Enjoyed my turn at the Manchester Literature Festival discussing historical fiction with the author, Katharine McMahon. The organisers have written up a blog of our event that touches on some of the things we talked about, and captures me in full flow at the podium, reading from ‘The Poison Tide’. ‘Authors always make the mistake of thinking they can perform their own books’, the actor, Robert Powell, observed last year, when I thanked him for reading an extract of ‘To Kill A Tsar’ at the Borders Book Festival. Sadly, we don’t often have a choice, because Jesus of Nazareth just isn’t on hand to help us out.
Fifteen years since my last visit to Manchester. I was working as a Senior Producer for BBC Panorama at the time, chasing supporters of the Waco cult leader, David Koresh. The book festival was a much happier assignment.