London launch of Too Many Magpies

I had a great launch for Too Many Magpies at the Calder Bookshop on Tuesday evening. The shop is a lovely place which includes a theatre area set up by John Calder to provide a performance space for his Godot Theatre, and there is a really nice atmosphere. And so many of my friends old and new came to celebrate with me: writer friends and blogger friends, my wonderful publisher Jen Hamilton-Emery, and also my long-lost cousin whom I'd never met before in my life - now you don't often get that at a launch, do you? See what miracles books can give rise to? And we sold all of the copies of the book which the shop had ordered, plus some I had brought in my bag just in case! Thank you so much to everyone who came for making it such a successful evening, and thank you to the shop's Alex Middleton for hosting the event, and to the second Alex for manning the till until we all faded away, far too late, I'm sure, into the night. And thank you to a third Alex, fellow Salt author Alex Keegan who came with a very posh big camera and took the photos. Front left in the photo above is prose fiction writer Vicky Grut (whose great stories we published in the short-story magazine metropolitan), just behind her (with red hair) is novelist Debi Alper, centre front is fellow Salt author Tania Hershman, front right is novelist and poet Sue Guiney and just behind her Jen Hamilton-Emery.

ADDED: And how could I have forgotten to thank Tania, who so generously offered to introduce me, and who gave me such a lovely (flattering!) introduction! Thank you, Tania!