Back in June I mentioned that the Committee of the Society of Bookmen (which doesn't have a website and so I've linked to an interesting article by Hazel Bell on 'The fellowship of the book' which gives a little of the Society's history) had appointed me its Chairman for a year. Last night was the first dinner with me holding the gavel. I am not meant (under the terms of the Chatham House Rule) to mention the identity or affiliation  of the speaker or the participants but I can tell you that we had a terrific talk on the issues of being both a Picador novelist (When we were bad) and a publisher (Headline Review) - oh to hell with Chatham House, it was the multi-talented Charlotte Mendelson. Not only was she entertaining and insightful but she reduced the average age of the diners substantially.

The next meeting is scheduled for the Thursday before the annual Frankfurt Book Fair and we have a leading American mega-publisher as guest. The pre-Frankfurt frenzy of e-mails arranging meetings, flyers advertising new gizmos for transforming the books business and the Fair itself reminding us all to attend has begun. I was particularly taken by this piece of information from the organisers:

35,000 sausages, 18,000 sandwiches: caterers Accente have 1,200 staff in action to provide for everyone at the Book Fair.

I suppose the statistics are meant to be impressive but I am merely concerned. I normally spend five days at the Fair every year and calculate that I get through at least ten sausages in that period. Last year nearly 300,000 people attended. I think they may have seriously under-estimated sausage demand.