Yesterday we had the London launch – and it was very very different from the one in Oxford.
For a start, I was terrified in Oxford. I had to stand up in my local, in front of my friends, and say ‘here’s my book. I hope you like it.’ I thought it would be more comforting in my own home town but you know what? it really wasn’t. If it had all gone wrong, I’d never have been able to drink in the Far From again.
So I set off to the London launch safe in the knowledge that if nobody turned up, the only people who would laugh at me would be the manager of the Barrowboy and Banker, the ominously named (but very nice) Cassandra.
The other thing that kept my mind off it all was the gigantic box of books on my back. I ended up lugging a box from the Strand, where my bloke had been keeping them safe at his work, to London Bridge.
(I did this journey by bus. Those of you who know London buses will be able to guess how I did it. Those who don’t, click here. Those who don’t care, just read on.)
The thing that really made the London launch, though, were the punters. As with Oxford, a lot of very good friends turned up who were incredibly supportive and nice. But unlike Oxford, where most people were mates, in London there were a whole load of people who I had never met in my life before. There were people from the Facebook fan page, there were people there who’d read about it on various blogs, there were people who’d seen it on Twitter; and there were lots of people who just wandered up from the bar and started reading the book and decided to buy.
And there were at least two people who are such fans of Em that they’d come to buy the book purely for the illustrations, and I can’t say I blame them.
One of Maria Smedstad's wonderful illustrations
So anyway I am ludicrously grateful to everyone who came – you are all lovely – and grateful to everyone who tweeted, joined the facebook page, blogged, and generally spread the word.
No more chance for a discount copy now, sadly, but you can still buy on Amazon.
More soon, cow-fiends.
Posted by Is this cheating? Grow Your Own - Growing, How To Grow Tomatoes Growing Fruit & Veg - Recipe Advice, Organic food Gardening, Chickens, Seeds for Sale on November 4, 2009 at 11:15 am
[...] all – and the book launch was a huge success, see The London launch Reb's Blog. Did any of you Grapes make it? I didn't get a chance to ask everyone how they knew about the [...]