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Apologies for the month-long hiatus. It's been a busy few weeks, but a happy few weeks as well, in the sense that it's a huge relief to have the book out and be able to watch it make its way in the world, even if there are few stumbles along the way.

Most of the people I've spoken to over the last month will, at some point, ask how the book's going, to which I don't always know what to say. The publishers don't really give you a daily update on sales as they don't have one themselves - though you can check your amazon sales ranking. Obsessively. This can only end in tears. No matter how high you soar there comes a point, even if your first initials are J. K. and you have a thing about wizards, that your rating begins to drop, and the unbearable helplessness of knowing there's sweet fa you can do to try and turn the tide, short of buying the book yourself, makes Amazon sales-ranking-checking a Bad Thing To Get Hooked On. And yes, I've been there.

There have been a handful of reviews so far, including one by Tina Jackson in Metro, and the nicest one yet in the TLS, by Josh Raymond. Sadly I can't find it online. The pull-out quote was: 'an intelligent and encouraging piece of writing.' Thelondonpaper did a Q and A, Gay Times liked it, so did Vogue, Tatler, Traveller Magazine and the Western Daily Press. However, Harry Mount in the Literary Review did not. More on that and how some (often more conservative) reviewers can turn against it later.

Articles I've done concerning the book - there's one about hermits, most of all Sue Woodcock and Tom Leppard that appeared yesterday in the Independent on Sunday. Several to follow in the coming weeks.

People in the book - Chris Eubank has just put his kids up for adoption. King Arthur started a protest outside Stone Henge, after performing a ceremony to make sure there was no rain during Glastonbury (which seems to have worked). Vivienne Westwood walked out of the Sex and the City premiere, saying there was nothing remotely memorable or interesting about what she saw. I love her for that. The film is apparently one long product placement for a number of different labels, including hers. Sebastian Horsley's book Dandy in the Underworld got an excellent and sympathetic review in the Guardian which, as he has since explained, means his life is essentially over. 'It's now one long descent into respectability.' We're doing our talk together at Camp Bestival at 8.40, Friday 18 July. In the Comedy Tent. Help.

More later in the week I think



Also here's a snap of Pete Doherty I took last year. He played a great set at Glastonbury, apparently. Even the Sun liked it..

Videotape, Youtube, Moral Turpitude

I've found Arthur's video- or rather someone else found it and passed it on to me. This is a relief. The tape was in a box at a film production company's office and looked set to see out its days in there until the box was opened accidentally, which means I can, in theory, look him in the eye again.

With the kind of symmetry that I like, only hours after getting my hands on his compilation tape of former tv appearances I was able to upload a brand new piece about Arthur. It's the pick of the footage shot by me and Hels (lover) over the last four months. I do the camerawork. She does the sound. We both ask questions and nod politely. I think the section at the end of this clip is really moving.

In other news In Search of the English Eccentric, I've edited my chat with Sebastian Horsley about Moral Turpitude and being eccentric into this; the nation's favourite jailbird has been moved into a secure unit after prison staff learnt of a plot to do him in; and Vivienne Westwood has just launched a new line of shoes in collaboration with Melissa (who is not a person but one of the leading lights in Brazilian footwear, I'm told).

I had dinner with someone called Sebastian Mary this week. Sebastian Mary blogs a lot. She has more blogs than pairs of shoes. She said that when it came to writing blogs the key was to keep it to three paragraphs, or less, and always include a picture... So. If I can't do three paragraphs, I can at least put up a picture. Here are Dame Vivienne's new shoes. The silver one is best if you ask me. And I think we need one of Arthur,

where to begin

This really is not the beginning. That won't be for a month or so, for now I just want to see how it works, and what the words look like on the screen.

That said, while I'm here, I may as well run through what some of the people who appear in In Search of the English Eccentric are up to - after all that's what I've just said I'd do in filling out the bit at the top that asks you what your blog is about. No more than 500 words. So. How are they? Arthur's doing very well, he's just written a book, and although a bit broke, is in good spirits and looking forward to Gordon Brown calling a General Election so he can start his campaign for Salisbury. I am right behind him. He's also about to start a picket at Stone Henge in the next few weeks. I had lunch with him yesterday in a pub in Kennington because I'm trying to make a film about him. Though this might be in jeopardy- there's a slim chance that one of his videos went missing while it was in my care. It's a compilation tape that he lent me a few months ago. This makes me feel really bad. Not only do I hate losing things that belong to other people but Arthur is someone I don't want to piss off - probably a combination of fear and liking him a lot.

Sebastian Horsley, the Dandy, was deported from America a few weeks ago on account of, as he told me this afternoon, lips curling themselves around the words as if they were female and getting undressed, 'moral turpitude'. What he said will go up on my website fairly soon as I had a camera on my lap.

There are plenty of other things to say about the people in my book, since the book has gone to the printers, but I will leave the rest until later and close with the beginning of the letter that arrived today. It came in a dinky cream-coloured envelope, second-class post. On the back the following words had been stamped: THE ONLY GOOD GERMAN IS A DEAD ONE. Because a stamp had been used, rather than one of those gold stickers people with stationery disorders used in the 90s, it looked for a moment like a Royal Mail frank. Perhaps they were trying to promote a new line of first edition stamps I thought for a moment. Or it was a new advertising space - what a great place to advertise. But I knew by then who it was from, and that I'd interviewed him a year ago.

'Dear Henry', it began, 'Thank you for your letter warning me that your book is actually going to happen. This is going to cause me much embarrassment, so I will have to hope the work proves a miserable failure. In any case I shall arrange to live abroad for a couple of years.'

The rest can wait for a little bit.