Eastercon Levitation Day 2 Telford Shropshire – Easter Saturday 2 – 30th March 2024

Up, breakfasted and on to the second day of a wonderful Eastercon Science fiction convention.

The first presentation was all about death.

So, You’re Thinking About Murder – Dr Rose Drew

Rose Drew presents her talk at Eastercon Levitation.

Rose Drew is a forensic pathology expert, and discussed the real challenges of identifying long dead skeletal remains. Despite the title this had little to do directly with murder investigation.  Rose drew on slides showing real human skeletons and bone fragments. She has a particular interest in the study of the bodies from the recovered ship The Mary Rose (from the age of Henry 8^th). While in most cases, the cause of death was obviously drowning, one body was found to be severely crushed, most likely from being trapped by a moving heavy cast iron cannon as the ship listed and tipped during the sinking.

Rose was dismissive of the instant findings on bodies in shows like Bones and CSI, where gender, age and cause of death are almost instantly worked out.  In many skeletons the gender is hard to assess, and often impossible.  Even DNA can be hard to extract and analysis of it can take months of assessment as well as being a very expensive process.

Locked Room Mysteries In Space

Me, Allen Stroud, Aliette De Bodard, Mat (Moderator) and M V Melcher.

Asimov’s Mysteries Book Cover.

A panel I was on, alongside some of the finest authors attending the convention.  We discussed how SF often draws on aspects of traditional crime stories and whodunnits to give them a science fiction twist.  With a body found in space, on a space ship, alien planet, there may be less forensic investigation equipment possible and the private investigator may have to solve the crime rather than wait for investigators coming out into space to take on the inquiries.  The detective may be a boffin, or the ship captain.

Asimov may well be the best known SF author to use detective story tropes, in the Mysteries short story collection and in his Caves Of Steel novel and its sequels.  Alfred Bester has a killer fooling multiple telepaths, (The Demolished Man) and a killer able to teleport (jaunt) into secure locked down spaces to deal with his enemies. 

It was agreed that the SF solution to a crime should still be within the bounds of reader understanding, and not draw on obscure knowledge or techno-babel known only to the detective characters.  A lovely well balanced panel in that we all got equal time to speak and voice our angles on the topic, which we barely touched the surface on. Pratchett’s Discworld has mysteries to solve, with the Witches cracking cases and of course The City Watch being the Ankh Morpork police force.

The BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) Awards 2024

Right from our Locked Room event, Allen Stroud went right to the main stage to present the BSFA Awards (though he had to recuse himself from one in which he himself was a nominee (and getting nominated for the BSFA’s is a major win in itself). Worthy winners this year included Adrian Tchaikovsky and Aliette De Bodard.  The ceremony itself was nicely managed and no attending winner stretched their acceptance speech out too long.

Doctor Who And The Industrial Revolution

Smuzz, Fiona Moore, Geneveve Cogman, Samuel Poots,  Vaughn Stanger, S J Groenewagen (Moderator).

While primarily hinged around the Colin Baker era Time and the Rani story which is set around Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale with George Stephenson caught up in the machinations of the Master and the Rani.  The setting was very close to the convention venue. The study broadened to discussion of capitalism and class, economic divides and division of labour throughout the Doctor Who canon.  There was reference to slavery of the Ood, the tax collection regime of the hugely under-rated Sun-Makers story, the broken Morlock-like human figures seen in Orphan 55,  The Curse Of Fenric, etc. 

Doctor Who TARDIS at Manchester Town Hall

In Q & A I suggested the most powerful, yet ineffective leaders of industry and social change are The Time Lords themselves with their policy of non-intervention, as if they all behaved as The Doctor does things would be greatly improved. This was countered with reference to Underworld, which features the long term consequences of a rare Time Lord experiment in guidance and intervention that went wrong and inspired them not to try again. That hde Doctor fixes thde problem shows thatthey ought to though.

Book Launch – Cybersalon Anthology Of Applied Science

Ben Greenaway, Eba Pascoe, Rosie Oliver, Stephen Oram (Moderator), Vaughn Stanger, Sophie Sparham, Dr Danbee Kim

A lovely lively launch for a book taking SF back to its definitional roots, showingthe future consequences of current scientific practices.   I got a copy of the book which several attending authors in the collection happily signed for me. 

