Just as Phil Collins famously did Band Aid concerts from Wembley and Philadelphia on the same day, so I managed two book festival appearances on the afternoon and evening of November 7th.
The 2pm matinee was at Mold Library where my namesake, Caroline Johnson interviewed me. Caroline has run a bookshop in the town for 44 years. I thought it was my first trip to Mold but she reminded me that I’d visited her shop in 2013 just after the publication of ‘This Boy’.
As for Wrexham, the interview by Dave McCall (who writes under the pseudonym Dave Ebsworth) was like a chat with an old friend; which it was. It was my fifth visit to Wrexham although the first Crime Writers Festival, a three day event that Dave initiated this year. We talked about the crime novels, the memoirs, the Harold Wilson biography and the book I’ve just finished. Set in the pre-war summer of 1939 and unveiling Detective Inspector Charlie Fry, it’s provisional title is ‘I Didn’t Kill Hayden Carter’ but based on previous experience the publisher will have changed that by the time it hits the bookshops. Waterstones were at Wrexham Library where this photo was taken and as well as having a great evening, I signed lots of my books.
