James Long

Right, it's obviously a day for the planets to align in my favour and I have been forgiven for not paying that £10 to get into St Paul's.
Parking here at Dartington can be fraught and involve a wet field and a long walk. Today the second space along in the nearest car park was free, it was going to be a good day.Things got even better about ten minutes ago when I found a wireless signal radiating from this remakable comfortable chair in a quietly relaxed sitting room off the Courtyard.
11.30am and I was perched up in the window seat, ready and waiting in plenty of time for James Long to speak on The Rebirth of Ferney and in conversation about it all with his son Ben. Sons clearly know their fathers well and can ask questions and probe in a way that the rest of us cannot so it was an hour of good interviewing and Family Long done good.
For a book about reincarnation to find itself coming back from the dead seems entirely appropriate and it was good to hear thoughts and ideas about the book being expressed by the author himself. So often I go to events like this having not read the book, this advance reading is making some events doubly enjoyable.
An interesting observation that this could not be a book of the city, too much clamour, Ferney requires the vision and the landscape of the countryside and I am now wondering how this soul match of Ferney and Gally will play out next.
I'm now in a state of highly suspended animation about the sequel because as James Long admitted he'd left himself a very big hole to dig his way out of if he was to successfully carry on from the final moments of Ferney. It's been difficult but he's done it and it will be shocking and that's as much as we know.
The next big decision is the title, all suggestions welcome.
Now must dash back to the hamper and then onto Simon Montefiore on Stalin's Hidden Legacy. I'm halfway through his latest novel Sashenka and really enjoying it, I might, just might, tackle his Young Stalin if he's really good this afternoon.