I was watching a documentary on William Gibson recently and there was a great bit where a friend of his sent him a fax (it was an old documentary) with a newspaper cutting saying that the daughter of Elvis (the King of Rock) was getting married to Michael Jackson (the King of Pop). Under the story the friend had written “reality!”. I think this was of the point Gibson stopped writing about the future. There was no difference any longer between fact and fiction, future and present.

Way I am telling you this? A couple of surreal experiences really. Today I got a telephone call from someone saying: “I hear you are an expert on the Mayan Calendar”. No. I am not. I know what it is. I know the significance of 2012 but that’s about it. But that wasn’t it. He wanted to know whether I wanted to talk to Parliament about it. I can only assume this was a joke.

The other event was a conversation on a plane the other day. Man in seat behind me to someone else behind me: “I’m thinking of leaving my family to spend more time at work.” What the #2!*&%$

As you can tell, the new book isn’t going well today….

PS – Statistic from the new book…
Half of British children aged between 5 and 9 now own a mobile phone. For 7 to 15 year-olds the figure is 75%. This is despite government advice that no child under-16 should be using one. The average age that children in the UK now acquire a mobile phone is 8 years.