Hexham Book Festival is upon us! There are speakers of all sorts – poets and novelists, comedians and politicians (not mutually exclusive!) Come to Hexham and listen to Susan Calman, Rev. Richard Coles, David Owen, Vince Cable, Melvyn Bragg, James Naughtie, Joanne Harris – and our own Linda France.

As you wander into the foyer at the Queen’s Hall, you may meet a bearded person offering you a flyer for his novel Mister Woodreeve’s Reflection – ‘a spine-chilling mystery with a hint of the supernatural’, according to our local Hexham Courant. That bearded person will be me!

I look forward to meeting you, either to say ‘Thank You’ in person for supporting the novel, or to encourage you do so, before the deadline of Monday 9 May. (Details on my Facebook page, or just Google ‘mister woodreeve’.)

Friends and relatives from all over have pledged and become my literary patrons, not just from Portsmouth to Perthshire, but from Newcastle to New Zealand, and from Cambridge to Canada. I do hope you’ll be able to join them.