Devil May Care's Blog

Devil May Care is number one in the book charts! It was all worth it! We will keep our jobs! Open the champagne immediately! Sebastian Faulks has triumphed and written Penguin's fastest selling fiction hardback. Ever.

Sadly, though, the main fun is over. No more waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night, no more dreaming of falling off giant ships into the Thames, no more red cat suit conferences, no more martini master classes. Back to normal life at Penguin towers. I may shed a little tear.

I would like to reminisce and bathe in the glory for a little longer, however. I promised more from last Tuesday and here are some photos (there is a film but technical difficulties are preventing me from uploading it at the moment). If this isn't the best way in the world to deliver books to a book shop, then frankly, what is?  

As I'm sure you've probably noticed, Devil May Care has been under strict embargo until the 28^th May. No one's getting their hands on this book until the 28^th. Getting the first copies to Waterstones was going to be a problem unless we had a little help from our friends. We needed to make sure that everything came together and went like clockwork to ensure the safe arrival of those books. And the best people to do that? The Royal Navy and Bentley motors, of course.

So, get your cameras at the ready, head down to the river and wait for the entrance of all entrances from our very own Bond girl, Tuuli, with a specially commissioned Samsonite briefcase containing the first seven copies of Devil May Care. She'll be in a Pacific 24 boat, accompanied by Royal Navy Lynx helicopters. You know, just in case.

Her destination will be the HMS Exeter, where Sebastian Faulks will be waiting to greet her and receive the books. This beast of a ship will be parked up alongside HMS Belfast and will play host to a few lucky guests. Following speeches, the books will be signed by both Sebastian and Tuuli and then locked back into the briefcase. They then need to get to Waterstones Piccadilly, where they will be held under lock and key for the night. What better, more stylish way to get there, than in a Bentley? And we're not talking one Bentley, but a 'cavalcade' of Bentleys. (I may have only just learnt the word 'cavalcade', but am now determined to use it in every other sentence).

Of course I'll be painting my nails and getting my fake tan by then. There is a party to get to after all. But anyone who wants to spy the action can do so between and 11.30 and 12.30 on the Thames and from about 1pm at Waterstones. The store will open its doors at 8am on Wednesday.

See you there.

CG x