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.)

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.

vPPR Ott's Yard launch

Tatiana and Brigid von Preussen

Greetings, from rainy London. I went to the launch of hip young architecture firm vPPR's new residential buildings in North London. Their website is here, and you can check out some pictures from the party on the Tatler website here. It was fun, and the buildings are beautiful - shaped like triangles, as was a lot of the food. 

Launch of Daniel Metcalfe's new book, Blue Dahlia, Black Gold

To the South Bank, incidentally my new favourite place in London, and the BFI, for the launch of Daniel Metcalfe's new book, Blue Dahlia, Black Gold. It's a study of Angola, and how it's starting to take matters into its own hands - a microcosm of the rest of Africa. Metcalfe is no stranger to travelling in out of the way places - his last book, Out of Steppe, took in various groups of people whose troubles are little known in the West, such as the Volga Germans. It's refreshing to find a light shone into murky areas. Congratulations, Dan, and here's looking forward to the next one.

Home Fires by Elizabeth Day: Party

Miss Elizabeth Day

To Lincoln's Inn Fields, for the launch of Elizabeth Day's novel, Home Fires - her second, and a lovely, moving read it is too. The party took place in an officer's mess - perhaps in homage to the military theme, Elizabeth Day was in a striking red dress - and was attended by various literary types (I got told off for having a copy of Wuthering Heights in my pocket, and the London Review of Books in the other), including biographer Andrew Lycett, and novelist Sadie Jones; also present was Molly Oldfield, whose book, The Secret Museum, is hotting up displays all over London.

Home Fires looks at grief and loss: it starts with the burial of the Unknown Soldier, seen from a little girl's perspective. It's written with great clarity and intelligence, and I suggest that you go out and buy it - although as Elizabeth herself said, "it's not a beach read." Go! Buy!