Wenlock

In 1809 the journey from Painswick to reading would have taken a day. I have not managed to work out the route from Paterson's Roads, but I doubt that it would have been straightforward.

For me it was simply a matter of following the instructions from my GPS unit, and putting up with a bit of a cross-wind and the odd shower. It took me less than two hours.

My destination was Reading Town Hall, where Julie Cohen was launching her first two books for Mills and Boon.

In Featured Attraction, the hero and heroine find themselves trapped overnight inside a cinema, with a year's supply of popcorn, a year's supply of chocolate-covered raisins, and a year's supply of condoms. It was appropriate that beside the champagne, we toasted Julie's success with at least two of those items.

Being a Bad Girl features a hero who rides a motorbike. She had never ridden on one before she wrote it, although she managed to charm a young man at her local Harley Davidson dealer into telling her all about it. Julie's first ride came when I gave her a lift on the back of my bike during last year's RNA conference. For that she very kindly gave me an acknowledgement in Being a Bad Girl, although she had to admit that the book was already with Mills and Boon, so I cannot really claim to have contributed to the creative process.

Thanks to Rosie for the photo of Julie being deservedly happy.