Glasgow in 2024 Pub Quiz

Question Mark

A quite tough quiz, presented by members of August’s Worldcon committee.  The team I was on came in joint 6^th, but we had huge fun with this.

Photos taken by me.

Arthur Chappell 

Pre-Convention Activity – Thursday 28th April 2024 Eastercon 2024 Levitation – Telford International Centre Shropshire 29th March to 1st April 2024

Breakfast

After a good first night’s sleep it was time to go for the first of my six breakfasts of the convention period. I love the usual convention all you can eat buffet breakfasts which usually offer a/. Scrambled eggs b/. fried eggs c /.Sausages  d/ Hash browns e/.tomatoes  f/ mushrooms g/ black puddings, and often in Scotland, h/. Haggis. Add to this lot J/. Bacon. K/. Baked Beans.

The International Hotel, Telford, Shropshire

Here the breakfast included only two hot food items, J and K.  (not a great combination). There were plenty of sliced cold meats, processed packet cheeses, croissants, sliced muffins misleadingly described as ‘rolls’, and toasting bread you had to toast yourself (I don’t stay in expensive restaurants to cook part of my own breakfast), and some fruit and yoghurts including strawberries that were still frozen.  Small glasses of orange juice and apple juice were also on offer. 

The lack of a full breakfast, and only packet cereals and no cauldron of porridge was demoralizing.  Sauces and condiments were presented in sachets I’d expect to see in Wetherspoons.   

Part of an authentic Turkish breakfast (served in Preston Lancashire)

The hotel called this a ‘Continental Breakfast’ though this is a nonsense expression excusing a need to prepare cooked foods and no one on the (European) Continent eats exactly the same thing everywhere. A Turkish plate breakfast can often carry more food than many diners could handle.   Given the cost of staying at the International Hotel this was extremely disappointing.  It was the only negative in an otherwise awesome week long series of events. 

Shrewsbury

Having visited Ironbridge in the Wednesday afternoon after arriving, I went for a longer and more detailed photo exploration this time and headed for the city of Shrewsbury.  I had set out to visit Darwin’s city of origin once before when staying in Churchstretton but we had called in on a vintage steam fair near the city that had left no time to take in the city too. Now I was able to go there at last.

Lord Hill’s Column, Shrewsbury

The bus to Shrewsbury runs right by the hotel I was staying in, and like the tariffs on many UK buses at present the fare was just £2 each way which was a real bargain. The bus went through Ironbridge taking a much quicker and direct route than I had gone on the bus I took to there on the Wednesday.

You can easily tell when you get near Shrewsbury as the landscape is dominated by the colossal Doric Column monument to Napoleonic War hero, Lord Rowland Hill, a huge edifice that gives Nelson’s more famous column a run for its money.

Statue of Charles Darwin, Shrewsbury

While I’d seen relatively few inn signs of note in Telford and Ironbridge, here they abounded,  and I wondered around with my finger barely ceasing to capture shots of everything in site.  There were great statues to including one to the city’s most famous son, Darwin.  Pubs in which I quaffed an ale included The Three Fishes, The Salopian Bar and The King’s Head. 

Pub sign – The Three Fishes, Shrewsbury

I might have stayed another hour or so in  Shrewsbury but over the day the lovely weather of the morning was giving way by degrees through colder, to drizzly rain, to something more torrential. By three PM, the water was cascading down the streets in shallow rivers so that was by cue to high tail it to the bus which was spraying water spectacular from both sides on the return journey. Two joggers near Ironbridge, dived into a hedgerow to avoid the tsunami the bus was unavoidably propelling straight at them.

Holiday Inn, Telford, Shrophsire

I got off the bus by the hotels and headed to the Holiday Inn, next door to the one accommodating me, as the first convention event was to take place here in the evening. I chilled out before hand with some food from the pleasant bar we would use a lot over the weekend and there was a decent real ale on too, Rowton Brewery’s Ironbridge Gold though it would run out halfway through the my stay in the area.

I got to meet with other convention attendees, friends old and new and it was shaping up to be a great time.

