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I'm writing this on a book publicity tour in Britain. Readers here are experiencing a bitterly cold winter. Many of them wear special gloves, the ones your fingers poke out of so you can turn pages without your palms freezing. At this very moment I'm warming myself with a salt beef bagel, but it's cooling rapidly and I'm going to have to eat it soon. I'm not complaining, though. Everywhere I go I'm meeting kind friendly people who love reading so much that not one of them would even consider burning books to keep warm. Not even their computer instruction manuals, which in some parts of the world people burn even in summer. I've had so many unforgettable experiences on this trip. The BBC radio interview, for example, where I found myself in a small studio with not only an interviewer but also two literary critics. (They were gentle with me.) My appearance on Blue Peter, the BBC TV kids show, a life's ambition. I felt so proud as I waited to go on. The 40 labradors waiting to go on after me (true) looked pretty proud too. And the travel over here is so exciting. The London underground, red buses, black taxis, trains that go 300 kph and supermarket trolleys with independent suspension. Even so, I am looking forward to getting home to my desk and computer and other loved ones. OK, there'll be a few days of jetlag, that weird mental state where even simple tasks like squeezing toothpaste onto your toothbrush take ages and ages and then you discover it's anti-fungal cream. But that will pass, and then I can get back to Doubting Thomas, the book I'm writing, which I'll tell you more about once my bags are unpacked and my fingers have thawed. Does anyone have a recipe for salt beef bagels, the 2.4 kilowatt ones? Until next time, oo-roo and happy reading,
28 February 2006 Back to the top of the
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