It went something like this: Jon and I told the boy we were having a book launch party. The boy, quite reasonably, thought that ‘party’ meant ‘party’, i.e. an event with lots of people to celebrate the launch of my book, but we disappointed him by telling him there were no presents at Book Launch Parties, or in our case, any guests . We were celebrating with a steak dinner and an early night. Nevertheless, the boy was very taken by drinking fizzy elderflower drink out of a champagne glass after bedtime, and decided he would quite like a launch party of his own.