Reading Event

The convention effectively began with the book reading event, hosted by award winning author and British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) stalwart Allen Stroud.  Authors, myself included, were invited to read up to 2000 words from our SF, Fantasy and horror works.  With the number of us due to read it was expected the event would run for up to three hours with audience members drifting in and out. In fact the stunningly good readings lasted about two and a half hours and most people stayed glued to their seats throughout.  Readers included Ken McCloud, author of The Star Fraction and guest of honour for  Worldcon in Glasgow later this year.

My reading, the second of the event, was from my recently published Xmas horror tale Madvent Calendar, in which a killer is haunted through a seemingly indestructible advent calendar cursed upon him by the woman he drowned.  The story is in the 10^th BHF  Book Of Horror Stories, Advent Of Doom. 

I also appear in volume 9,  Atlas Of Abominations,  with my Wendigo-Vampire crossover tale, Student Exchange. Both of my stories are illustrated by Smuzz and his artwork for them was displayed in the convention art show.   All the BHF horror books are written for charity.

Reading completed and lots of complimentary audience reaction to my own work, and several more beers later I returned to my own hotel next door to get some sleep before the convention started in earnest on the Friday.

Links – Smuzz art http://www.smuzz.org.uk/Gallery_Main.htm

The BHF Book Of Horror Stories https://www.facebook.com/groups/747197896021189

Turkish Breakfast (Proof that meals on the ‘Continent’ are more fulfilling than the British like to claim). We tried an authentic Turkish breakfast at Preston Market and couldn’t believe the size – LancsLive

Photos taken by me.

Arthur Chappell j

Pre-Convention Activity – Wednesday 27th April 2024 Eastercon 2024 Levitation – Telford International Centre Shropshire 29th March to 1st April 2024

Ironbridge – the bridge

I booked for the convention some time in advance.  Many Eastercons have the bulk of accommodation in the same site as convention events. The Telford International Centre has no internal accommodation but it is neighboured by two hotels, The Holiday Inn, and the International Hotel (the latter chosen by myself). Other invitees would be using nearby travelodges and other places around the town too.

Telford International Hotel

I booked and secured my train tickets about a week before going and packed gradually as the journey drew nearer.

I knew I would be changing trains on both outbound and inbound journeys from Preston, at Wolverhampton. Days before setting off I was notified by Trainline to expect to go by replacement bus from Wolverhampton.  My outbound journey was a breeze, unlike my nightmare return one. I got to Wolverhampton and asked where the replacement bus departed from, to be told that the train was running just fine and due out on Platform one in about ten minutes.  Naturally I headed for that.

The International Hotel, Telford

Telford has a bad reputation, often listed as one of the worst places in the UK for living, working and touring.  I disagree.  While lacking much found in bigger towns, it is simply a functional town with houses, standard shops (the central shopping precinct is the dominant feature) and limited nightlife. It isn’t a bad place, it just doesn’t stand out in any way. My interest in pub sign histories was frustrated by a town with just seven pubs, none of which have proper pictorial signage.   There is also some lovely parkland and open space around Telford. Given its associations with Thomaas Telford and the heart of the Industrial Revolution, the town is actually new, having risen as a new model town in 1963, (it’s younger than me). It was originally called Dawley long before its redevelopment. Captain Webb, the famous Channel swimmer was from round there.

Shopping Precinct, Telford

The train station is about half an hour’s walk from the town centre, with the walk mostly involving a construction site and the shopping precinct. The International Centre and hotel were well signposted all the way though and there was no chance of getting lost.  The entertainment zone clusters most of the pubs together so I had most desired shots of those before I even reached the hotel. 

I saw the International Centre first, from the opposite side to that where  I’d be entering and leaving on the paths round to the hotels.  It looked impressive.

The International Hotel is quite grand and rather over-priced but pleasant enough and efficiently run.  Check in was easy, and it was great after so many hotels where my room was lift rides and labyrinthine corridors away to find my room here was just through the ground floor doors right by the reception desk and dining/bar area. It was a big room, with all the appropriate gubbins, more plug sockets and charging points than most rooms I have had and a strange circular picture on the wall, with random letters, looking like a wordsearch puzzle grid, with just one word highlighted and spelt out in the middle, Telford. 

