Day 10: HMP Holloway and Walthamstow

HMP HOLLOWAY

The Women's Institute Reading Group

2.00 pm

You have to leave your phones at the front desk so there are no other pictures of the event which was enormous fun and very interesting. The interior of the prison was very much like my old school only much much cleaner and with much thicker doors.

This being the WI there was coffee and some lovely lemon cake (home made). The audience was about thirty in total and one of the best I've had so far. They were good humoured and asked some fairly difficult questions and didn't hold it against me when I rambled a bit in response. I also learnt some stuff that I ain't going to talk about because it's research gold. Let's just say I'm never going to think about chickens in the same way again.

WALTHAM FOREST

Walthamstow Library

6.30 pm

10.8 km from Covent Garden

Talk about an event that had everything, a reading by Charles Angiama, puppet making and a puppet show courtesy of the E17 Puppet Project. All organised by Jo, Maddie, Caroline and Abi the grandly named Cultural Programming Team.

The Cultural Programming Team

It was a big audience and I was a bit high up on a perilously narrow stage but once again the free wine loosened us all up and the questions came thick and fast. I'm fascinated by the range of questions I'm getting on this tour.

Next: Twickenham and Wimbledon!

Day 9: The Ballad of Balham Reading Group

WANDSWORTH

 

Balham Library Hall

7:00 pm

7.7 km from Covent Garden

As I set of one misty moisty morning.
My novels for to sell.
I met a black cab that had been booked for me.
And the destination I did tell.

The cabbie he did eye me up.
And these the words he said.
If ye're bound for Balham oh.
You best watch where you tread.

For they'll read your books in Balham oh.
From frontispeice to back.
And they'll ask you difficult questions.
And they won't cut you no slack.

Oh they won't cut you no slack my boy
For they're a critical bunch at heart
And if they don't like the answers
They'll tear your plot apart.

So I ventured down to Balham
With a chill right down my spine.
But audience turned out to be rather nice
And we all had a good time.

Certainly the free wine helped.


Tomorrow: HMP Holloway and Walthamstow Library!

Day 8: Surbiton and Brixton

Royal Borough of Kingston

Surbiton Library

2:00pm

17 km from Covent Garden

South by Sarf West to the magnificent 1930s redbrick palace of literacy that is Surbiton Library. Staffed b a crack team of ridiculously friendly librarians (see below) I arrived with ten minutes to spare to find an enourmous audience waiting for me. Very gratifying.

Fortified with nothing but coffee and cake I was put to the question for a whole hour before signing some books.

 

And then onward by taxi to Brixton....

LAMBETH

Brixton Library

6:30 pm

5.7 km from Covent Garden

Brixton glorious Brixton - not the gateway to anywhere because once you've reached Brixton you never want to go anywhere else.

As soon as I walked in I was ambushed by the media in the form of Vanessa Bafoe from London Live who interviewed me live on air - fortunately I managednot to swear and to promote Cityreads without screaming or making a fool of mysef.

Pronounced BAF-FO - very important that.

Then Zoey and Marie threw everyone oout of the Library so we could let the audience in. Not my largest audience but boy did they ask some searching questions - despite the free wine.

They keep putting my audience in....

....a horsehoe shape which makes it hard to get them all in one picture.

Zoey and Andy

Next stop - BALHAM - getway to the South!

Day 7: Sutton

SUTTON

Sutton Central Library

7:00pm
17.4 km from Covent Garden

A very long drive (21 km from my house) to Sutton and the Brutalist Central Library which turned out to be actually very nice and spacious on the inside and the librarians were cheerful and happy to see me(1).

All about the books!

There was also a large audience who were thankfully pleased to see me as well. With their help I managed to keep talking for an hour and a bit.

One of the great things about the 33 Borough Tour is that I'm getting to see places I've never been before. Sutton is one of the sources of the Wandle and at one point I was travelling parellel to her course and I sudden;t knew exactly who she was. Expect her to make at least a cameo in a future book.


(1) Probably because I don't owe them any overdue books.

NEXT: Surbiton and Brixton!

The Robert Elms Show

First task today was for me to visit Broadcasting House and plug me, my book and, most importantly, City Read London on the Robert Elms show which goes out on BBC Radio London. 

Robert Elms

Thanks a carefully crafted sign I was able to make it all the way through the show without swearing once, so thank fucking christ for that!

You can catch the show on catch up here.

And then tonight - Sutton!

