the glittering smiles of the party pages

In the CDT (Craft Design and Technology) department of my school they used to keep a huge stack of donated glossy magazines.  The idea was that we should rifle through them for inspiration, but what I used to love was to turn straight to the party pages.  You know, the ones where they print photographs of beautiful people at glamorous parties?  Tell me I'm not the only one who finds those photographs oddly fascinating.  All the bright smiles, the drinks glasses poised between slender fingers, the party frocks...

When I signed up for this blog, I promised virtual gatecrashing.  Well, finally I have a party to report from; last week I was down in London for the launch of Photo Stories at Saatchi & Saatchi.  Despite torrential rain all afternoon, we had an amazing turn out and a brilliant party.  We even managed to sweet-talk my dog past the bouncers!  It was my first chance to see most of the typographs (my own included) and I was absolutely taken aback by how stunning they all were.  It was an exciting evening.

So, without further ado, a few party photos:

Two of our wonderful Photo Stories authors - Stella Duffy and Adam Marek

Chatting with Adam Marek is author Toby Litt (left), the only person I can claim to have made an album with.

Paul Ewen, author of the very funny story collection London Pub Reviews.

And lastly, the four of us who've been working to put the exhibition together - myself (I'm sure I'm not really this teeny in real life), Chris Vernon and Tristan Summerscale, both editors at NFTU, and author Nicholas Hogg, whose newest novel The Hummingbird and the Bear launched the same day as the exhibition.