The New York Times

If you read my article about TV licensing you will know I've had a little spat with them this Autumn over their enthusiasm to search our house before they will stop bothering us about not having a licence.

This article caught the eye of a journalist on The New York Times called Sarah Lyall and she emailed me, then phoned me for a chat and finally came up to Cambridge (she's based at their London office) to do a proper interview. To be honest it all seemed a bit OTT to me as I thought she could have done it all on the phone, but it was nice to meet her and I hope I didn't come across as too weird for not having a television.

The odd thing was that it turned out we had something in common. Sarah's married to Robert McCrum, The Observer's literary editor and, just after they wed, he had a stroke at the age of 42, just like me. He wrote a book about it called My Year Off: Rediscovering Life After a Stroke. Sarah said she would send me a copy as they have a stack of them at home so I'm looking forward to that.

It sounds like he had a considerably worse time of it than me mind you.

I discovered later that he's also a PG Wodehouse enthusiastic it appears, having written a biography of him, so he and I have at least two things in common.

Anyway, The New York Times saga continues. I had a photographer visit the following day (their own, not a freelance) and he took lots of photos of me with Jake and with the landies. So now I'm waiting for my moment of fame. I have a horrible feeling I will come over as a bit odd. Perhaps there's a reason for that ...