Francis Plug- How To Be a Public Author is launched! We had a great party at the magnificent Waterstones Piccadilly on Friday - but there was one notable absence. It turns out that Francis himself has been barred from the premises. It was left to his ameneuensis Paul Ewen to speak on his behalf. But fortunately, Francis did pass on a speech for him to read. I post it here for your pleasure and education. (Click on the speech to make it nice and big):

On the subject of Waterstones and fine evenings, meanwhile, be sure to go and see Jonathan Gibbs talking about the magnificent Randall, how it felt to kill Damien Hirst and other important matters of art this Wednesday at 7pm at Waterstones Piccadilly. We'd love to see you there.