On Friday night, 30th July, I launched the Duchess out into the big wide world!  

The party was held locally,  in a beautiful sixteenth century monks’ refectory, complete with stone font, arched and beamed ceiling and mullioned windows.  It looked really lovely, with fat church candles burning in the windows,  white roses on the tables, and several big gold-mounted display panels that I had put together for the occasion up on the window recesses, explaining lots of jolly facts about locations, the vagaries of jacket design and of course Browning’s wonderful poem.

Absolutely everyone there was very special to me, which made the occasion particularly meaningful – family, best friends, and the professionals who have made it all happen – all gathered together on this really memorable day.  It was very laid-back and easy-going, which was just what I had wanted, and much of the evening was dedicated just to talking and eating and drinking.  Lovely!  

Then people began to want me to sign copies of the book – and I learned for the first time what it feels like to be an author in the public eye.  Until you are in this position, you can have no idea how difficult it becomes remembering how to sign your own name!    I write under my maiden name, so I had to keep reminding myself which surname to use, to start with.   My writing is rather large and sprawly and imbued with wild flourishes, so that had to be kept under control, and I also had to make sure that I looked up each time, just before I wrote each person’s name, just to make sure that I had remembered who they were – even people I have known for years! 

Then came all the thank yous I had wanted to make.  I had carefully written out a list – in the order I wanted to deliver them, with little anecdotes included, and I had brought it to the party, ready to use when the time came.  But, as I stood up to start talking, I realised I had no idea where I had put it!  So when push actually came to shove, I had to just busk it, making up my thank yous as I went along.  (If anyone reading this feels miffed that they were forgotten – please forgive me!) 

And my ineptitude didn’t stop there.  Along with my list of thank yous, I found that I had also lost my glasses, and when I was asked to read an extract from the book, I realised I couldn’t see the words on the page at all!  ‘Borrow mine!’ says a friend – handing me her specs.  I put them on gratefully.   They were completely the wrong prescription, of course, and just made things worse, though I didn’t say so!  In the end, I recited the first two pages almost from memory.  Everyone said how lovely it was, so I think I must have hidden all the botch-ups fairly well. 

The evening continued after the thank yous and the readings until people dispersed in dribs and drabs – first the Londoners, off to catch their trains, then the further-flung guests, and finally the die-hard locals.  It was a lovely evening, affectionate and fun and entertaining and charming, and I can’t imagine a nicer way to have launched my book.  ‘His Last Duchess’ actually hits the shelves on Thursday (5th August) – but at least thirty of my closest friends have their noses stuck into it already!  Which is just as it should be, I reckon.