As you can see, they like big sofas at Henley. I was here last year with my latest book and hope to be back next year when ‘Death on the Thames’ will be published, (particularly as Henley is one of the most beautiful ‘on-Thames’ towns).

But this year I’m here promoting somebody else’s book.

Full disclosure, I encouraged Brian McLaughlin to write the incredible story of his life. The son of an Irish labourer raised in an impoverished part of Portsmouth, he had an unhappy childhood and left school without a single qualification but a love of pop music. Having started at HMV selling records he rose through the organisation to become the Managing Director of the most successful music retailer in the world, picking up Waterstones book stores on the way. He recounts all this in his memoir, ‘His Master’s Voice’, along with the story of that iconic trademark.

Brian talks as he writes – entertainingly.