Wigtown (aka Scotland’s book town) is one of Britain’s biggest book festivals. It may have been my fourth visit to the festival in my decade of writing books but it was the first outing for ‘Harold Wilson – 20th Century Man’ since it’s publication a week ago.

The photo shows me deep in conversation with my interviewer Andrew Cassell, the former BBC Scotland political correspondent. Unlike me, Andrew actually met Harold and testified to his utter lack of pomposity or pretentiousness.

Andrew was to be a brilliant interlocutor a little later when we appeared before three-hundred people in the Festival Marquee. Having published two books this year (this one and ‘Death on the Thames’ in March), I will spend the remainder of 2024 promoting them both whilst writing the next novel, which should keep me busy through the winter.