Phew, what a night! Where to begin? There was Anne Nicholls with a moving tribute to David Gemmell, there was the awesome double act of Stan Nicholls and Debbie Miller doing many and various, and then there was the fabulous James Barclay. What a guy! Auctioneer supreme, he won himself whole legions of fans with his rendition of A Call to Arms. Give the guy an Oscar, for he is a god!
As for the awards... with just over 10,000 people voting on the short & long lists combined, from 74 different countries, the winner of the David Gemmell Legend Award was: Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski. A Polish author who's well known in his own country, this was his first English work (I think!). The award was a large engraved battle axe thingy and was accepted on his behalf by the fabulous Jo Fletcher, Goddess of Gollancz.
Each of the nominees also nicked off home with their own mini-Snaga.
And then there was the auction, with some high quality luxury prizes. The charity was Medecins Sans Frontieres, and over £1000 was raised. Half of which came from getting £500 for a signed first edition of Legend. Blimey. Personally, I'm utterly gutted that some rich git had done an internet bid on a cameo in a Stan Nicholls Orc book because that meant the starting price was totally out of my league. Bugger. The boys of Bragelonne (and also sponsors of the event) seemed to be quite enthusiastic bidders too.
And there were a nice bunch of people in attendance, too. Juliet McKenna is always great to talk to (and I never seem to get to talk long to her, alas) and Robert Holdstock... what is not to love about talking to Robert Holdstock, what a fab gentlemen!
And I even got to play photographer's assistant as m'good friend Pete Coleborn was official court photographer for the event! The photos will go up on the DGLA website shortly, I think...
All in all, a great night. Definitely one that folks should try and get to next year. And don't forget to pop along to their website and show your support!
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