Dedication

            This is a problem I never expected to have.  Don’t get me wrong;  it’s a nice problem, but it’s still a bit of a puzzle.  I’ve dedicated books to my Other Half (aka Peter) to my Dad, to my sister, to a couple of old mates and to various of the offspring. Fine.  Good.   It’s a nice way of saying “Hi” and it’s a great thing to be able to do.  And, I imagine I’ll carry on doing that as and when the moment arises.

            But with the latest, After The Exhibition, I wanted to dedicate it to one of my literary heroes.  The trouble is, PG Wodehouse is dead and so, come to that, is Agatha Christie.  Which is very inconvenient of them.  So who else...?

            Well, there’s one author who I think is the bee’s knees who is still, happily, very much among us, and that’s JK Rowling. 

            Now, stop me if I’ve mentioned this before, but I loooooove Harry Potter.  I love the way the story’s set up, how the whole arc continues over seven books, how we’re pulled into to a totally believable other world that you could swear runs alongside our own.  I love the humour, the wit and the suspense. I love the characters and the plot, the quirkiness and the whole vast richness of the world.

            More than that, it’s a family affair.  I was introduced to Harry Potter by the girls when they were about ten or so.  From then on, discussing Harry was (and is) a conversation we could always have.  For instance, when Helen was seeking a distraction from a fearsomely academic essay on social anthropology she was writing, she turned up an internet Harry Potter quiz and we all had a happy quarter of an hour or so discussing wizards.

            So, I dedicated After The Exhibition to JK Rowling. I know she loves classic mysteries and the Robert Galbraith series is pretty good, so I thought there was an odds on chance she’d enjoy it.  Naturally I sent her a copy.  And, on Friday, I received a really friendly hand-written letter from her thanking me.

            That is just one of the nicest things ever. That’s special.  And it’s going in a frame.  Wow.  Life is good.

            PS:  so is After The Exhibition!