I am helping my parents move out of their home of 40 years. You’d think that would be hard work, but it appears that if you choose the full pack and move option as they have, it actually mostly involves sunning myself in a Cambridgeshire garden whilst Pickfords men around me toil. So I am amusing myself by looking forward to possibly the most glamorous thing I have done as a writer, ever.

The marvellous The Bookish Supper Salon and Dadaprojects are taking me and a wonderful group of bookish types to Bassano del Grappa and Verona on 29 April for a long weekend of cooking, eating, drinking, sightseeing, reading, and talking about books.… read more

Some of the quotes. Click on the image to enlarge it

Tonight is the launch party for The Long Fall. I’m too excited to write today, so instead here’s a round up of all the lovely bloggers’ reviews so far. I have been completely knocked out by the support of the blogging community – not least because all of that work and care comes from a love of books, nothing more or less. It’s totally heartening.… read more

Sorry, this should have been posted yesterday. I was in York, though, doing a panel for the Festival of Ideas, ten days of over 120 mostly free events,with talks from world-class speakers, performances, exhibitions and interactive experiences for people of all ages.

I was talking about fly fishing.

Not really. I was talking about crime writing, with Colette McBeth, Tom Harper and Aly Monroe, chaired by Helen Cadbury.

There was quite a bit of travelling involved between Brighton and York, and there’s my tenuous link into my blog tour day six, which is my Dos and Don’ts for Travellers, a collection of top tips I have collated over many years of heading off at any opportunity, including my backpacking year off trip in 1980 that provides the backdrop to The Long Fall.… read more