When a group of tall people walks the streets, they are bound to attract attention, whether they mean to or not:

This happens every August bank holiday in various locations around the UK, when the Tall Persons Club GB and Ireland (TPC) gather for their annual general meeting. This year the chosen venue was in Coventry.

This is an opportunity for the club members to have a weekend away with their tall fellows, have fun and discuss the club’s future all at the same time.

For me this was a rare opportunity to hang with people of my height and not be the tallest one in the room (although I may well have actually been the tallest woman here). Not being physically different to others lets us be ourselves and feels rather liberating.

When height is not the main topic of conversations, people genuinely get to know each other and friendships happen. You will of course hear them sometimes exchange tall people’s thoughts and experiences, mainly as banter reminding us why we are here in the first place.

This is the first year I joined the TPC at their event. I got to chat to men taller than me and must say it feels awesome to look up to them… which is how all my friends must feel around me. 🙂 The members of the club are lovely guys and getting to know them was fun.

I had briefly met some of them at previous gatherings but now had the chance to learn more about them. I found out, for instance, that one of the shy (I thought) guys, Ross Sambridge, is actually a real celebrity, having featured in some of the Star Wars episodes:

I also made new friends, like Dave Conroy who is a great person to chat with about anything but being tall:

He is a keen kayaker and biker who came all the way from Ireland to honour the event together with his lovely wife.

Here are two amazing tall ladies with interesting stories:

Hilary is dedicated to training for triathlon. She started in 2012 with the shortest distance she could do, then stepped up a distance every year until 2015 when she hit middle distance. She decided to enter her first Ironman in 2017, which she finished in 15h 30 mins. Second Ironman was last year and first stand alone marathon in London this April. She has now lost track of the number of triathlons she has done — admirable achievement! Hilary is also a member of her local triathlon club, the Greenwich Tritons, and a coach for the swimming and running sessions.

Tessa, on the other hand, is a spiritual healer, a Universal White Time Healing practitioner. She has her own website dedicated to her services: www.beyondcourse.com

If anyone in the UK wants to take a course with her, she would be happy to pick them up from Eindhoven airport, Düsseldorf or Düsseldorf Weeze. She also offers the Board of Angels course via Skype!

These are just a couple of the fellow tallies I got to meet… Not to forget Jim Briggs who just had to photobomb my fashion modelling session:

Why am I sharing details of my social life with my readers? Not just to brag about it, although spending a night with smartly dressed tall men and women is something to definitely brag about! Some of the guests flew over from Europe (Tessa Smit in the lilac dress above being one of them), which gave the event an international dimension as well.

This club is not just an opportunity for social contacts. They are a unique for Britain community of like minded people supporting each other and all sort of tall causes. We not only got to take home goodies won from the raffle but we raised £320 for a charity whose mission is very close to tall people’s hearts: the UK based Marfan Association. And we got to have fun in the process.

The Tall Persons Club GB and Ireland is always open to new members. If you live in one of these countries, are tall and would like to connect with fellow tallies, check the TPC website. You can also find their closed group (available to members only) on Facebook.

Photos by Sophi Barocsi