Come with me to the British Library Fantasy Exhibition in London!

On Valentine's Day (I know, I'm late uploading this post), my partner and I took a trip to London for the British Library Fantasy Exhibition. It was a last-minute idea after I saw a clip about it on TikTok. We took the coach from our local bus station; if you ever want to visit London, I definitely recommend taking the coach. It takes a bit longer, but it's much cheaper than the train. We arrived in the city a couple of hours before our time slot, so took some time to explore and found a stunning shop on one of the streets (see the centre pictures below).

During my second year of my Creative Writing BA, we were given the opportunity to visit the museums in London too. The group I was with took some time to look for bookshops and we found 'Gay's The Word' and we decided to check it out during this trip too. They have a wide variety of books focused on the LGBTQ+ community (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, memoirs etc).

The Fantasy Exhibition itself was a whole new experience! It focused on literature, movies, video games, table-top RPGs, and theatre spanning many years. The displays were beautiful, each accompanied by information about the creators. Some of my favourite displays were the costumes and original manuscripts from Lord of the Rings, a short showing of Labyrinth (1986), and the section on Dungeons & Dragons (which I have recently gotten into).

The exhibit ended at the British Library gift shop. They had a variety of souvenirs for the exhibit, and we decided on a couple of books and a magnet for our fridge. I'm hoping that they hold this event every year and change it up slightly.

We had some time before our coach home, so we spent the evening checking out some of the crystal shops, London's Waterstones, and Forbidden Planet to find anime figurines and manga. There were other places we wanted to see, but London is definitely not a city you can fully explore in a single day.

I hope you enjoyed this post! My next post is a book review, but the week after will be another event recap from the day I met my literary idol! If you have any content requests, please leave them in the comments and I'll add them to my post schedule.