRRachel]

Don't umderstand what you mean, by all the symbols and the 'sticky' termanology. Gutted you didn't make it. No worries though. You stuck with your commitments. Well done you. By the way, what were they (your commitments, I mean)? x P.S. for anyone who cares, have found out that the Windsor Observer are showing their David Attenborough article with photo next Friday. Bless them for getting back to me so quickly! x x x

[September]

Originally Posted by RRRachel

Don't umderstand what you mean, by all the symbols and the 'sticky' termanology.

A 'sticky' is a thread on the particular forum (in this case 'meetings and events') that a moderator 'sticks' at the top of the page, in order that it doesn't slip down the page as people post in other threads. Usually for important subjects, rules and so on. And I think the symbols were meant to be a really big number but the shift key was held down?

Anyway nice heads up on the dates hannahpanda, shame I missed the Sheffield and Manchester ones!

[Mr Mag00]

i used the symbols as a sweary!! which didnt exist, my day consisted of a bird box making session to which 2 ppl turn up!

[xagasi]

Hi, do you know if he will be signing his new book on March too?? preferably in London.
I would go from Barcelona, Spain, just to see him and get my copy signed.
I hope it's not too late.

Many thanks.

[badgerwatcher]

Oh, he's my ideal man. I will be so sad when he finally retires. I'm not into meeting celebrities, as I feel I wouldn't have anything interesting to say to them, but I'd clear an armchair by the fire for him any day. What more could a girl want?

[Fritillary]

I went to Windsor the past week and woauauuuu I shaked hands with him and signed my book. :-) I wont wash my hand by one month!!

At 2.45 there were about 50 people in line and at 4.15 I was the number 105.
It began to rain and he began to sign books earlier (at 4.30 instead of 5).

From Mexico, I watched his programs in the 80's and I never imagined I could be one day in front of him . I remember I watched also "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan (an american scientist) but sadly I did not have the opportunity of a signature of him because he died about 10 years ago.

[pressld2]

I managed to get to the Natural History Museum yesterday. Got there nice and early at 2.00pm and there was no queue so I decided to go and have a look at the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Came out 45 mins later and the queue was at least 400 strong! Fortunately Sir David arrived early at a little after 3:30 and started signing straight away...



That's the first time I've seen an author receive a standing ovation when they arrive at a signing. Also, there's often a photographer in attendance to take some publicity shots for the publisher but at this event there was a bank of press photographers and when Sir David stood up to pose with his book the flash guns were like strobe lights!

As I left at about 4:50 the queue was still huge...



Oh, I nearly forgot to mention - I suggested to him that his "Life" series wouldn't be really complete until he's done a Private Life of Fungi series but I'm sorry to say he didn't seem overly keen!

Dave P.

[xagasi]

I finally managed to fly to London from Barcelona and get my copy signed too, and a picture shaking hands with him.
I got there at 15:44 (the receipt says that ) and was with him at 17:51 (the camera says it again), so I'm probably on this picture of the queue.

pressld2, if I tell you my email could you send me those 3 pictures in full resolution, I could not take a picture of him alone that good. Thanks.

[themissingsandwich]

He is in Ireland tonight (29th Feb) just saw him on TV, do you know if he is signing here? Please, please let me know.

Thanks,

Sandwich

[Mark-n-Jack]

Fantastic to see your post! I had hoped to meet him many years ago and never did although a number of my colleagues from Cambridge Uni Dept Zoology have had the pleasure. When I saw he was signing at the NHM I jumped at the chance. My son had just written a school report on someone he really admired. With the new series, 'Life in Cold Blood' on the TV (I've been hoping he'd do reptiles/amphibia programme for years), I arranged to take my 9 year old son Jack out of school for the day. To fill in the day, I booked tickets for the Tutenkhamun exhibition at the the O2 (Jack was doing ehyptian stuff at school too) - and then it all went wrong. I rechecked the book signing times only to discover I'd misread the booksigning dates - it was 27th not 21st. We still had a great day on 21st - but what to do? For me - meeting Sir David - just to be able to say thank - you was all Ive ever wanted to do! Consequently I decided to take Jack down to London the following week and we werent disappointed. Over the weekend before going, Jack spent much of an entire Saturday drawing a beautiful picture of one of my favourite reptiles, a common or Mediterranean Chameleon for Sir David.

