Firstly, apologies. Whilst I feel in the grand scheme of things here in scandal-awash Blighty, me having been utterly, lardily tardy in posting a blog update is small beer. (By the way, did you know that the phrase small beer refers to the very weak ale that women and children drank a couple of hundred years ago when beer was the staple all-day drink due to the nastiness of public water. You did? Let’s move on)

That said, I did promise to keep this here blog updated. But to be honest, my feet haven’t touched the ground, as my grandmother would say. Firstly I was off on the road promoting my new book Hope And Glory which I really hope that you may have had a look at. If you haven’t, well, I’ve explained the concept of it before so I won’t bore you again with the details, but it’s a travel book with a historical dimension, or maybe a history book with a travel element. Or maybe something different, a social and cultural wander through a century of British history and its town and cities. Anyway, people have been rather nice about it, and I’m rather proud of it. (Actually, some councillors in Accrington weren’t happy about my portrayal of the town on a bleak midweek afternoon. I’m sorry but I wrote what I saw. And the chapter was about the enduring and sorrowful legacy of the town’s losses at the Battle Of The Somme, not a tourist brochure. But sorry again if you were offended)

So my excuse then is that I’ve been out and about talking about, well, everything under the sun as that seems to be what the new book is about. I’ve had a lovely time doing this in a church hall in Cockermouth and a Quaker meeting hall in deepest Gloucestershire. I’ve strutted my stuff on the set of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever at the Theatre By The Lake and in the imposing town halls of Preston and Chester. In the Maltings Theatre In St Albans I mentioned Paul McCartney’s microphone malfunction at Live Aid there came a small audible groan from the rear of the auditorium. The very sound engineer responsible for said malfunction was in the audience. Later at the book signing, he said ‘did you really have to bring that up’ Whilst apologising, I did point out that the chances of this happening were fairly slight and thus I had not taken them into account.

I am taking the possibility of rain at the Latitude festival seriously. Hence the bag I am currently packing contains wellies, waterproofs and lots of clean socks. Assuming that the weather forecast is a little alarmist and that I can’t find a small dry patch to rest my Ipad on, I will blog again at some point this weekend. Thank you for your patience in this matter.