The glorious myth of the “book launch”
Well, it’s out. Officially. My book, that is. (Time Travelling With a Hamster.) I know that because I have had a “launch party”, which – it appears – is something that everyone (myself included) assumes happens for every book that is published, more or less. And which, in actual fact, almost never happens unless: The author […]
Master of deception
A lifetime love of magic and illusion means it’s no surprise that I’m a fan of Derren Brown, and especially the way that, by pretending to be totally open about how he achieves the remarkable effects he does, he has avoided being “exposed” on YouTube as many more conventional magicians are these days. In truth, he isn’t totally open about his […]
What do you mean, you haven’t watched it?
Game Of Thrones, I mean. It’s awesome, and anyone who hasn’t watched it is missing out big time. I know: you’ll be late to the party, but the advantage of that is that you’ll be able to binge-watch them all on a box-set. To be honest, I think watching it in weekly episodes would be […]
My book’s in the shops!
…well, one shop anyway. The official publication date of “Time Travelling With A Hamster” is December 31, but at least one shop – thank you Waterstone’s, Kensington High Street – have received a bunch of them already and decided to put them out in the store, sandwiched – handily – between two David Walliams books. […]
A tiny little error…
I first read this on Twitter a few days ago, and figured it was just made up. Funny, but made up. Turns out, it’s true! Hurray! The mistake appeared in the Boston Globe & Mail who issued the correction the following day. I’ve long had a fascination with misplaced apostrophes. I even wrote a finals dissertation for […]
Lang Lang and Liberace
Went to see Lang Lang last night, the renowned Chinese pianist who, it seems, divides opinion. A rather sniffy review in The Telegraph was typical of Lang Lang detractors: style over substance, too much of a showman, etc. One comment online amused me: “Lang Lang needs to remind himself that he is a Pianist (sic) and […]
How fast can you type?
When I was a kid, typing was a rare skill practiced invariably by ladies in offices with upswept spectacles who never looked at their fingers. (My Auntie Betty was one such. Her fingers would move so fast across the keys of her electric typewriter and she never seemed to make mistakes.) As a young journalist I became […]
My book’s cover
A slight deviation from the usual stuff in this blog entry, which is all about my forthcoming book “Time Travelling WIth A Hamster”. Reason being, that the UK cover is now available for anyone to see on Amazon.com (rather than just being my phone’s screen saver for the past few weeks), and I think it’s […]
The Cereal Killer of Harvest Festival
Harvest festival in a Costwolds country church: what could be gentler, or more traditional? A lovely way to spend an hour on a Sunday morning, contemplating the divine with smiling locals as autumn sunshine slants through the Norman arched windows and the small congregation shakily warbles the familiar strains of “We plough the fields and […]
A Sporting Occasion
I’m not terribly sporty, but I love a spot of tennis, especially Wimbledon. Who doesn’t? When I was a kid, my mum – whose interest in sport was and is practically zero – would watch Wimbledon every afternoon, and formed strong views on the players. She still dislikes Jimmy Connors, for example, because he […]
