I started to eat curry in Brick Lane in the 70s but my connection to it goes back to the 50s when a great aunt had a café there. But today a huge transformation has taken place with its smart boutiques, cafes and bars, intermingled with the still traditional  Bangladeshi restaurants and shops. Later we ate at Meraz on Hanbury Street (cheap and no barkers). It’s BYO and highly recommended. And the Pride of Spitalfields pub is still going strong.

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We were here to launch DUFF by Suzy Norman. It was a great success with a huge crowd of people joining in the celebrations at this lovely bookshop.

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Author Suzy Norman has been a joy to work with and hopefully will continue to be a valuable contributor to Patrician Press in the future.

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The next day I met new Pudding Press author Elisa Marcella Webb and was lucky enough to arrange a meeting with the great Guardian journalist, Robert McCrum. Amongst many other things we discussed Robert Macfarlane’s Orphans by Martin Johnson which I am publishing in February 2016.