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This was my first ever Russian tour: I was amazed to find such huge crowds.  There were so many books to sign that the ice bucket was resorted to by the time I reached Moscow and I couldn’t sign at all on the final event of the week.  Russia has defeated Napoleon, Hitler and my right hand.  I came away from the Kremlin with a few ideas for a future book.  Oddly enough, the high spot for me was travelling from St Petersburg to Moscow on the overnight sleeper (about a nine hour journey).  It was a luxury cabin with a big bed, heated bathroom floor and shower – the best nights sleep I have had in years, and got up at half past six to have a lemon tea and watch Russia go past.  It appears to have an awful lot of trees, but I was unable to count them all.

It was our first visit to Pinewood Studios this week to see work already well in progress on The Colour of Magic / Light Fantastic.  Various bits of Unseen University, looking dwarfed on the huge sound stage,  Wizard’s staffs and paraphernalia being constructed everywhere we looked, a scale model of the Potent Voyager already completed and sitting in a detailed model of Krull, where the architecture is mostly made up of the salvage of wrecked ships.  Everything seems to be moving very fast and I think that’s because everyone has got their head around what Discworld is and what it ought to look like.

Casting is still going on, but I am probably not allowed to say anything about that, although I can say that I haven’t heard anything I object to. The big worry is not knowing what sweet little cameo they have set aside for me.

We also had a nice lunch with Sir David, who’s currently on crutches after a fall, but expects to be fit and well in time for filming in about five weeks time.

Final note; turning The Colour of Magic / Light Fantastic into one movie is not very hard, largely because Colour of Magic has no discernable plot visible to the naked eye.  Once this interesting point is accepted, running the two books together is not difficult :o)