Uh Oh We're In Trouble

Don't you think the coolest thing ever, as a novelist, would be not to win like, the Booker Prize or get onto the Orange Shortlist - but to travel to the back and beyond (or Thailand) - and see a tattered old copy of your book, with your name on it - sitting on a shelf ready to be snapped up by an eagle eyed tourist shouting "Oh my God look - it's only 350 Baht, that's like only a few quid!"?

I think that would be very very cool and proof that you had really made it.

I love old bookshops and like to walk around smelling them. Perhaps this is a personality trait I shouldn't be so eager to reveal, but what can I do? It's the truth about me.

We took a tuk-tuk out to Chaing Mai City today and I don't really know if we were in the centre of the city or not, you sometimes just can't tell but it had all the amenities we needed - a good coffee shop, post office, bank - and row upon row of used book shops. So I had a good day.

Now I intend to go back to my room and unpack my backpack and try to sort out the things I actually need and the things I think I can't live without. I have learnt the hard way that you can't travel with three different types of conditioner and eight pairs of flip flops, when one of each will suffice.

Harsh but true.