The London Book Fair was as mental as ever. Not just because it is in London, but different this time round because when I first got there it was very subdued. It was my third year on the trot – I was expecting the usual bustle, queueing up for £3 cups of tea and getting knocked over by publishing execs with their suit cases: Nowt though. Not a sausage (although if you nip out of Earl’s Court 2, turn left, there’s an old-skool caff that does sausage baguettes for a squid. Red onions is 20p extra. We spotted it on year one).

So it was dead easy to find the stand. I got there for around 12pm on Monday to meet Andrew Crofts - prolific ghostwriter and all-round decent bloke. Tonto has just signed two of his books up and after having a good few conversations with him over the past year or so, it’s brill to be working with him on these and (hopefully) others in the future.

A quick handshake, a hello to the Star Sales team, a sit down, a swig of aqua (French for water, you know), and Ronnie Le Drew was on the blower (London-speak for telephone) to say he’d just arrived and was there ‘to introduce me to his little friend’ who was locked in a big silver flight case. The friend, of course, was Rainbow’s very own Zippy. We had to open the case up to prove that we weren’t tooled up and first glimpse of Zippy had the security guard lost for words … I was starting to see what this puppet, this icon, actually means to people.

The book, now titled When Ronnie Met Zippy was signed up knowing that Zippy would be a bit of a crowd-puller due to the nostalgia and his ‘iconic status’ but I’d never seen it firsthand. It was mad. Anyone who saw Zippy on the day was drawn to him … everyone wanted to meet him and get a photo. He’s a real celeb.

Of course, there is a lot more to Ronnie than just having a hand in Zippy’s career. We met with the writers Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi on Tuesday and had a brill catch-up meeting about how the book is progressing. All is going well and we are on schedule for the deadline.

I had a meeting with John Blake scheduled for Monday afternoon … but as I got to his stand I was told that he was stuck on his yacht in Turkey because of the volcanic ash. Well, of all the excuses to have for missing an appointment, that’s the best I’ve ever heard. ‘Oh, is he?’ I think I said. There’s nowt much you can say to that, other than laugh and see if they were being serious. Never mind, I’m sure we’ll catch up soon. Unless he can’t find the key to his castle door to get out. Or just can’t find the door cos his castle is so big. John is brill – a breath of fresh air to independent publishing. I saw Martin ‘We Are Not Manslaughterers’ Knight with John ‘Football Factory’ King but we only did a brief hello as the Zipster was in full swing.

Monday night was a splendid one with Andrew Crofts for Italian food and fine conversation. We even discussed politics at one point. It was soon steered back to book ideas and madness. A late finish, I still had to check into the hotel and carry Zippy all the way thuur in his case. Still, I got to take silly photos of him and stopped myself from taking him to the hotel bar. He’s worth five grand – not worth the risk.

Tuesday morning was spent taking Zippy back home to FreemantleMedia and rushing back for a meeting with my brilliant printers, CPI. I’m sending a few titles their way over the next few weeks so just had to catch-up and make sure all was well. I like CPI – dead helpful and gave me some freebies too. Then it was off to meet Mervyn Conn for a production meeting about his book. He brought some photos for it … ‘Here’s me with The Beatles, here’s me with Johnny Cash, here’s me in the White House …’ just reeling them off. He’s one of those people who has done everything in life, and just became a dad in his mid-seventies. Rock n Roll, eh? Or Country n Western.

On Weds we had a meeting with Edwin Hawkes who I’d just acquired The Fifth Pillar by Duncan Lyon from and am in the process of buying a few more titles. It was nice to meet up with Edwin – there is a misconception about … no, hang on … people just expect agents to be dragons. That’s the bottom line, really. Edwin is quite different to that and a joy to be working with. And he had sponsorship from Tunnocks Teacakes! You always know you can trust someone who offers you teacakes.

I didn’t see any celebs this year. In previous years I missed Gordon Brown delivering a speech yards from my stand and Chezza Blair but saw a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall lookalikie, the real John Tickle from Big Brother and that woman whose name I can’t remember who Davey Beckhams had ‘relations’ with. The Bookseller mag and a photographer from LBF took some snaps of Zippy, but I haven’t seen anything in there yet. After it being such a slow start, one would have thought they’d like to report on something lively on day one. One would have been Pete Tong though.

I met a geezer (London-speak for blokey) called Hamish on Monday too. I think he was from Scotland – introduced himself and said hello. Nice to meet you, Hamish. Didn’t catch what company you are from though. And Mike Greaves, a FaceBook pal. Missed Sheila Q, met Brigid ‘The Great Leap Forward’ Coady and a few publishers from Newcastle – Ed from Myrmidon, Martin from Zymurgy and Will from Flambard. All at different times. It was a shame not to have done one of our daft nights out, but I’m sure it’ll happen again. In this mental financial climate, it’s nice just to see them and see that they are still active. Martin was even wearing a suit. Things must be looking up!

Nice place, that there London. Nice to be home though. Gawd bless ya, me old china.

Good afternoon!

If anyone is off to the London Book Fair next week, make sure to drop by to Stand S505 and say hello. On Monday afternoon, Ronnie Le Drew will be at the stand with Zippy from Rainbow to promote his book, When Ronnie Met Zippy, out on 7 October. He’ll be there from around 2pm on Monday, giving flyers out and posing for photos.

Tonto has got quite a few books in production at the moment and I’ve just secured some brill cover testimonials from Henry Hill of Goodfellas fame for Shakespeare & Loveand also getting one from Mr Nice himself, Howard Marks, and Garry Bushell.

Where’s Whitey? will also have a Henry Hill testimonial as well as one from Ulrich Boser.

Here’s an article on The Science of Reading from the h-Observer t’other week.

Recommendations:

If you need business cards, have a look at Moo – much better than the standard freebie/cheapo places online. I just got some for LBF – good designs, good quality and good price.

If you need some music to listen to – Paul Weller’s Wake up the Nation is out next week. I was lucky enough to get hold of an advance copy and have been playing it for weeks non-stop. Some great new tunes.