The Party

Sometimes I'm not very good at parties. On Tuesday night though I finally managed to plunge in, and after some embarrassing loitering on the fringes of groups met some very interesting people and enjoyed talking to them - many people - Jake Arnott's siblings; Jake himself; Jill Dawson and Louise Doughty (who won an Arts Council award the same time I did for FIRES IN THE DARK - a book about the persecution of the gypsies during the second world war); authors involved in the FALL anthology or Santa's Mix - Hari Kunzru, Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne; the designer of Jill Dawson's brilliant website who is also an actor soon to appear in a Jack Dee show; Duncan Minchell, the producer of book at bedtime whose parents live in Chester; and Ruth, my editor's new assistant, Laura, who is Henry's, Henry himself who is my publicist, Carole, my editor, Jocasta who used to be my publicist but who is now an editor; Philippa and Sheila from AP Watt; a Dutch agent; a French agent; several English agents - all of them jolly and lively.