Into 2016

There was too much going on over Christmas and the New Year to write a word. Not even a word in a blog, never mind a word of new fiction. The resolution to get on with the rewrite of Bailing Out, though, should not be hard to keep to once I get into the right frame of mind and find some empty hours.

2015 ended well, with the first batch of 200 copies of Shillingstone Station selling out just before Christmas. I was both surprised and delighted. I hastily ordered a reprint of a cautious 100 and they are disappearing too. To the six shops in Dorset I added one in Hyde where the novel is now on sale: the shop whose morning newspapers I delivered for four years from 1968 to 1972! Although I do have plans to extend the promotion the book into the new year I am actually keener to spend the time writing the next one.

I am steadily devouring the 600+ pages of Adam Sisman’s extraordinary biography of John le Carré (a Christmas present) but ideas for improving Bailing Out are still popping out at me, and this one very definitely is not a story of spying. It is set in Dorset but there the similarities with Shillingstone Station end: no steam trains, no secret agents, no life-defining trips to Latvia.

Briantspuddle Christmas Craft and Gift Fair, 29th November 2015

A late decision to spend some time at the Briantspuddle Christmas Craft & Gift Fair was very well justified.

Although the village is only a couple of miles from Tolpuddle it feels further apart: it is in a different district council for a start (Purbeck as opposed to West Dorset – different school system, different bin men, etc.), and seems to look east rather than west for its centre of gravity. Just an impression, perhaps.

Anyway, in spite of being a latecomer I was found a table by the kitchen with a minimum of fuss and set up a stall, quite rudimentary in comparison to some of the extravagant craft displays in the village hall. There were plenty of volunteers providing a real community event which was well supported. And why not with such a variety of gifts, excellent home-made lunches, a choir, a raffle (obligatory in Dorset) and a visit from Santa? Well done, Bob, by the way. Although there was no sign of snow in the lanes I did wonder if he had arrived by Bob-sleigh.

I had intended to stay for two hours at the most but ended up spending nearer five, largely because the sales of Shillingstone Station were steady and going well. So well, in fact, that I had to leave the venue briefly to go and fetch extra stock. The position of my table helped: queues for refreshments, raffle tickets and Santa’s grotto all filed past me and provided a willing captive market. My total sales had been creeping towards one hundred in recent weeks but today’s twenty-eight sales have smashed past the century mark.

So, thanks to all the buyers I met, and to all those who made me welcome, especially, at the heart of the operation, Maggie and Philip.

Dorset Echo

As I am currently in Brittany, I have belatedly discovered that the article and photo promised to be published in the Dorset Echo was printed in Saturday’s edition, 24th October.

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/13894562.Dorset_man_pens_spy_novel/

Interesting to be called a Dorset man. As opposed to a Dorset woman or a Dorset apple cake. Anyway, this follows an article in the Blackmore Vale Magazine and a longer piece in the View From titles for both Dorchester and Bridport in recent days.

Meanwhile there is more media coverage in the pipeline.