Passport and Pooh

I had a phone call from Security yesterday. They want to see my passport. You see The Moose is appearing at a local gaol to do a reading event there in the not so distant. And although I have filled in every form you could possibly think of, they want to see my ten year passport, which is, I suppose, a good thing. They don't want somebody from the local branch of The Yorkshire Republican Army turning up , or The Real YRA, or The Hebden Bidge Branch of Al Quieda, so fingerprints all primed I will drive down today and present the necessary forms. I will be reading from my novel ANTHILLS AND STARS, which looks at hippies moving into the Calder Valley in 1968 and upsetting the locals. Scott Pack said it was .' A warm and beautifully observed comedy which is very funny. Kevin Duffy has Alan Bennett's fine ear for dialogue.' Apparently humorous titles are not in vogue. In times of economic doom the public don't do laughter, or so the big cheeses say. A publishing director recently told me that,' He got his fingers burned recently with humour titles and he wasn't minded to take a punt on any more.' Sad isn't it. I listened yesterday to Alan Bennett reading Winnie the Pooh and it made me smile. Such simple and amusing stories. It reminded me of one of my favourite books called, The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, which looks at Winnie the Pooh from a Taoist perspective and is stunning in its simplicity. Pooh ambles through life and always seems to get the honey. Food for thought in these mad and troubled times.