As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m delighted to be reading at this year’s Dundee Literary Festival on Friday 25 June in the lunchtime “Poem and a piece” strand at 12.30. For your £5, you not only get to hear — <modest cough> I didn’t write this bit of copy — “this stunning new poet read from his first collection” but enjoy a sandwich and tea or coffee. Tickets are available from the University of Dundee’s online store and the reading is in the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill.

There’s a great line-up at the festival, including — to name a few — Costa prize winner Christopher Reid, Jackie Kay, Alan Warner, John Carey, Stuart Kelly, Iain Banks and Nick Cave. It’s a tad bizarre that, last year, my book ended up next to Nick Cave’s on the table in Blackwell’s and, this year, I’m reading at the same festival as him on the same day. Spooky!