Flanders expo and a London book launch!

2025 continues to be busy. On Saturday 1st-Sunday 2nd November, Bryan was a guest at FACTS Belgian Comic Con, which was in the Flanders Expo centre in Ghent. The day before, there was a signing in the centre of Ghent, at Paard van Troje,  a great independent bookshop, with substantial graphic-novel sections in both Dutch and English. Before the signing, Kris, the proprietor, took us for lunch followed by a long walking tour of the fine city centre. Thanks for a great afternoon, Kris.

For the rest of our visit, we were in and around the Flanders expo complex, some distance from the centre. Unlike most ‘Comicons’ these days, this annual 2-day event actually features comics quite prominently, alongside the usual games, cosplay etc. Bryan was kept pretty busy and we were well looked after by the friendly crew.

When it was all over on the Sunday evening, we went out for a final nosh with fellow guests: Steve Leialoha, John McCrea and his daughter Ellie. Cheers!
Then a few days later we were off again. Bryan’s Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor has just come out in English, so we were down in London for that. On Thursday 6th there was an invite-only launch event at the Cartoon Museum, where it was great seeing friends and family. It was a rare treat to have our sons Robyn and Alwyn there. Also Bryan’s French publisher, Laurent Lerner, came over from Paris to attend.


Here we are in a bar afterwards, with my brother Bill Atherton, Robyn and Laurent. Well, not just any bar, as Laurent has rightly pointed out. This London pub, Museum Vaults, is the setting for the closing scene in The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor: The Alpha (itself a reference to a setting in Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short story: ‘The Blue Carbuncle’).

This private event was followed on Saturday 8th by a public signing session in Gosh!

That’s James Robertson, who runs Bryan’s website, sitting next to him.  Thanks to Alwyn Talbot and Mauricio Molizane for the Cartoon Museum and Gosh! photos.

So where’s next? Oh yes, Edinburgh. Maybe see you there?