Inverurie

This was the venue of tonight's event at Inverurie, part of the World of Words Festival. It was a church - upstairs in the Acorn Centre in the heart of the town. The event was chaired by BBC Scotland's Fiona Stalker. It is always a great joy, when appearing in public, to feel secure in the hands of a professional interviewer, and Fiona is certainly that. We had a very receptive and warm audience, and when signing afterwards everyone was full of praise for the relaxed nature of the event.

TV in Scotland really lacks a good chat show. Fiona, in my humble opinion, would make the perfect host for it.

Earlier we had a rather dubious and luridly coloured curry that was so sweet we couldn't eat the sauce. Note to self: avoid curries while on tour!

Tomorrow it's off to Edinburgh by train, and an overnight there before catching an early trans-Atlantic flight to Toronto, then on to New York. Thus begins a 12-city tour of N. America in 18 days.