First of all, thanks to my team of advance reader volunteers. Proof copies are on their way to you. I should  have supplied you with motivational T shirts. I wish I’d thought of it. Hindsight again, Laurie. Very clever.

Next, the somewhat alarming news that Dot Allbones has taken her bid for freedom from authorial control a step further. She has set herself up on Twitter. You can see for yourself (not that I wish to encourage her). She’s @DotAllbones

It’s astonishing, the ease with which she’s stepped from the 19th century into the 21st, aided and abetted, I might add, by that other pair who went on the lam a few years ago, @NellieBuzzard and @DickMorphew

I just hope the good people of the Ilminster Literary Festival understand what they’re dealing with. Dot will stop at nothing to fill a hall. Furthermore, she’s not exactly an adornment to genteel society. Look at her history: from the backstreets of Wolverhampton to the music halls of Whitechapel. I fear the tearooms of Ilminster won’t know what’s hit them.