Spent two days in BrisVegas over Friday and Saturday, flown there and back by my generous host the University of Queensland, who invited me to be the guest of a literary lunch hosted by their new Vice-Chancellor’s wife, Louise Greenfield. I was the “guinea pig” of a proposed series of events of this kind. If mine was anything to go by, I would recommend trying to get on the invitation list.

The literary lunch was held in the magnificent mid-19th Century Customs House building, which is part of the campus but is smack bang in the middle of Brisbane’s CBD. I arrived early to sign 80 copies of the book, and thought I had stumbled upon a wedding, so resplendent in tones echoing my book’s cover artwork were the tables. Despite the heavy rain the guests appeared, and seemed to enjoy my brief presentation and subsequent “Q&A” with my publisher, Madonna Duffy, about the road to publication. She and I certainly enjoyed ourselves on stage. There were plenty of questions and it didn’t end until 3pm, which is a long and relaxed lunch for a workday.