The West End Whingers said I had to be sure to call Jay Rayner middle-aged after he'd called them likewise in that article, as if I would, honestly.
Yes Son of Agony won over Agony but I did have an ulterior motive. 
One of the lovely little thoughtful aspects of Ways With Words is a Festival Artist, this year Jennifer Johnson who sits in on events and dibbles and dabbles with her watercolours and does paintings of the audience and speakers. Jennifer had said that if I would only come down from my seat in the gods she would do a painting of me.
What a nice gift for Bookhound.
So I thought I'd brave it for Jay Rayner's event which would also mean I could see Jay close-up and decide if the Whingers were right.
Described by Gordon Ramsay as ' a fat bloke what types' Jay Rayner is the now the considerably slimmer restaurant critic for The Observer and occasional interviewer of bloggers when he's not eating. Apparently he's been working out and divesting himself of the inevitable adipose that must go with the job.
It takes some guts...no I can't say that...yes I can, it does...it takes some guts to eat your way around the world and of course I stopped myself asking all those medical questions but sometimes nurses need to know these things.
I mean seriously, it must all have had repercussions? There were no details but did he get sponsorship from Gaviscon ? It would seem like a sensible idea.
The nearest we got was someone asking about food poisoning and Jay did own up to an episode of alimentary canal urgency in Tokyo, but that might all be too much information if you're having dinner, sorry.
Anyway he managed it, Tokyo won Jay's finest food experience and also his worst, possibly linked to the alimentary canal episode? Salt fermented sea cucumber which in Jay's words resembled 'fish snot' can't have been too gut-friendly. Sorry again.
It was all very entertaining, the book is a good read though I've yet to digest Paris. A Michelin star meal per day? That all needs careful pre-reading preparation but Jay is a very lively and witty speaker and as for middle-aged I couldn't possibly comment.
Meanwhile sadly there is no portrait of Jay speaking because this time Jennifer concentrated on painting the audience, but here's his book just to make up for it.
Busy day tomorrow, Jenni Murray kicks the day off at 9.30am followed by John Sargeant, Edward Docx and Helen Rappaport.
Remember the Bookgroup Babes? The reading group who invited me along to their evening and I left them all with a copy of Ekaterinburg? Tomorrow the 90th anniversary of the Romanov massacre at the Ipatiev House. Helen has kindly agreed to meet with the bookgroup after her event and they are very well prepared.
What better among the various delights of a blog than linking authors with their readers in this way, it promises to be a very memorable day.
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