By its very nature, writing is a solitary pursuit. Although there are lots of people involved in producing a book – editors, designers, publicists, for example – the actual writing involves a lot of hours, spread over a very long time, alone at a laptop. For authors, it’s such a treat to celebrate the arrival of a new book with a launch event, to meet up with friends and readers and to share our excitement.

Imogen Imagine took a long time for me to get right. I had the initial idea for the book all the way back in 2023, somewhere between signing off the proofs of Dead Man Singing and that book actually being published. I left it on the back-burner while I completed Foul and Fair, taking it out occasionally to play with the plot and work out how to do justice to the original concept, so finally getting it into the world is particularly satisfying.

On Saturday 26th September, just two days before the official publication of the book, I had a lovely time at the Imogen Imagine booklaunch at Westbourne Bookshop. Lots of my friends turned up, despite the competing attraction of an England football match on the telly, and it means so much that they did – particularly the ones who came along even though they had other commitments that meant they wouldn’t be able to stay to the end.

Those who came were able to enjoy Olly Hopper-Pay performing an acoustic version of the book’s song. The full-band studio version was also played, along with other songs related to the book, over the course of the evening. Nibbles were nibbled, thank you’s were made, a reading from the book – the first I’ve done in public for this one – was completed, and questions were both asked and answered. During the questions I also checked that no-one was recording and then made a confession about the inspiration of one of the characters in the book, which I have no intention of repeating here or anywhere else. Sometimes you just had to be there.

Thank you to Anara for running such a wonderful bookshop and for letting me back for a second launch - read about the previous one here - and to all the people who supported the event and helped to make it so enjoyable.

If you missed out, there’s another chance to celebrate the book’s arrival in the world, as I’m doing an Imogen Imagine takeover night at Chaplin’s and the Cellar Bar in Boscombe on Monday 5th October. Olly Hopper-Pay (that man again) will be performing a set of his own songs, Lee Radsall-Dove (the voice of Carl Denby) will be doing the same, and sandwiched between the two will be yours truly, reading a couple of extracts from the book, plus Olly, Lee and Hannah Gadsby performing songs linked to Imagine Imagine (including, of course, the song itself) live. It runs on rock and roll time, rather than literary time – the first act starts at around 9.30, and it will run to somewhere between 11-30 and midnight – but entry is free and if that's not too late for you, it’s a chance to experience one of the locations actually featured in the book itself. For me it’s another chance to share my excitement about the book, and to meet some readers – if you’re there, please come up to me and say hello.