GILLIAN TETT|
LAST week I participated in a ritual that used to feel commonplace but now presents a shock: entering a television studio to give a live interview. The prompt was the meeting of G7 leaders in Cornwall and the fact that I recently published a book, with its inevitable tour.
Pre-Covid, this type of promotion entailed a well-defined set of ceremonies: popping into TV studios, sipping warm wine at launch parties, putting in appearances at bookshops and pontificating on conference platforms.
The process required a lot of all-too-physical travel. Now, however, a book tour is largely conducted from the safety — or hell — of a spare room via video platforms, after some hastily applied smudges of make-up. It starts with a few clicks of a mouse and can be accomplished minutes after rolling out of bed. (Depending on the timezone, this occasionally happens.)
Last weekend I was bracing
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