Article in Mandrake, Telegraph

There's a little spot about the launch party in The Telegraph, in the Mandrake column. Read it here (after something about Jude Law - hence the picture.)

Article in Bookbrunch

Article in Bookbrunch

Launch party for The Broken King

So last night was the launch for my new book, THE BROKEN KING. Tatler have very speedily put up pictures already, which you can see here.

Launch of THE BROKEN KING

Do you have an annoying sibling? Next time they're getting on your nerves, try this rhyme*

"I call the Broken King
Walk backwards thrice in a ring
He'll come in blinding light
He'll wrap you in the night
Before the start of day
The Broken King will take you away!"

*or don't as it might work and then before you know it you'll be on a quest to another dimension. Terms and conditions apply.

King Lear for PORT magazine

Afternoon all: I've written a little piece on why I love King Lear, for PORT magazine. You can read it here.

Launch party for Raffaella Barker's From A Distance

Barker: literary lightness

Last night Raffaella Barker launched her new novel, From a Distance, at London’s book launch venue extraordinaire (Daunts Marylebone.) There were Barkers aplenty, including Raffaella’s mother, Elspeth Barker, with whom I talked about the Roman poets. Her editor spoke about how she’d known Raff since she was a girl of fourteen, dressed in Victorian clothes in a vicarage; and how her wonderful first novel, Come and Tell Me Some Lies, followed on very soon after that. This, she said, is a novel for a hammock on a sunny afternoon, both light and literary.

Luton Hoo Children's Book Festival

A cloudy Sunday in May; what better way to spend it than at a children's book festival such as the one at Luton Hoo? Last weekend saw my first event for THE BROKEN KING, in a tent with the audience perched on straw bales whilst around us the wind howled and battered. I overheard a lady in the audience: "That's a nice young man who's going to read us stories from Roald Dahl." After I'd pointed out the error, fortunately nobody left; and we had a suitably eerie setting, then, for the first two chapters of TBK, which I read out, in their first public outing; I finished with the first chapter of The Liberators. The festival is a lively, bustling event, in its first few years of existence: may it continue long.

Launch party for Constantine Phipps' What You Want

Phipps, with wife Nicola Shulman

Last night Chelsea was simply heaving with literary types, for it was the launch of Constantine Phipps' third novel, What You Want, an epic poem about life, the universe & everything. I've reviewed it for The Spectator: the piece will appear soon.

It was a roisterous, champagne-filled, wonderful party, with guests spilling out into the garden, chattering and laughing and having the ballest of balls.