KITES AT SWANAGE

I JUST LOVED THIS photo of Sonia trying to fly a Chinese kite at the very end of August. One of those idyllic days in Dorset, this strange summer that was supposed to be full of sunny days that somehow failed to materialise.

The kite was my present from China. It looked wonderful and caused quite a few stares, but was almost impossible to control. It took off from the packaging, an endless string of connected lantern-shapes that wanted to be off over the sea like a flock of birds. It reminded me of St Ives - those colours, the wind whipping up the white caps.

It was all so much easier in Beijing apparently. The salesmen made it look easy, but the spars turned out to be little more than strips of bamboo, the fabric was tissue paper and the string thinner than cotton.

Afterwards we bundled the tangled remains into the car boot. We'd sort it out later. But the knots were tight and tiny and the cotton intractable. Maybe it was only meant to fly once. It did its job joyfully, like the tail end of summer.

Readers' Group

A readers' group is a ruthless killing machine.

The readers' group where I work gave its verdict on Box of Tricks this week. They'd had the book for about six weeks so there'd been plenty of time to absorb it and while there's normally some gossip in the corridors of mirth about the book under consideration, this time there was none - or at least none in my hearing. The noisy members of the readers' group clammed up when they saw me approaching. Their whispers fell to silence.

What were they plotting? Had they thrown Box of Tricks across the room in anger? They preferred to wait until Thursday lunch-time before saying anything. Torture.

Well, of course they were OK about it. They liked it, they said. The characters were vivid, the plot kept them interested. Maybe they were only saying that because I was sitting there. They didn't want to hurt my artistic sensibilities. Probably they'd orchestrated their response beforehand in one of those focus groups. There might have been another meeting - to which I wasn't invited - where they'd said what they really thought.

When does a book take on its proper identity? What do I care? They told me it was OK. That's all that matters.

Thanks...

Well, I haven't been a good blogger. But today I checked and found I have some followers. So, dear blog-followers thank you for being patient. I'm humbled. As my last blog entry was in January that is super-patient.

Today I did a reading as part of Birmingham Artsfest with Mez Packer. Thanks to Mez, too, for a good chat and great advice and for mentioning me on her blog on http://www.mezpacker.co.uk/

You must read her novel, Among Thieves, published by Tindal Street Press in March. Her reading from it today was brilliant.

And you can vote for my new novel, Box of Tricks during September in the fiction section of the People's book prize. It's on http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/ I have a bit of catching up to do, so every vote will count...

I'll try and be a better blogger in future.