What do you know? The rat’s back. Or partly. He’s turned up to usher into the world Jennifer Lane’s novel, All Our Secrets. He has the sample copy, hot off the press and hanging out to dry. While he waits, Ratty will have a cuppa and chew on the blue-iced ‘Virgin Mary bun’ waiting on the rock.

I’ll be talking here with Jennifer very soon. Meanwhile, enjoy a crumb from All Our Secrets:

“From every telegraph pole on Main Road, Nigel’s face looked down at us. His brown hair was bleached by the November sun and the sticky-taped ‘Missing’ posters were crinkled and curling. Sometimes, when I was on my own, I’d whisper hello to him. I’d stare into the little grey dots that made up his eyes, as if the harder I looked, the better I’d understand what was behind them. I thought it was sad that he was much more popular now that he was missing, but I knew why. Up there on the telegraph pole, Nigel was elevated to a new status. He was no longer part of our ordinary world.”