So, this is what I’ve been up to!

JM Originals, the new John Murrays imprint, was launched last night in The Yorkshire Grey in London. It was a relaxed gathering of book-minded people, with advance reader copies of mine and Jessie Greengrass’ new books there for the taking (and touching and stroking…), along with a snazzy ‘thing’, as editor Mark Richards described the foldout, blurby, information card thing. In his speech, he told us that he kept coming back to the idea of openness, in short, not defining what the imprint would and would not be about, which was refreshing to hear in an industry that can sometimes seem to us authors to be about drawing lines and putting up barriers. He said lots of nice things about our books, too. Then there was the bar, and the food, and the new, interesting people to meet. It all went by in a bit of a blur.

It wasn’t all partying though. Work happened too, in the form of a podcast between Mark and myself, and another between Mark and Jessie. We did this in the shiny new Hachette offices in Carmelite House, and as spectacular as the offices and roof garden are (they are!), the highlight might have been this Five Go To Carmelite visitors card…

The whole trip was as much fun as anything the Famous Five got up to, and I’m already looking forward to the bookshop and library visits that are being planned by planner extraordinaire, Lyndsey, for the run up to official publication in July.