I Could Spend All Day In Daunts

Daunts Bookshop on Holland Park Avenue, that is (though all of this very small chain of indie bookshops is equally excellent).

That was where we held the soft launch of Dr Tony Copperfield's Sick Notes last night (free extract here).

Fifty or sixty guests turned up and drank their way through 20 bottles of cab shiraz and pinot grigio. We sold around 40 books, which means that, in purely financial terms, it was madness. But these events are not supposed to be about sales, and it was an enjoyable evening. Here's one of the two culprits, his anonymity cunningly preserved:

To my amazement, we're struggling slightly with getting much coverage for the book (so far, it will happen). This is unusual for us; we usually get a fair bit of stuff on national radio and in the newspapers and so on, and you'd have thought a couple of outspoken GPs prepared to discuss the state of the NHS, cyberchondria and the madness of 'Choose and Book' might be of interest. It dawned on me last night that it may not have been the most sensible thing to launch a book, without a major spend behind it, during the Football World Cup. Why didn't someone warn us?

Anyway, here are The Millionaires, Karmello Brooke and The Quotations.