I enjoyed the reading at Cheltenham last night although I was slightly annoyed by how rusty I'd become since I last did one.My performance felt woolly and shapeless at the start and I don't think I pulled it into proper shape until we got into the Q&A part of things.
I always like the Q&A bit, not least because it makes each night different for me and stops the evenings becoming routine. It was certainly interesting last night to find the questions were a bit more writerly than normal. Maybe it's a consequence of being part of a literary festival. Or maybe it's what happens when an audience breathes in Cheltenham's refined air. Or maybe it's simply because the book's now been out for quite a while and so more of the audience have actually read it and so have opinions and questions that relate to the content. I hadn't expected that - most readings happen so soon after publication that you can safely assume nobody there has read it - but I enjoyed it for all that.
