On his arrival, a mere ten minutes before the signing, Shirt was surprised to see that the queue was surprisingly short, and wondered if this was another Gareth Thomas/ Jacqueline Pearce @ Hollywood Superstore (forthcoming – if you’re lucky) occasion. However, the old adage that whenever a few fans of a cult TV programme (save "Blake’s 7" apparently) gather, a queue forms, and the resulting signing is late. The usual question of "Who are you queuing for?", met the same puzzled reaction on being told "The League of Gentlemen" as "Mark Strickson" had had over a year before.

  Finally, quarter of an hour late, three familiar faces appeared, along with someone taken by some to be an obsessive fan (sorry, enthusiast), who turned out to be Jeremy Dyson (the one who writes but does not perform). The four took their places behind the Hadrian’s Wall of "A Local Book for Local People" (ALBFLP), and what turned out to be a military operation began. They signed in pairs, at opposite corners of the double-page spread, pushed the book along to the other two, who did the same in the other two corners. Shirt was about seventh in the queue, and watched as the production line effectively continued. Reaching for three copies of ALBFLP, Shirt heard the ubiquitous Mr. Gatiss comment when asked to sign the book "To Jo", "Jo ? Like Jo Grant ?", and sighed thinking that being a famous fan didn’t make you any less embarrassing.

   Reaching the first pairing of Reece Shearsmith & Steve Pemberton, Shirt gave them the three books clearly annunciating to whom they were to be dedicated, wary of another Raymond Cusickesque cock-up. Having signed these, Shirt managed to slip his "Ghosts of Winterbourne" sleeve over the table to Reece Shearsmith without the bookshop owner seeing, who signed it with a smile. Retrieving the sleeve, Shirt moved along to Jeremy Dyson & Mark Gatiss to find the three books already signed. Again the "Ghosts" sleeve was proffered and the super-fan laughed (alright he wasn’t actually in that one, he only wrote & directed) and said "I’ll sign right over Peter Davison’s face, laughing more heartily as he did so. At mention of Peter, Shirt lost all self-control, and in an appalling Mark Gatiss impression asked "Would it be alright to kiss Peter Davison?".

   The super-fan’s laughter became more false, and the sleeve and books were pushed back towards Shirt, who picked them up, paid for them at the desk, and left the shop in shame, with two nice Christmas presents for Chalky and Dufus. On his way home, Shirt mused on the lack of originality in the dedications, which were the same in all three books, with all except Mr. Gatiss using a phrase involving the word – "Local".  However, the books truly were "precious things".