Calling all readers in the USA – and their friends and relations, and the relations and friends and acquaintances of their friends &c.

Well, in April I’m going to take a Magic Carpet ride myself, to the exotic regions of America’s South and West, talking and signing and generally spouting in bookstores and radio stations, and I’d like to meet everyone I can while I’m there. It’s to coincide with the publication of An Evil Eye (Yashim no. 4) but I’m going to be travelling with my son, Izzy, on his first big away and the first time in America. Being 17 and a guitar and fiddle boy, he’s got his own ideas about, say, Jackson, Mississippi. I think: Old Hickory. He thinks: Robert Johnson. It will be fun.

Jackson (the 6th), then Oxford, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama, on the 8th; New Orleans next day. Then – and this is the great bit, because we’re driving much of it – we’ll do a Thelma and Louise to reach Austin around the 12th. Houston on the 15th, then San Diego, LA a while, San Fransisco on the 21st, where we’ll be a few days, before Portland, Oregon and Powell’s Bookstore on the 26th.

The bookstore readings should be lively: to judge from past appearances it’ll be conversation which might roam over history v historical fiction, the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, novel-writing, characters… and this time a few thoughts on the blues, jazz,  and where to find the best grub in the South.

See you there!