Whatever one says about the present government it would appear, statistically at least, that Gordon Brown’s Labour party is winning the battle with regard to Hospital waiting lists. However all is not as it may seem.



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Lord H and I were woken twice last night by some idjit attempting to ring us. In the end, we unplugged the phone, which I think we'll do again tonight. I really hate these automated calls from some machine dialling the wrong number. We get so many of the damn things. Sigh.

Anyway, today we've spent a large part of the morning getting up - it seems to take longer and longer these days - and a large part of the afternoon getting lost and mired in mud on Little Bookham Common. I was fine for the first couple of hours of this, but the third hour was an hour too far, m'dears. Especially as I'd forgotten to pack my fruit so was utterly utterly starving ...

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So I was thrilled to come across a Val McDermid volume as soon as we arrived at the accommodation, on the outskirts of Carmen del Puerto. It included two novels, called 'Crack Down' and 'Star Struck'. Even her single novels resemble half-bricks, so this was particulary good value at my favourite price : completely free.



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I have just come across this wonderful initiative from Kate of Kate's Book Blog. She is a short story fan and in an attempt to inspire others to turn more frequently to this most wonderful of forms, she is hosting a Short Story Reading Challenge in 2008. What does this mean? .......

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This really has been the most fantastic season! I just found out that my novel Unrequited has been nominated for Best Gay Debut Fiction by the Lambda Literary Foundation (US)

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I started responding to Writer Girl's comment on my previous post The dress code for bookshops, and other ways of annoying Brian Sewell, and it turned into something longer, so I'm posting it here instead. Talking about this business of branding authors, WG said

"My business brain cannot understand why an arrangement that would give authors brand recognition and a shot at a wider audience should be sniffed at."

My business brain agrees - not least because the brand stays with the author whichever publisher has the individual books - but my writer's brain can see why so many authors, with every desire sell books, are nonetheless very sniffy indeed.

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Had a wonderful day in the Chilterns today, attempting to see red kites. (Do have a look at the photos in that website - viewable by clicking on the full post via the link below - and go and see a real one if you can as they're a hundred times more impressive in the wild). And goodness me what a lot of them we saw - and what a truly wonderful sight too. We thought we glimpsed one on the way up - it's that essential flap-flap-flap and then sooooarrrr with only the odd tweak of the V-shaped tail to keep it on course. And a pretty large bird too, so you can't really mistake it for anything else ...

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Never rely on the weather forecast. The powers that be swore blind to us that today we should expect torrential rain. They even kept up that belief through the whole day in spite of evidence to the contrary. In fact it's been crisp sunshine. Very pleasant indeed, if on the chilly side of pleasant. Oh Lordy, do I sound English here? We are all obsessed with the weather. I stare at the online forecast every day. Sadly. Anyway, encouraged by the lack of rain, Lord H and I have spent a large part of the day wandering around The Devil's Punchbowl - yes, it is a great name. We didn't find many birds, but we did manage to get so far down into the valley that it took me at least eighteen years and a great deal of moaning to climb out again. Ah, my knees just can't take it, you know. Mind you, they never could - I'm only good on the flat ...

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There's an interesting exchange here on Danuta Keane's blog, which carries on the conversation which started in an earlier piece of hers, It's the Brand, stupid, about the reasons why authors shouldn't shy away from thinking of themselves as brands. I won't summarise it here, though both are well worth suppressing your purist, anti-capitalist, art-fundamentalist knee-jerk horror at the idea of branding yourself, till you've read it. It's Susan Hill's post in the comment trail that caught my attention: she describes an acquaintance who bought books avidly when The Book People called regularly at her office, but then went on maternity leave. There were Richard & Judy's selections just asking to be read, but she lived in the country and was at a complete loss as to how to get hold of them. Susan steered her towards Amazon, and all was well. But it's a salutary reminder to us booky types that swathes of the population love reading, have confidence in their taste and money to spend on it, but never go near a bookshop.

It reminded me of a story that the chief book-buyer of W H Smith told me a few months back.


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Alrighty then, here we are in party season and I do mean party! I gave it a good old shot ha ha & had one of - if not the - best Christmas I've ever had...

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