Home from the Big Apple

I've just returned from New York New York where I met with my publishers to discuss the launch of A Prisoner of Birth. They arranged two lunches - one for the press, and the other for booksellers, both of which proved very worthwhile. The first was attended by everyone from the review editor from New York Times, to Entertainment Weekly, The Larry King Show and Time Magazine. The second centred round Barnes & Noble, which I was surprised to discover control 20% of the book market in America. I was delighted to find that most of those present had read the Advanced Readers Edition - which is not always the case. I have never known such a build-up for one of my books, and indeed the first afternoon was spent rejecting the 41 covers - yes, 41 - that the art department had come up with. Macmillan have already decided on the cover (I'll show you this soon), but the Americans are going down a different route, something a little more modern, and have rejected all the obvious 'best selling' gold lettered covers. Several newspapers have already been in touch about serialisation rights and the Americans will be sending me on the longest tour since Kane and Abel (17 cities in 21 days).

On the social side, I was able to catch up with political friends over dinner at the Knickerbocker Club. New Yorkers seem fascinated by the fact that it could be two of their own, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, who end up as the Democratic candidates for the upcoming Presidential elections, while they are now almost universally saying that George W Bush is among the worst presidents in their history. The city is looking better than ever under Mayor Bloomberg, and remembering the financial problems America is facing at the present time, I suspect he'd make a better president than any of the current candidates. I was also planning to go to the theatre, but Broadway is in darkness because of a strike by stage hands, so went to a film instead - No Country for Old Men - the Cohen Brothers' new film which is number one in the US at the moment, but I walked out half way through because it was so violent. I did find time to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see their new Greek and Roman rooms on the ground floor which are fantastic. I wonder if the Met is now the best museum in the world? I also went to a morning sale of modern paintings at Christies - squares, circles and squiggles, being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I kept my wallet in my pocket. Give me a Turner any day. However, I was made very aware of the current purchasing power of the pound and the dollar, as almost everything in New York is half the price of London - no wonder so many people are off to Fifth Avenue to buy their Christmas presents rather than Oxford Street.

On a final note, one reads a lot of criticism of British Airways in the press, but I had an excellent flight there and back, and found their staff as obliging and charming as ever. We live in an age when the norm is to undermine, be rude and belittle, so I am bound to say thank you BA, for a very pleasant trip.