The 27th finally came. I had to collect my son from Grafham Water where he'd just about come to the end of a 3 day action/adventrue school activity event. I picked him up dead on 12 (he'd just cycled round the reserve and was worn out!). I bundld him and his muddy clothing in the car and as we headed to the railway station he threw on some clean clothes and we caught the 1pm train just in time. Any later and i think we may never have made it. After negotiating the u/ground to South Kensington we arrived at the NHM at 2.30pm. There were perhaps around 20 people hanging around by the Diplodicus. I never thought we'd make it. I was thinking I should have been there by 10 or 12 - but it was fine - the NHM staff hadnt even started sorting out tensa barriers! We popped in to the loos and came out to find the queue had suddenly formed from the front of the hall right to the main stairwell. We joined the Queue. I sent Jack off to look at parts of the exhibition, and kept in constant contact with him by phone -this way he got to enjoy more of the museums treasures as we waited.

As we queued I got talking to a very nice chap who worked in a pet shop and who had/wante to work in zoos too. We chatted about our own interests and experiences and the time flew by. As you said, Sir David arrived early and to cheers and applause. There just couldnt have been a more fitting venue. I was worried though I'd brought 5 book, the Life in Cold Blood (x2) 1 for me and 1 for my best friend who turns 40 in April, Life in the Undergrowth and my original Life on Earth book I was given around 1982. Would he sign them all? I then saw spoke to another chap near me - heds travelled from Aberyswerth and had a suitcase full - 1 of every book he'd done - and yes Sir David signed them!The queue was massive. So many people waiting patiently. Jack stodd with me gripping his picture of a Chameleon and a copy of his homework. The staff at teh NHM were so good at keeping everything in order - well done to them. Finally our moment came. I got my opportunity to thank Sir David for raising the profile of this amazing world we live in and for inspiring my own personal love in animals, esp insects, reptiles and amphibians. Jack handed his material over to Sir David who was very flattered to receive them. The chap who I stood next too used my camera to take some pics of us and i did the reciprocal for him - I hope they were OK as i didnt hear back from him afterwards. I so much wanted to spend more time - but you could only imagine how the back of the Queue must have felt! We left Sir David and went upstairs to look down on the event in amazement. There must have been a couple thousand people???? One of the most amzing views was looking over the balcony and peering through the skeleton at Sir David as he signed away! We walked round the museum and enjoyed what it had to offer and just before closing we snuck back towards the front so Jack could try out his new camera by taking pics of Sir David.

When I got to work the next day I was given the centre page spread from the Guardian. The photographer had captured an amazing wideangle view of the entire hall filled with people snaking around teh Dinosaurs eerie frame. There in the bottom corner was my son taking pics of Sir David. Fantastic. The Guardian paper and copies of Jacks Chameleon/school report plus the photos will serve to remind us of our day for many years to come. The just when i thought it couldnt get any better, the follwoing week my Sir David had kindly taken the time to pen out a letter to Jack thanking him for his work. He is a truly amazing and inspiring man. As for the Life in Cold Blood series - I saw the first 2 and then the rest were saved onto the hard drive player - it then crashed and I lost the lot - so I need to order a copy and catch up!

[Mark-n-Jack]

I meant to add these too this!

[pressld2]

Hi Mark-n-Jack and welcome to WAB. Hope you like it here! You sound like kindred spirits. As I mentioned above, I took my son to meet Sir David at the signing for Private Life of Plants when he was only five. Even then he enjoyed watching the Life on Earth, Living Planet etc. more than any Disney films.

Originally Posted by Mark-n-Jack

The chap who I stood next too used my camera to take some pics of us and i did the reciprocal for him

I took some pics for the young lady who was in front of me in the queue. She was incredibly excited, almost as if she were meeting a rock star.

Originally Posted by Mark-n-Jack

One of the most amzing views was looking over the balcony and peering through the skeleton at Sir David as he signed away!

You mean like this...?



I liked that view too - hence the photo! And looking down on top as well...

Originally Posted by Mark-n-Jack

As for the Life in Cold Blood series - I saw the first 2 and then the rest were saved onto the hard drive player - it then crashed and I lost the lot - so I need to order a copy and catch up!

I don't yet have any of the programmes on DVD but I do have a fiftieth birthday approaching faster than I care to think about and the complete boxed set should include Life In Cold Blood by then.

Dave P.

P.s. I like Jack's dinosaur T-shirt!

[Mark-n-Jack]

Great pics too! When I took mine through the skeleton I couldnt help but think it could do with a bit of a dust!

[chris wade]

cant believe i missed this