Today I have been on BBC Radio Leeds. You can listen here if you want – though you need to fast forward to 1 hr, 45 mins and 30 seconds in before I appear. And this blog is all about how it happened.

I knew that when my book was published, I would need to try and get some publicity for it, and thought the best place to start would be local media. One of the natural places to try would be the local radio station, but I thought that just sending an e-mail or even ringing with an idea may meet a blank wall of non-response. Certainly, the places where I have just sent an e-mail have been entirely unresponsive, and it is only through ringing people that I have had any luck. So, I asked the woman I know who is the most ‘media connected’ of all my friends whether she had any radio contacts. Particularly those who liked wine. Happily she did and I sent a Facebook message to her contact saying “Can you get me on the radio? There is a free bottle of homebrew for you.” The response was rapid and in the affirmative, so I timed my appearance to coincide with the week before my book launch. I have yet to pay her the bottle of wine, but I will do once she tells me which flavour she wants.

Having got the time and the date, I then spent many thoughts having a little worry about doing live radio. Would I be embarrassing, or boring, or stumble over my words, or silent? All were possibilities, and I slept badly on Friday night worrying about all of this – though curiously I slept better last night (despite dreams about arriving at the radio station, having forgotten all my wine and being given the task of bathing sextuplet babies).

I dressed in my best suit for the radio – which I know sounds daft, but I view that as my ‘battle armour’. When wearing this 3-piece 1960s suit that used to belong to my great uncle, I feel more confident, more ready to tackle what is thrown at me. I set off early, and got into town about half an hour before I was due at the station. This gave me time for a coffee at West Yorkshire Playhouse.

At the appointed hour, I got to the radio station, announced my arrival, and sat and waited. And waited. To the extent that I was worried they had forgotten about me. But ten minutes before I was due to be on I was met by the producer, who took me into the recording studio where I met my interviewer, Wes Butters. He is impossibly young to have had such a fabulous career so far. But he was engaging, and funny, and interested (or at least gave a good impression of being so), and he put me at nearly my ease. There was enough adrenalin going that I was never going to be hugely relaxed, but I think this was a Good Thing – it meant I was on the ball, and had enough ‘edge’ to engage with his banter.

I enjoyed my 15 minutes of being on live radio – the nearest thing I can equate it to is a job interview. I was aware that there were probably tens of thousands of people listening, but only as a ‘back of the mind’ thing. Mostly it was me and the interviewer, and though it was not a totally natural conversation, it was near as dammit. I did not need to have worried.