Earlier in the year, I was approached by the fashion designer, Sewing Bee judge and all-round Renaissance man Patrick Grant to contribute some profiles to a book that he was putting together, Original Man. I’ve now seen the first digital copy of it and it looks absolutely fantastic, focusing on an eclectic range of unusual, brilliant and iconoclastic figures. If ever you’ve wondered what book can link Hemingway & Quentin Crisp, Orwell & Morrissey, and Shackleton & Jack Nicholson, you now have your answer. I’m proud to have been involved in something so stylish and unusual and expect it to fly off the shelves this Christmas.

I’m going to be heading out of London for my next two talks about Rochester and Blazing Star, to the rather appropriate settings of Woodstock and Oxford. I’m delighted to be talking at the excellent Woodstock Bookshop on October 13th at 7pm. The venue has particular resonance as it’s just around the corner from where Rochester both lived and died, at Woodstock Lodge. Then I’m, in a manner of speaking, coming home when I visit one of my favourite bookshops anywhere, Blackwell’s Oxford, the following evening for what promises to be a suitably highbrow/lowbrow look at the Earl and his life at university.

Londoners who haven’t yet been to a talk yet, fear not – I’m also lining up a pre-Halloween talk at Daunt Books in Chelsea, which should be suitably highbrow. And then hopefully there’ll be more to come next year.

I’m also being interviewed on the Irish radio station Talking History on October 5th in the evening – further information to follow as and when.

And many thanks to anyone who’s come along to one of the talks so far, tweeted me or generally supported the book – it’s been a pleasure to meet so many of you and I look forward to meeting plenty more!

It’s today’s Kindle Deal of the Day on Amazon, and so if you wanted to read about the exploits of bad Lord Rochester for less than the price of a newspaper, visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KFDQVI2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00KFDQVI2&linkCode=as2&tag=alexalarma-21….