Tomorrow is publication day for my latest book. It’s called Help! I’m Turning Into My Dad! and it’s published by Carlton Books.
It’s a humorous look at that anxious period of every man’s existence when he looks in life’s mirror and sees his father staring back at him. It includes illustrations by the excellent cartoonist Mike Mosedale, (who did the cover for my Great Email Disasters book). Mike also did cartoons for the companion volume for women who are turning into their Mum, which was written by Gina McKinnon.
I’m excited about the launch of Help! I’m Turning Into My Dad!. Hopefully it will do well this Xmas. Think of all those people who it applies to!
During my student days, I was involved in a number of campaigns around miscarriages of justice. As well as those for the Birmingham Six and Winston Silcott, I was also part of the successful campaign to free the Bridgewater Four, who were wrongly-convicted for the murder of a paper boy.
I used to regularly visit Winston Silcott in prison, and became quite close to his family. On one visit to Winston at HMP Gartree, I also got talking to Jim Robinson of the Bridgewater Four. He was a passionate, honest and amazingly charismatic man. When he staged a rooftop protest to highlight his case, I remember travelling up to the prison with his wife to show our support. It was a really cold day, he must have been freezing up there. A warmer memory is the day he was finally released in 1997, and we toasted his freedom late into the night in north London.
Earlier today I ‘Googled’ his name, to see what he was up to now. I was saddened to learn that he actually died last year, although it was comforting to subsequently discover that he had finally found some peace and happiness in what turned out to be the final year of his life. My thoughts – very belatedly – go to his family, and in particular his sons, who were among the most entertaining people I ever met.
I’m excited that both the biographies I’ve written have been snapped up for foreign editions. So far, Amy Winehouse: The Biography has been sold to five countries – including Brazil, France and Finland – and Paris Hilton: Life On The Edge has gone to Japan, Russia, France and Sweden.
These editions will mostly appear over the next few months, although I have a copy of the Dutch edition of the Amy book already and it’s trippy to see my words translated into Dutch. They’ve even made her look more Dutch on the cover!
Ironically, I saw the English edition of my Amy biog on sale in Amsterdam last week. Not that I ever trawl bookshops searching for copies of my own books, you understand!
I see that former Busted man James Bourne has unveiled the first of his solo material on his MySpace page. I interviewed James during his Son Of Dork days and found him a really interesting and pleasant person. His talent speaks for itself (he wrote six number ones and 14 top threes before he turned 23 years old) and I wish him well in his new incarnation.
Meanwhile, I am excited beyond words to read Mark Frith’s forthcoming book. He’s an absolute legend and – as I noted when we appeared in the same Sky One show a few years back – a rather nice guy too. Oh okay, he’s not exactly unpleasant to look at either, is he?
I am loving the X Factor this season. It just seems to get better and better – thanks to the wonderful Simon Cowell, of course. When Julie Burchill and I co-wrote our book about hypocrisy, we decided to name five ‘anti-hypocrites’ – five people who represent the opposite of hypocrisy. At the top of this league of joy, I included Simon Cowell because I admire his attitude to fame. He is never one to bleat, and takes the rough with the smooth.
I wrote:
“Nobody could accuse pop’s Mr Nasty of being publicity shy or financially temperate, yet his pursuit of fame and fortune has always been beautifully transparent and consistent. Unlike those who claim to be in the business for the love of the craft, yet are more bothered about pound notes than musical notes, he happily admits he can go for weeks without listening to music for pleasure. He’s also always stuck true to his belief that once you seek out the spotlight, you cannot moan about ‘the downside of fame’.”
I’ve never really done any public speaking before but by this time next month I will have spoken at two events that are important to me. First up, on 11th September, Julie Burchill and I will speak to a group of Holocaust survivors at an event organised by the Association Of Jewish Refugees. I know it’s a cliche, but I’m tremendously humbled to be speaking on such an occasion.
Then on September 20th, I am going to be speaking at theWindsor Festival. I will appear alongside the aforementioned Warwick Cairns, Melanie Gow and publisher Scott Pack. The event is called How I Got My Book Published.
