Saturday, 6 March 2010: The national publication date for The Hostage Handbook has just been set for Thursday 29 April and a London launch party is planned, around that date, possibly at one of the branches of the Daunts Bookshop chain, in Chelsea or Marylebone High Street. There will be readings from the book, a question and answer session and signings of the Hostage Handbook and copies of my novels Saigon, Peking, Tokyo Bay. A glass of wine and snacks will be on offer. To purchase advance copies of the book or request review copies, please email Kirsty Fielding at KFielding@cle.co.uk
Meantime my next public engagement is an after-dinner talk at the Sherigham Museum Trust on Wednesday 24 March. Its title is: "The World Will Only Know Peace When We Each Find Inner Peace Within Ourselves." The theme arises from the publication of my new book The Hostage Handbook which is a transcript with up to date commenatries of my secret shorthand diaries kept during two years as a hostage in solitary confinement in China. Being held alone cut off from the world in a hostile country for two years forced me to begin learning the importance of getting to understand how our individual inner life profoundly influences the world outside us.