Wendy writes: I thought I’d just confirm that Christopher Lee did indeed show up and, apparently, had yet another event lined up after that signing. Busy days. He didn’t seem too dejected but I didn’t hear anybody mention ROTK to him. I didn’t either because I hadn’t yet seen confirmation of the rumours at the time.
I just happened to be shopping in London when I saw a poster announcing that Christopher Lee was signing his autobiography at Borders today.
So I joined the small-ish queue, discovered that there was a much bigger queue upstairs once you had gone past the “overflow”, and spent my lunch time queuing and queuing some more.
It felt really strange seeing him and hearing him talk in front of me once I got close. He might be 81 years old but he doesn’t look it and his voice can put you under a charm, just like Saruman’s.
When it finally was my turn, I approached nervously, said Hello and a few words. My French accent must have been leaking through as he asked me where I was from. Once he knew it was from Belgium, he started chatting with me in perfect French about how he knew French well but couldn’t understand Walloon (a Belgian dialect). We chatted like that for a minute or so. I was a bit overwhelmed by it all so couldn’t quite find anything to answer.
The evil man must have had me under a spell. 😉
Anyway, I bid him a good day and went on my way.
Funny how a boring shopping trip can turn out very different from what you had planned. Now on to read his autobiography. From what I’ve read so far, Lee seems to look back at his life and career with a serious dose of humour and derision.
Apologies for writing all that to you but I just had to share the experience. This has made my day. 🙂