Day 3: Interlude with a Jaguar

Ben Aaronovitch and the Great Peter Grant 

Book Giveaway

1,000 Londoners

First thing in the morning, well I say first thing actually it was around ten o'clock but it felt early and that's the important thing, I headed off for Covent Garden Waterstone to be interviewed by Mark Currie for 1,000 Londoners.

Mark Currie and his camera assistant Shelana Thomas

1000 Londoners is a project to interview 1,000 Londoners on camera (duh) and personally I feel it needs no other justification than that. It's website can be found here but warning it is a total time sink.

The Giveaway!

After acquiring some enthusiastic young police cadets (alas the picture I took was too horrible even for Photoshop to fix) we headed for Covent Garden where the mighty army that is Cityrtead 2015 sprang into action...

A well oiled publicity machine.

Ben Bailey Smith was with us and to him fell the arduous task of posing with the genuine Mark II that Jaguar kindly lent us for the afternoon.

It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it

The cadets and cityread volounteers proceeded to give away about a 1,000 copies of Rivers of London andI found myself a table in a cafe which suddenly became an impromptu signing point. 

Two hours and, an estimated, 800 books later the cadets all headed off to Look Left Look Right's magic training school and headed off to see my family.

Coming Soon: Sutton Library!

Day 2: Blackheath

GREENWICH

Blackheath Library

7:00 pm
10.8 km from Covent Garden

Day 2 saw me heading, once again, south (or more accurately sarf) of the river to the great maritime borough of Greenwich. There, at the Blackheath Library, I was greeted with coffee, cake and enthusiasm - which is just what a writer wants when he has to talk. Plus the Librarians had manfully attempted to get all the punters tipsy which also helps.

Look Librarians....

And an audience!

Up next: The great Covent Garden Peter Grant Giveaway!

Day 1: Canada Water

SOUTHWARK

Canada Water Library
7.00pm
5.4 km from Covent Garden

Uncle Owen! This droid has a bad motivator.

Amply supplied with coffee and cake I was ushered into a rather nice custom built space where I faced my 1st audience - and very friendly they were too.

It's always much easier to address an audience if they've been warmed up first and in this I was lucky because Mark Rodenhurst had kicked things off with a reading from Rivers of London accompanied by slides and live music from Luke Evans.

Then I was interviewed by Literary Development Officer (what a title) Sandra Agard before another reading, a Q&A and a signing.

So I'd like to thank Mike Hall and everyone else at Canada Water for easing me into a month of glorious exploration.

Tomorrow - Blackheath!

Peter and Guleed in Fast Paced Action Scene

Ah the adrenalin pumping excitement of police work!

Currently Reading

I seem to be on a bit of a fantasy jag at the moment...

Half a King/Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
Jo Abercrombie introduces you to his characters, makes you care and then tortures you for the next 200 pages - the swine.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
A hugely enjoyable tale of palace intrigue.

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
I've only just started this but already the language has sucked me in a way that I haven't felt since I first picked up a Wizard of Earthsea all those years ago...

Body Work - Beverley and Peter!

Even More More Useful Stuff

Even More More Useful Stuff

Traction Engine

Essentially steam locomotives that run without rails, that used to be used for heavy agricultural work and by showmen to both transport their rides from site to site and to power them when they got there.

A showman's road locomotive, as they were known, would be brightly painted and decorated with gilt and lights and emblazoned with the name of the family who operated it.

Many of these engines lived a long and eventful life being traded amongst families, modified, rebuilt and renamed all while travelling the length and breadth of the nation. Many drivers will swear that each engine has its own distinct pesonality - many drivers caught behind one on a narrow road merely swear.

Gastropub

Once there were just pubs and what kind of pubs they were was determined by a sort unspoken agreement between the landlord (or lady) and those that drank there. It could be a rough pub, a cosy local, an expatriate hang out or just the nearest place to your home where they sold booze and fags. Now all that has changed and pubs are now branded and breweries have marketting strategies(1).

A Gastropub is a pub that serves food of a much higher quality and price than a normal pub. This is particularly prevalent in Herefordshire where a village local might have a tapas night and a roadside inn a MIchellin star rating. This is a fine thing but sometimes you really just want a plate of chips.

(1) This is an exageration of course the breweries have always imposed their ideas on their tenants and no amount of branding is goung to save you if the local Millwall supporters decide that your place is where they want to congregate before a game.

BODY WORK - Page One In Colour!

Here's a little something to whet your appitite.

Artist: Lee Sullivan
Colourist: Luis Gerrero
Publisher: Titan Comics