Neil Oliver

Today was largely mundane - a morning at college sitting in lectures about schemes of work and syllabuses and an afternoon spent at a routine check up with the nurse at the surgery (well, most of it was spent reading my kindle app in the waiting room, but I did actually go for an appointment, not just to sit and read for a bit).

However, the middle of the day brought HUGE EXCITEMENT! I was out of college in time to get to Waterstones in Oxford where the wonderful Neil Oliver was doing a book signing. I bought my copy of his A History of Ancient Britain, which I'm really looking forward to reading, and then joined the queue to get it signed.

I met a lovely couple in the queue, and we chatted about Neil, his TV series, and meeting heroes in general (one of their friends recently met Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and named a pot plant after him). We also heard, from someone who'd just been having a coffee in the Costa upstairs, that Neil was up there, relaxing and having a drink before the signing.

He came down the stairs looking relaxed and lovely, jacket draped over his shoulders, and there was an immediate flashing of cameras as people took pictures. The queue then moved on and everyone who'd met him and had their book signed looked very happy indeed.

When I got there he signed my book, and chatted to me. He asked me how I was, and I told him I was very excited because I was meeting him - he laughed and said it was flattering, in his lovely Scottish accent. He then said "I'm only me", which I thought was really sweet! He was more than happy to pose for a photo with me, which a woman kindly took, put his arm round me, and thought it was amusing that I was excited at getting to touch his hair!!!

Afterwards I headed back into the mundanity of normal life, but with a huge grin on my face! It's not often we get to meet those we so love from the small screen, and it was absolutely wonderful that the lovely Neil Oliver is even more lovely in real life.

Thank you Neil, for making an otherwise very ordinary day into an extremely special one!