“I love Scotland and it was great to get the opportunity to see more of it the other weekend (May 12th to 14th) when I did three book events in weather that was mixed to say the least.

At Dumbarton Library I was interviewed by the great Ruth Wishart who has ‘done’ me so many times I feel we’re a double act.

The sun was out for the Boswell Book Festival at Dumfries House in Ayrshire on the Sunday.  Incredibly, this is the only festival dedicated to memoir and biography. There must have been at least four hundred people in the marquee where I was in conversation with James Shaw from the BBC in Scotland.

My wife and I departed one part of Ayrshire to head for the coast of this magnificent county and  Glenapp Castle where the proprietor Paul Szkiler interviewed me in a more intimate gathering than at Dumfries House. We looked across to the Mull of Kintyre on a gorgeous evening before driving back to East Yorkshire the following morning – in the pouring rain.”