This week's news

Have just heard that False Impression is No. 7 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List. Naturally nervous about where it will be next Sunday after a full week's sales.

Yesterday morning I did a telephone interview with Michael Jacobson of the Gold Coast Bulletin, and we discussed a literary dinner I'll be doing in Brisbane next week. He's a distinguished author, who was recently shortlisted for the prestigious IMPAC Award. It was a warm and friendly interview, lacking any of the envy so often associated with literary authors who, although they have critical success, do not necessarily sell a lot of books.

I conducted an auction last night in the House of Lords for the charity SeeAbility. The host was supposed to be Seb Coe, but he had to fly to Africa at the last minute, to bring them up to date on London's progress on 2012, so he appeared via a TV screen, and I ended up as host and auctioneer. Incidentally, Seb told me that during the final year they were putting together the bid for 2012, he spent only four days at home; a staggering piece of dedication which was rightly rewarded. The auction raised £50,000, following a rousing speech by Sir Steve Redgrave and moving comments by John Spence who has recently gone blind having had a brilliant banking career.

I'm off to Australia this morning. On Monday I'll be conducting an auction for Andrew Flintoff and Shane Warne at the Westin Hotel in Sydney, where every seat has sold out, and they have a fantastic list of auction items including a box for every day of the Sydney Test. Hopefully we'll raise a vast sum for the four charities they've nominated.

I won't be talking to you for a fortnight, but will report back on November 27th, having seen the first two days of the first Test in Brisbane, and returned to London in time to do the auction for Make-a-Wish.