Last
Friday and that meant Tavistock and a signing in Bookstop for Marcia
while I had a meeting in the Bedford Hotel (where else?) with our
accountant. The accounts for our company have to be lodged with Her
Majesty’s Revenue and Customs by the end of the month. They have
been prepared from the books I keep but I still don’t fully
understand how the final calculations are made. Anyway, I went
through them with Hugh and tried to look reasonably intelligent thus
giving the impression that I really did know what was what before I
signed as requested and, by so doing, take full responsibility for
the returns. All done for another year – but isn’t it scary that
we have to place our lives in the hands of professionals? I would
trust ours through thick and thin but he mentioned that he is
thinking about retiring from the firm he founded which is a bit
worrying. I think I shall have to make an effort to meet the man he
has taken into partnership and who will eventually be at the firm’s
helm.
Meanwhile,
Transworld was out in strength for this event. Emma Buckley, Marcia’s
editor and Elizabeth Masters who looks after her publicity had
travelled down from London the day before and had spent the night in
the Bedford Hotel (where else?). They were with Marcia in Bookstop
and I was to join them for lunch in Taylor’s – as was Chris Smale
who looks after the south west for Transworld. We all had a great
time.
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| Chris, Emma, Elizabeth and Marcia |
Next
morning and Chris rolled up to take Marcia to The Torbay Bookshop in
Paignton. This turned out to be a splendid event and so many
congratulations to all involved.
Then
it was Tuesday and time to go down to Saltash to a very unusual
bookshop run by two sisters. Is it a café? Is it a bookshop? Is it a
place where people pop in and out for a quick chat? It seems that
Bookshelf is all three. Saltash is, of course, at the mouth of the
river Tamar on the Cornish side just a mile or so from the setting of
The Sea Garden. I only say
that to give me a good reason to show you another Tamar photograph.
Tomorrow
is another busy day: Waterstones in Plymouth in the morning at 11 am
and in Exeter in the afternoon at 2 pm (both lasting one hour). There
are two Waterstone’s in Exeter: Marcia will be at the Roman Gate
branch – not the one near the cathedral.
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| The old mill tail race in Totnes the other day and . . . |
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| ... and there was a moorhen (I think) lurking in a drain. |
Then
there will be no reason at all why, on Monday, Marcia should not be
back in front of her computer typing like mad. Well, there is one.
There may even be two. For a start all this dashing about is
surprisingly tiring and she probably need more than one day off to
get back to normal. The other is in the lap of the gods. Will she be
able to wriggle out of the real world into her own imagined landscape
without at least one trip down to the coast to reconnect with her
people? I rather hope not – I do enjoy our jaunts. The weather
forecast is a bit worrying: “sunshine, showers and
strong winds on Sunday. Potentially turning very stormy on Monday.”
Well, that could make it quite dramatic, couldn’t it? I’ll let
you know what happens next week.
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| This week we have another reader's dog. Mutley, a collie cross, - and friends. |
