Friday, September 14, 2007

Shadow Project

New working title for 'Sohanti' -- it's now 'The Shadow Project', suggested by my agent Sophie Hicks who read all 530 pages of it at a single sitting and tells me it would make a brilliant movie. Whether it makes a brilliant book remains to be seen: it's with my publisher at the moment -- always a nervewracking time.

My trip to Edinburgh was great fun. Before I got there, we stayed in a posh hotel where Churchill entertained Eisenhower during the war and I had a bath in Churchill's bath, a brute of a thing with enormous copper taps. When I was a kid, Churchill was the world's hero and mine. Lying in his bath, wishing I had a cigar and some gin, I kept thinking 'How on earth did I get here?'

The audience at Edinburgh was a lively lot; a bit younger than I expected. I devoted most of my appearance to questions and they came thick and fast. How do you define magic? Do we really have souls? Can wizards fly on broomsticks? I loved it and plan to do it all again at Cheltenham Literary Festival next month.

We took a bit of a holiday after Edinburgh, during which I discovered to my amazement that Exeter University is running a course on Western Esotericism -- the first time subjects like magic, alchemy and astrology have found their way back into a serious university in centuries. I've applied for a place, but may have left it too late. I'll keep you posted.