When we launched The Trouble With Lions at the Literary Cocktails in Edmonton we had planned for it to take place on the same day the Jane Goodall was there to deliver one of her inspirational Roots and Shoots talks, and so we hoped that she and I would be able to meet again, so that I could thank her for writing the foreword, and of course give her a copy of the book. Sadly, fate intervened and it became utterly impossible, largely due to the bizarre machinations of the two airlines that fly out of Edmonton. I had to get home early the next day to present the semi-private launch at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, which had been planned months in advance. Neither airline could get me back home before 11.00 a.m. and even then I would have had to change planes in Calgary and cover two large sides of a triangle to get home.

The upshot was that I missed Jane’s talk, which, by all accounts, was as captivating as ever. That meant that although I had been able to sign of copy of the book for Jane, I did not organize myself well enough to get her to sign one for me! Duh! You might say. However, Peter Midgley and Jeff Carpenter of the University of Alberta Press had the presence of mind to get copies signed by her, so at least someone has copies with both names in them. It looks as if I shall have to send one to someone in her office and ask them to find her on her world-wide travels and sign it for me.

Meanwhile Linda Cameron, head of UAP has been in London and tells me that there has been interest in Australia, as well as the UK and USA. I have just sent off copies to Uganda, so let’s see what sort of reaction we get.