The 8.16 from Orpington

I liked this everyday description of the inspiration for The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, from David Nobbs’s website:

‘Where did it spring from? Well, as a schoolboy David used to catch the 8.16 from Orpington to Chislehurst in Kent every weekday, and saw the same men in the same clothes with the same newspapers every day. The seed must have been planted then, to ripen when he read an article in a magazine about the launching of a new flavour of jam. It seemed so very, very boring for all the people involved.’

He writes a mean tweet as well, by the way.

A review of the paperback of On Roads:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7768287/Pick-of-the-Paperbacks.html

And I did a slightly babbling interview for this Blackwell podcast:

http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/editorial/browse/podcasts/podcasts_index.jsp

And On Roads was reviewed on the book club on 6Music, about two hours six minutes into this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00slrnc/b00slrn3/Nemone_01_06_2010/

So I’m joining the save 6Music campaign with immediate effect …