Wordsearch art – my room, Telford International Hotel

My only quibble with the room was that the bedside lights were a little too far from the bed on each side and I’d have to sit up and reach out to switch them on and off.

Unpacked, I set out with my camera to get more photos. Having already captured shots of Telford just in getting there I headed to the bus station, which is close to the shopping precinct.   The bus station is the single worst feature of the town, for its sheer lack of useful travel information. While screens listed buses by final terminus destination, they did not have details of the stops in between.

The River Severn and The Ironbridge

I asked a station official which buses go to Ironbridge as I planned to pop there for the first time since a school visit c.1978. At first he told me no buses go there at all but suddenly remembered that one due to go out shortly went within walking distance of it.  I got that and took a long leisurely if circuitous ride through the gorgeous Shropshire countryside to the very edge of the Ironbridge Gorge.

At one point the bus’s path was obstructed by a badly parked and abandoned delivery truck. The driver did a lot of manoeuvring and reversing to angle the bus for a nerve racking drive through the extremely narrow gap left for it by the vehicle and got a round of applause from everyone on board when he got us through without a scrape.

 The short walking distance my stop was from the bridge was within sight of it and I saw that other buses go right past it so the information I got at the bus station was utterly unreliable.

Pub sign for The Tontine Hotel, Ironbridge, Shropshire

Seeing the bridge again was a wall of happy nostalgia for me, and the bridge as impressive as ever.  A convention event scheduled was for a walk from the International to the Ironbridge but I wanted to attend other con activities when it took place, and though I got a bus there, my longer walkabout would come the next day.

I visited the delightful free Toll Bridge Museum on the bridge and bought a few souvenirs there too. The cheery chatty receptionist clearly loves her job there a great deal and her enthusiasm was highly infectious.

Toll Bridge Museum, Telford

I captured shots of the very swollen River Severn and of course, the pubs in the area, though they are few in number. Best was The Tontine Hotel, directly facing the bridge. The hotel was built by the bridge’s distinguished founders who created a Tontine Contract in there (a Tontine leaves an inheritance to the last surviving signatory of the contract) so they chose to call the hotel itself The Tontine.  It’s a charming bar with great views of the river and bridge to share as well as excellent ales.

Equally exciting was seeing Eley’s Famous Pork Pie shop near the Tontine too. I had seen a highly favourable Youtube review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOkC7HGiFZc of this when looking online for recommended places to see and visit while in the county.  I treated myself to a large pork pie that really was the best of its kind I ever had. I was very tempted to get other con attendees who would be going through Ironbridge to get me some more but I resisted. 

Interior of the Albert’s Shed bar, Telford

I headed for the bus, only to find that while there are lots of bus stops on the ride into Ironbridge there are far fewer on the side of the road going back.  I had to walk quite a way up to reach one.

Back in  Telford I debated which bar to drink in for the evening.  My first port of call was the Hungry Horse (Greene King subsidiary) owned Wrekin Giant which promised a few decent real ales but proved to have none on sale despite showing the beer clips which should be reversed or removed when the ales are not available.

Interior of the Albert’s Shed bar, Telford

I headed instead to Albert’s Shed, one of a growing chain of bars that I have not tried before. This was a wild and bonkers but fun experience.  Albert’s Shed is designed around the gardening tool free sheds used by old eccentric family uncles to house all kinds of eclectic junk and bric-a-brac.  The décor of the bar is about as quite intentionally barmy as it could possibly be.  Round some tables you can sit on rope swings instead of chairs.  Car bonnets, headlights and registration plates come out through the walls. Mopeds are sliced up and welded to the tables.  Surreal art and fun caption boards like that warning that ‘Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again’  abound. The pub had a very good range of real ales on offer, and a pizza dominated food menu too (though I’d had my pork pie by the time I went in).  There was promise of live music and DJ’ing events over the weekend and I could hear a decent sounding band rehearsing in a side room nearby.

I retired to my hotel room early, about 9.30pm,  after all my journeying and touring, with plans for more exploration the next day.

Interior of the Albert’s Shed bar, Telford

Photos taken by me.

Arthur Chappell 

Telford, Eastercon, Shropshire, Tontine, Ironbridge, pubs, pub signs, Industrial Revolution,