Book Club: The Lonely Lands (Ramsey Campbell)

Two nights with Meetup now - tonight, I was back, for the first time in most of a year, with The Horror Book Club! They always either clashed with something else, or were reading something I didn't fancy, you see.. well, I couldn't avoid this one, where they were reading Ramsey Campbell. I don't like everything he's written - but he was responsible for my favourite horror book ever, Incarnate. And I see he's still writing - the book they covered tonight was The Lonely Lands, written just last year! I just bought the Kindle edition - and couldn't resist reading the first chapter straight away, which consists of just one sentence:

"When he heard his wife say 'I'm not alone' he thought at first she meant to reassure him."

Ooh, I could not wait to get into the rest of it - thanks, book club, for reintroducing me! By the time I got there tonight, I was 89% through.. As usual, they were meeting in the Prince of Wales, Covent Garden - and I could eat there. Wow, was I glad they'd booked their usual room upstairs - it was like a zoo downstairs! I put in a food order straight away, once I'd decided - didn't fancy a main, so I had a mini plate of cod goujons, with onion rings and garlic bread. And a wine, which I carried upstairs.

The food didn't take long, and was lovely. The book.. less so. Everyone agreed that (a) it is confusing and (b) the ideas aren't followed through - and that's a good summary. Although a lot of the ideas are good, their potential isn't realised - indeed, I recognised several things from other works of his: both in imagery and in tone. The depressed (and depressing) main character? Try The Count of Eleven for size - or in other words, don't. It felt as though he was recycling his past content.. lazy. When we scored, I gave it a 5 - low for me, high for tonight's group! Well hey, all the same, as I said, it was nice to be reading his stuff again. Even if I didn't care for the actual content much. Good to see folks again tonight, too.

Tomorrow, I'm with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - a group that almost never appears in the general Meetup listings, despite being one of the busiest - for Northanger Abbey, in the Orange Tree Theatre. Another place I haven't been in nearly a year.. and going from the office, hmm.

Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. Forgot to mention, but the film for the weekend is - Argylle! Well, everything else I might want to see is on in the evening, which I can't manage.. and it looks fun. A spy caper involving a cute cat (apparently this breed has suddenly become very popular) - another of those where an author discovers her plots coming to life - this stars, among others, Richard E. Grant and Dua Lipa. And yes, it's on in the Omniplex.

On Monday and Tuesday, back with CT for the Bitesize Festival at Riverside Studios - on Monday, it's for Second Temple, a Jewish comedy.

On Tuesday, it's for All the Men Are Going to Hate Me, another comedy, about a woman trying to write the century's great (female) novel!

Then I have five (!) days of Meetup: the next three with UITCS. Next Wednesday, we're at When You Pass Over My Tomb, at the Arcola. A "story of love and lust beyond the grave", as described, it sounds like an interesting way to spend Valentine's Day.

On the 15th, we're at Double Feature, at Hampstead Theatre.

And on the 16th, we're at Hir, a transgender comedy at Park Theatre. My companion of Friday is coming to that as well.

On the 17th, I'm back (whee! at last!) with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners.. I've been persuaded to redo his Dickens walk. Well, it's months since I was on one of his - and he now only does one Saturday a month, says there's no real demand! And since I can no longer go on the midweek ones, in general.. well.. it'll be great to be back with them anyway.

And on the 18th, back with Discover London - History Walks and Events: it was a while before I thought to check that website to see whether there was another walk, and there is, that day! So we're off to Discover London's Oldest Market and Original "High Street"..