The first draft of Nine Pints has been delivered. This is the limbo period, where I wait for a verdict and edits, and get on with fact-checking my book and wishing I wrote fiction.

Meanwhile, happy World Mental Health Day to you all.

And here is some news about what I’ll be doing in November: I’m giving a keynote speech at the World Toilet Organization summit in Melbourne, Australia, which runs from 20-22 November. I have a lot of affection for WTO. When I started researching The Big Necessity, one of the first reporting trips I took was to the WTO summit in Moscow, Russia. I remembered this at the weekend, when I visited Bradford’s Space and Media Museum to have a look at Tim Peake’s Soyuz capsule. I remembered it, because not only was the WTO summit itself a trip — and where I met lots of people who went on to feature in my book — but so were the additional events. One was a visit to Star City, the Russian space centre. Our Russian Toilet Organization host, Vladimir, must have had very good contacts, because we were given a tour with little difficulty. I asked our host how astronauts went to the toilet on spacewalks, and he said, “nappies.”

I can’t guarantee that the Australian Water Association, which is sponsoring WTO Melbourne, can provide spacecraft as a side event, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless. See you there, ‘appen.

Here is more info on it.