She loves it! She couldn’t put it down! She’s excited about working on it!

That’s good, then. I’ve just got to wait for her notes then I can make it better. It’s a strange time. I’m desperate to get at it, but I can’t touch it yet, because I need Leah’s notes. So I’m going to have a bit of a’ holiday’, redesigning OldMan’s website, doing his posters and flyers for his Edinburgh Festival run and thinking about novel#3.

My break also rather happily coincides with Brighton Festival, and I am seeing a lot of wonderful stuff (aka Feeding my Beast). Most enjoyed so far are Jos Houben‘s comedy masterclass The Art Of Laughter, and Sue MacLaine‘s show Still Life: An Audience With Henrietta Moraes, where we take part in a life class as we experience the world through the eyes of the notorious artists’ model. I also enjoyed a rather gin-soaked evening at Hendrick’s Horseless Carriage, where Polly Samson and Jonathan Kemp read from their new books, in a Brighton version of Damian Barr‘s Shoreditch Literary Salon.

Promotional activities continue: I had a little trip to Glasgow, where my publishers Headline put me up in the glamorous Blythswood Square Hotel and treated me to a session in the spa in exchange for my presence at a wonderful dinner (highlight a sort of brownie/cinder toffee pudding) where, with three other authors, I met about fifty Scottish booksellers – all great and interesting people. It was more than a fair deal! I could get used to all that.

OK. That’s enough name-dropping and la-di-dah-ing. I said it was a break. Back to the writing business next post…