I read with great interest your article on the "Angel Fiasco" (The Argus, Aug 31).

My daughter Tara is an Angel and Buffy devotee. She saves hard to buy models, magazines and books.

We are not a family of huge means so the astronomical prices that were being asked at the convention last weekend were well beyond our pocket, even though we would have loved to have taken Tara. So we hatched a plan.

My husband, myself and Tara got up at 6.30am on Friday, drove to the Brighton Centre and stood in the pouring rain from 8am in the hope of catching a glimpse of Tara's idols.

The first member to arrive, Kristine Sutherland, couldn't even raise a smile to her adoring fans and marched straight in.

Next Mark Lutz (Groo) came. My daughter was so excited - hence one mother (me) charged up to say: "Can I have your autograph?"

"Sorry, honey, not allowed." Enter a rather beefy bouncer who knocked me sideways. On seeing this, Mark came back and said: "I'll do it anyway, honey." Thank you - hence one happy daughter.

"Xander" came next - good entertainment value but no autograph. I was then "covered" by three bouncers, bent on me not getting any more chances.

I thought the whole idea of being a fan was to have a go at getting that elusive autograph.

So thank you to Mark Lutz for making my daughter happy and no thanks to Kristine for not smiling at the kids who stood for hours waiting for a glimpse of their hero.

And thanks to the British weather for my cold.

-Sharon Hadley, Burgess Hill