On Sunday 12 June, I presented a talk at Waterstone's Bookshop, Bradford. There was technically a book signing session afterwards, but only one book was actually sold. Waterstone's, Bradford now has about 20 copies of the book festooned around the shop.
In the course of my talk, I mentioned Sir Jonathan Miller's views on G&S, which I've gone into elsewhere. I made a point of doing so because I happened to know the old gentleman was in Bradford that day to talk at the Media Museum about his screen directing career.
Afterwards, we (me, S and two friends) went up to the Media Museum for a restorative glass of wine, and of course ended up in the Museum's bar, sitting directly behind Sir J himself. My friends tried to persuade me to accost him and tax him on his dislike of G&S, but I, embarrassed, stonewalled them and just sat there, overhearing him express his views on other matters.
I suppose that in an ideal world I should have had the courage of my convictions and had it out with him, but it would have ruined both our days and would not have added to the sum of knowledge, so why bother?
The book is still out there, selling copies slowly but surely. The absence of press reaction continues to rankle. The new information in the book is out there (significant parts of the BBC Radio 4 series Gilbert's Glory are direct from my book) and I'm helping the sum total of accessible knowledge, but selfishly I would like to have some general acknowledgement of this.
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