ST. ALBANS
I had casually mentioned to Faber’s publicity manager, Helena, that Frank had done archaeology at St. Albans when he was in college. The international dig, at the site of the Roman City of Verulanium, was conducted under the supervision of famed archaeologist Sheppard Frere and the University of London. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verulamium.
I never expected that she would plan a visit there, but it happened on March 5. After a short train ride, we arrived at the Abbey School, which is connected with the magnificent Cathedral and Abbey. http://www.stalbanscathedral.org.uk/. We were warmly greeted by Vanessa - our contact there, and Brenda, who provided the books for the day. Once Frank’s mission was known, Brenda whisked him off on a walk to the site while I set up my presentation.
[Note: Some of the events where I spoke this week had professional tech people, who tried very hard, but in every case, there was a glitch. At the Abbey School, two students, Louis and William, had volunteered to help me and I was set up in - are you ready? - four minutes!]
Tech guys, Louis and William 
Signing at the Abbey School
The students at the Abbey School were polite and very responsive and it was a FUN-FUN-FUN time.
Frank returned while I was signing and recounted his visit to the site, which he didn’t recognize at first. Brenda had pointed him in the direction of the museum, where he met the resident archaeologist and his staff. Amazingly, they went to the archives and found photos from that dig that showed Frank, which he kindly gave to him. As Frank was leaving, he slowly began to recognize things - the house, the pub and environs.
When Frank talked about his summer in St. Albans, he always mentioned the friendliness of the people there and that’s one thing that hasn’t changed over the years. The generosity of Vanessa, Brenda and Sue at the school was so heartfelt, I only wish we’d had more time in the beautiful village. After I finished signing books, Vanessa walked us across the school grounds towards the Abbey, where Brenda gave Frank, Helena and me a tour before kindly driving us to the train station.
Frank is head down, digging in the middle
Back in London, I finally - FINALLY - got to the offices of my publisher, Faber and Faber, for lunch with my UK editor, Julia Wells. And what a welcome! The lobby of the Faber was lined with displaysof Humphrey books. At Faber, I did a live web chat for the Blue Peter show - a popular kids’ TV show in the UK which is - are you ready - 50 years old! I was on the phone and the person on the other end was madly typing in my answers. They had hundreds of questions submitted but we covered what we could in a half-hour.
Then it was off the boardroom, where Managing Director Stephen Page gathered the forces together for a champagne toast to Humphrey (oh, wouldn’t he LOVE-LOVE-LOVE that?) and I got to meet more of the Faber team. We ate yummy antipasti, heard tales of famed poet T.S. Eliot (an editor at Faber - and a native of St. Louis, MO, like me), and just generally TALK!
Frank and I wandered back to our hotel in a happy haze and collapsed!