OF ALL THE PHRASES calculated to hoodwink a writer into believing that he, or she, inhabits what the rock band Steely Dan used to call “a glamour profession”, the most potent of all must be “author tour”.
Author tour! Simply to type the words on a computer screen is to summon up a roseate vision of craned heads at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and queues of excitable punters pressing books upon you for signature. Sadly, the reality of those excursions beyond the study desk to meet the people who
