It was an evening of surprises and of starring performances. It was the evening when we publicly celebrated the BGTW 59th Anniversary. It was certainly an evening to remember - from the Champagne Reception at the beginning to the Armchair Traveller performance by Peter Hughes at the end.

All the set pieces were there: a magnificent opening party in the River Room with copious amounts of Champagne followed by the usual splendid set dinner in the Lancaster Room. The newly refurbished, Art Deco-inspired Savoy looked ready for a party and we gave one of the best. The hotel had only opened on October 10th so the BGTW evening was one of their first events.

Melissa Shales introduced the evening with thanks to the sponsors, the Belgian Tourist Office – Brussels &Wallonia who brought us the Champagne, the Smurfs on the table, and a real joie de vivre. She then handed over to David Cowell representing the charity the Guild has supported all year: The Travel Foundation. Helped by the great prizes from the generous sponsors, a raffle plea by John ‘hand over your money’ Bell and Mary Anne Evans and another mid-dinner plea from Martin Roberts, we raised £4,626 for the charity.

The members' awards once again reflected the highest standards of travel writing and broadcasting. The Tourism Awards brought some very worthy runners-up and winners, all chosen, nominated and voted on by Guild members.

The evening galloped along with the professional and extremely funny compering courtesy of David Prest and Carmen Roberts, who stepped in at the last moment when Alison Rice was sadly unable to appear because of a cripplingly painful bad back. Other members also appeared on stage. Paul Wade presented the certificates to the runners-up of the Tourism Awards while Melissa awarded the winners. Fiona Quinn helped with the raffle prizes. John Ruler, the Guild’s archivist, appeared towards the end of the evening wheeling a large red suitcase. This is not just a large red suitcase; it is in fact the Guild’s Time Capsule. He placed a Smurf inside, sealed the case and wheeled it off. It will not be opened again until our centenary, 50 years hence.

And we did have another star. David Suchet, a guest of the Belgians, was named the first Honorary Famous Belgian at the dinner. As the debonair actor said on receiving the award: “One must not forget that Belgium came before Hercule Poirot”.

Before the evening drew to an end, Peter Hughes gave a stellar, 4-minute run-through of 50 years of the Guild. It was funny, poignant and uplifting. As he said at the end as we raised our glasses:
“For as long as there’s travel and for as long as there are words, and pictures to go with them, there will be a Guild.
“For as long as there is thought, for as long as there’s opinion, for as long as there is romance and for as long as there are things that travellers need to be told, there will be a Guild.”

Happy Birthday, BGTW.