I was asked this morning if I’d take over James Mayhew’s spot at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, as he’s got tonsillitis and isn’t really up for it. Having spent a lot of my youth and grown up years with frequent bouts of tonsillitis, I feel for him and hope he gets better.

For those of you looking forward to meeting James on Wednesday, I hope I’ll do him proud. It is to be a illustration based talk, so I’m looking out all sorts of things to bring along and show you. See you on Wednesday morning.

My wife and I went to the festival yesterday, on the way home from my brother’s birthday party in Oxford. We went to see the film star, Michael Caine, talk about his new book – not many people know that, (well, they do now I’ve written about it on the internet!)