Writing books is, by its very nature, a solitary practice. Although there are other people involved in producing the end result – editors, designers, publishers and marketers – much of the creation is done by one person tapping away at a laptop on their own. For readers as well, reading is a solitary experience. We may talk about the books we’ve enjoyed with our friends, but the actual consumption of a book is done on our own. I’m often struck by the difference in my experience and that of my friends who are musicians and songwriters. Like me, they do their creative work in private, but unlike me the primary way their audience is exposed to the work is a shared space, a common experience. They get to perform their work and to see an instant reaction. That’s something that isn’t true for authors.

Last weekend was an exception to that, and I got to experience something of the rock and roll buzz of performance. At the Swanage Literary Festival, Olly Hopper-Pay and I performed our musically-enhanced reading from Dead Man Singing. I read a couple of extracts from early on in the book (so no massive plot spoilers!), pausing at appropriate moments for Olly to play the songs referred to in the book, the ones which speak to Dave’s situation and to the themes that I wanted to go on and explore, but which I was unable to quote the lyrics to for copyright reasons. The reaction from the audience was great, and I had some lovely conversations with people afterwards who said what a special experience it was. I even spoke to some fellow Richard Thompson fans who I saw visibly react when I mentioned his name in the pre-performance interview with Fiona Sturrock of Purbeck Sounds Radio.

I’m keen to do more talks, as well as to perform Dead Man Singing Live with Olly again. To that end, I’ve recently added a new page to this website, listing the talks that I currently offer, in the hope that more people will book me to come and talk to whatever group they are organising. Whether it’s literary festivals, book groups, U3A groups or anywhere else where people gather to hear someone (hopefully) being interesting, I’m up for it. Just use the contact section of this website and drop me a line. At the moment I have three different talks that I am offering - all listed on the page - but I have plans to develop others and add them to the list in due course.

The page also offers a rundown my scheduled appearances, so please check it out and see if I’m speaking anywhere near you sometime soon. It would be lovely to meet up with some of my readers. At the time of publishing this blog post, the next thing on the agenda is a talk at the Blandford Literary Festival on Saturday 15th November – all the details, including a link to by tickets, are on my Talks page (of course).