Best Kept Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

stations, including the
Matt Jacobs Show
, which has eleven million listeners every morning. No one’s more
effective than Matt when it comes to moving books out of the stores.’
    Harry had several questions he would like to have asked, but Natalie was like a Winchester rifle, a bullet was fired every time you raised your head.
    ‘Be warned,’ she continued, not drawing breath, ‘most of the big shows won’t give you more than a few minutes – it’s not like your BBC. “In depth”
is not a concept they understand. During that time remember to repeat the title of the book as often as possible.’
    Harry began to turn the pages of his tour schedule. Each day seemed to begin in a new city, where he would appear on an early-morning radio show, followed by countless broadcast and print
interviews before dashing off to the airport.
    ‘Do all your authors get this kind of treatment?’
    ‘Certainly not,’ said Natalie, the hand back on the leg again. ‘Which brings me to the biggest problem we have with you.’
    ‘You have a problem with me?’
    ‘We sure do. Most of the interviewers will want to ask you about your time in prison, and how an Englishman came to win the Silver Star, but you must always switch the subject back to the
book.’
    ‘In England, that would be considered rather vulgar.’
    ‘In America, vulgar is what gets you on to the bestseller list.’
    ‘But won’t the interviewers want to talk about the book?’
    ‘Harry, you must assume that none of them will have read it. A dozen new novels land on their desks every day, so you’ll be lucky if they’ve read more than the title.
It’ll be a bonus if they even remember your name. They’ve only agreed to have you on their shows because you’re an ex-con who won the Silver Star, so let’s turn that to our
advantage and plug the book like crazy,’ she was saying as the limousine drew up outside the Pierre Hotel.
    Harry wished he was back in England.
    The driver leapt out and opened the boot as a hotel porter walked across to the car. Natalie led Harry into the hotel and across the lobby to the reception desk, where all he had to do was show
his passport and sign the registration form. Natalie appeared to have prepared the way of the Lord.
    ‘Welcome to the Pierre, Mr Clifton,’ said the desk clerk as he handed him a large key.
    ‘I’ll see you back here in the lobby –’ Natalie checked her watch – ‘in an hour. Then the limo will take you to the Harvard Club for your lunch with Mr
Guinzburg.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Harry, and watched as she walked back across the lobby and disappeared through the revolving doors and out on to the street. He couldn’t help noticing that he
wasn’t the only man whose eyes never left her.
    A porter accompanied him to the eleventh floor, showed him into his suite and explained how everything worked. Harry had never stayed in a hotel that had a bath
and
a shower. He decided
to make notes so he could tell his mother all about it when he returned to Bristol. He thanked the porter, and parted with the only dollar he had.
    The first thing Harry did, even before unpacking, was to pick up the phone by the bed and place a person-to-person call to Emma.
    ‘I’ll call you back in around fifteen minutes, sir,’ said the overseas operator.
    Harry stayed too long in the shower, and once he had dried himself on the largest towel he’d ever seen, he had only just started to unpack when the phone rang.
    ‘Your overseas call is on the line, sir,’ said the operator. The next voice he heard was Emma’s.
    ‘Is that you, darling? Can you hear me?’
    ‘Sure can, honey,’ said Harry, smiling.
    ‘You sound like an American already. I can’t imagine what you’ll be like after three weeks.’
    ‘Ready to come back to Bristol would be my bet, especially if the book doesn’t get on to the bestseller list.’
    ‘And if it doesn’t?’
    ‘I may be coming home early.’
    ‘That sounds good to me. So