Courtesy of Sadie Hasler

Thank you very much to everyone who came to the launch of I Am Suicide Man last Thursday evening, and to all those who sent their best wishes for the evening. I think it’s safe to say we all had a very nice time – there was a touch of gravitas, a pinch of stardust, plenty of glamour and lots of humour. Alec Mattinson came too. Ha ha.

Contest Result 1

The evening saw two competitions to win free copies of the book. The first contest required guesswork. A chain of supermarkets called ‘The Organic Way’ is prominent in the book, so I asked people to guess how many times the word ‘organic’ appeared in the story. The actual answer was 123, meaning the extremely nice Matthew Boulter was furthest away with an outrageous estimate of 500.

In the end, Laura Williams’ guess of 118 was defeated by just a single digit by Beverley Mallon’s entry of 127 – which was actually the first guess of the night. So, many congratulations to Bev!

But there is a caveat. Bev also purchased a book on the night, so I’d like to offer her a choice. She can either accept the second book and perhaps gift it to someone else, or she can have a copy of last year’s mediocre-seller, The Flathunter, which, as I probably should have told people, has recently become available in paperback form. If Bev chooses the latter, I will run an online contest for the orphaned copy.

Contest Result 2

The second contest asked people to write down one thing they’d like to do before they boot the bucket. The winner would be based on my totally arbitrary decision of which one I liked best.

It was an extremely tough choice. There was the sneakily flattering: ‘To not commit suicide in a flat at the end of the line in Beijing’ (Dan J); the erotic: ‘Make love to a midget’ (Laurence); the never-ever-likely-to-win: ‘See QPR merge with Chelsea – it makes sense for all parties’ (Tom); the transparent: ‘Attend a Dan Trelfer book launch’ (Bev); and the concise: ‘Opium’ (Greg). Other entries involved masturbation, nudity, singing and parties.

In the end, I decided on the entry from Laura Williams, the best Primary School teacher this side of Miss Honey from Matilda. Laura’s winning entry was: ‘To beat Alec Mattinson in a Super Mega Fifa Tournament.’

Now, to most of you, this likely means next to nothing. I won’t go into too many details, but it involves a prestigious annual computer game tournament run by Robbie Knox. Had someone like Laura’s husband Andy written this, then it would not have won. But Laura spent much of the last few months having to watch Andy train for the tournament before not coming close to winning it, so the idea of ehr turning up next year and defeating the almost unbeatable Mattinson in front of her flabbergasted husband would be something I think we’d all like to see. So that, combined with the fact she only just lost out on the first contest, means Laura is the winner.

Thank you

Thanks again for everyone’s support and for making the Launch another great night. Don’t forget, if you have not bought or did not win a book, they are available now – £2 for e-books, £7.99 for paperbacks. Reviews also always gratefully received.

This week’s book recommendation: Same as last week – I Am Suicide Man: The Truth Behind the ‘Cash for Suicide’ Scandal

This week’s soundtrack: Organic – Groove Matrix

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