Responsibility

...something many of us dread and do our best to avoid, particularly us boys - and surely second only in the male annals of horror to that all time fear called commitment - but responsibility has nonetheless come calling upon me.

On Saturday, I am chairing a Crime Readers Day at Bournemouth Library.  In the spirit of these blogs, which often turn more into confessionals, I can now admit it's the first time I've undertaken such a role and I'm feeling more than a tad nervous. To put it mildly!

It's difficult enough talking about my own books, which (in theory at least) I should know something about and be able to answer questions upon.  But introducing a range of other authors and attempting to make some sensible and insightful comments - cue something approaching a tailspin!

So, this morning, you find me in mid-research on a range of other writers, attempting to be calm, but feeling progressively more in awe as I go.  There are some wonderful authors out there, writing so evocatively about so many places, people and periods of history. 

I'm happy to say I've somewhat (only somewhat) come round from feeling daunted to believing that it's going to be a privilege to chair the day.  And this is mostly due to a resolution I've reached about how to go about it.

I'm going to take a lesson from the day job and employ a mantra which is drilled into cub broadcast hacks from the start.  If in doubt, just KISS - keep it short and simple.  So I shall introduce the acts, channel questions from the audience and largely attempt to fade into the background. 

It should be as the football pundits say of the referee - if you don't much notice him, he's had a good game. Hopefully!

If you're interested in the day, and the line up really is an impressive one, there are more details on the News and Events page - www.thetvdetective.com/news.html 

Fingers crossed and deep breath for how it goes.  I shall report back in blogs to come..