PS – Melanie Gow has created a petition on an important issue that I feel affects us all. If you are so inclined, please take a look here.
Yesterday saw the kick-off of the new Premiership season and the start of the new series of The X Factor. The highlight of the latter was, naturally, the brilliant Cheryl Cole. However, the audition of these two Welsh lads and their bizarre version of Mysterious Girl will linger long in the memory.
Nick Cohen has plugged Not In My Name in his Observer column today. This completes a double-whammy of Observer plugs, following last weekend’s mention by Catherine Bennett. I’m particularly pleased with Nick’s praise because he’s a hero of mine and his book What’s Leftis wonderfully entertaining, eloquent and courageous.
Speaking of the Observer, today’s edition also reviews Warwick Cairns’ new book How to Live Dangerously. I think Warwick is a brilliant writer and I thoroughly enjoyed his first book About The Size Of It. I’ve not read his new book yet but I will, and I will write about it here once I have.
The new issue of Gay Times is out and has a glowing review of Not In My Name. It also includes a column by yours truly about gay hypocrisy, which seems to have amused a lot of people. I’m growing quite fond of Gay Times.
I’ve always admired the bravery of Israeli settlers and I found their expulsion from the Gaza Strip very upsetting. I’ll therefore definitely be visiting this museum when I next visit Jerusalem.
Hopefully it will put their case across as well as the novel Grains Of Sand by the brilliant young Israeli author Shifra Shomron.
Anyone who has been in a British bookshop recently will have noticed how hard they are pushing James Frey’s new book, Bright Shiny Morning. Well, I succumbed to the hype and snapped up a copy. I can’t remember the last time a novel gripped me so much, from the first page right up until the gut-wrenching ending.
Carlton Books generously threw a small lunch party yesterday to celebrate the impending publication of my forthcoming book Help! I’m Turning Into My Dad!. Present and correct were the genius editor of the book Martin Corteel, the book’s cartoonist Mike Mosedale, and Gina McKinnon, who wrote the companion volume for budding Mums, Help! I’m Turning Into My Mum!.
After the debauchery and excitement of promoting Not In My Name with Julie, I could have done with a gentle few days but I let Martin twist my arm and pour me quite a few glasses of wine over the long lunch. I then recall Gina suggesting we move on to the pub, where hordes of Carlton staff joined us, one of them bringing his wonderful Dachshund dog called Arnie.
My next memory is staggering home late that evening. Chris showed me a review of Not in My Name in the Jewish Chronicle and I was delighted by that. Such praise would be welcome from any quarter, but coming from that newspaper it was particularly welcome. The fact they singled out my Israel chapter meant more to me than I can say. The reviewer writes “I had tears streaming down my face as I turned the pages” as she read my chapter. I shed a few tears of joy myself while reading her review.
As if all that wasn’t exciting enough, my agent just called to say the second serial rights for Not In My Name have been sold to The Sun. Kerching!
I’ve never been a fan of the patronising creep George Monbiot. I find his views on Israel particularly distasteful, and his stance on Iraq and Greenery are thoroughly unpleasant too. What a ghastly man. However, I owe him a drink this week after he helped us take publicity for Not In My Name to a new level. He had a head-to-head with Julie on Radio 4’s Today Programme on Wednesday and then stormed off and wrote a blog on the Guardian website on the same theme. Since then, interest in Not In My Name has sky-rocketed.
Julie and I have had a great couple of days generating even more publicity too. We spoke together on quite a few radio shows including Steve Wright In The Afternoon on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC London Breakfast, with the wonderful JoAnne Good. I love that woman! We also did a more in-depth chat with the Little Atoms radio show, which we both enjoyed.
I’ve also been busy doing interviews with the local papers around Berkshire, including the Royal Borough Observer and the Windsor Express. I’m really pleased with how stuff has gone, and I want to say thanks so much to Jane, our lovely PR from Virgin Books, who has done us proud and been a great pal throughout.
Tomorrow is publication day for my latest book. It’s called Help! I’m Turning Into My Dad! and it’s published by Carlton Books.
