Thursday 2 April 2009

Cambridge

'Tis the last day that the Moose and Steve Clayton, author of 'The art of being dead,' are on the road. Today we are in Cambridge.I've contacted the university types and spoke to a very polite chap who sounded as though he were straight out of a PG Wodehouse novel, but you won't get me casting the odd aspert about a classless society and how things haven't changed much in the past fifity years. No class warrior I. Tomorrow I'm off to hurl some prose at the G20 wallers. I will be the fifth scarf to the left. I digress.First stop is BBC Radio Cambridge for the Sue Dougan afternoon show at 3.00pm. Steve is being interviewed about life on the road as a professional musician, having his art exhibited at The Royal Academy and finally having a book published. Then it's down the road to Borders Bookshop where Steve will be signing copies of his book at 6.30pm, doing a reading and then answering questions from readers groups from Cambridgeshire libraries. I usually get asked questions from the attendees about publishing ,the fight for bookshelf space and yes, there is the odd rant about how the big houses pay for space, but we live in the real world of retail and that's how it is, so we just hope that our books are good enough to get noticed. Which of course they are. With the odd nudge from the Bluemoose cattle prod of course. And then there's the blackmail. You don't sell books for over twenty years and not find things out about booksellers. All these management types started out on the shopfloor somewhere and the Moose never forgets a face and he has many, many pictures. Off to put some air in the tyres and iron a shirt. After today, my publishers shirt will go back into its drawer only to be worn again when Steve wins the Booker. Or another prize. Or we start again with our double act in the autumn.

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