Is Idle Tom about to win his first competition?
This was Divine - from Stamford Hill - who’d come out specially on Saturday to hear about The Well-Tempered Clavier. Quite what she made of the book, I have no idea. I hope she enjoyed herself; certainly looks happy enough.
One of the pleasures of doing these events is that I get to hear, face to face, what is going on in the life of Idle Tom the Publisher. The sort of stuff that you miss out on even though you might be talking daily on the phone.
"Big day on Wednesday," he said.
"Oh aye?"
"I’m up for Young Publisher of the Year. They’ve already had the vote. I’ll find out on Wednesday afternoon if I’ve won it."
"Good luck then. You’ve been up for it a few times haven’t you?"
"Yes. Several. But let’s just say that this time … this time I’m quietly confident."
[Tom - looking quietly confident.]
"Got your speech written?"
"I’ll just use the speech I wrote last year. It was pretty timeless. The jokes should still work fine."
"What’s your best joke?"
"I thought I’d do a little bit of self-deprecation. One of my opening lines is going to be - "Wow. Young publisher of the year - my mother will be proud"."
"Hmmm. You really think that’s going to get a good laugh? What about something on the lines of, "My nanny will be proud?", or "My English teacher will be proud". Or you could even say that it’ll add five merit marks towards your Duke of Edinburgh award."
"No, it’ll work fine with my mother being proud."
"And you really reckon you’re going to get it this time?"
"Let me put it like this. I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t get it."
"You’re confident!"
"Actually - I’ve got a few spare tickets. Several. Fancy coming along? Maybe Margot might like to come along too."
"Ahhh. Wednesday. Bit tied up then. Stuff on. But I’ll try and get it live on the net -"