Back from the Brink, the Price of Fame and News from the Trenches...LBF

The London Book Fair this year was my first opportunity to meet William Boyd. I've long admired his work and rather cheekily handed him a copy of American Rebel in return for his Vienna and London novel, Waiting for Sunrise. He'd signed his for me, along with a line of other admirers. I nearly offered to do the same carried away by the moment. I pulled back from the brink just in time, thank the stars. What was I thinking??

Lionel Shriver was there too, chatting with Mark Lawson of Radio 4's Front Row arts review programme and warning against high expectations when fame and fortune strike. It made absolute sense, and yet as I looked around the audience of hopefuls, myself included, one couldn't help but notice the idea taking a while to sink in.

Self-publishing, independent publishing, whatever one wants to call it, had a much bigger presence this year, even if the traditional industry and the newbies are still staring at each other from the trenches of a ceasefire neither side entirely comprehends. A lull, or the end of hostilities?

Even as the no-man's land narrows and the barbed wire comes down, it seems no-one is quite sure what the future holds. We watch with interest. Perhaps by Frankfurt in the autumn, there might be a working armistice?