It's the welcome return of the BBC's The Culture Show tonight. One of the items is a chat with Salman Rushdie is who is on a promotional tour for his new book, Shalimar the Clown. Apparently it took him four years to write the book, but now (according to the show's promo email) he's turned "performer and salesman" because "[p]ublishers say that the success of a book is two thirds in the writing, one third in how it gets sold." I shall not be weeping for poor old Salman as he makes his way from lovely hotel to fancy restaurant to bookshop (I can but dream...) where he meets people who love his work and want to hear him talk about it. But I shall be watching the show to see if Salman feels as sorry for himself as Kazuo Ishiguro claims to feel when having to hock his soul for his trade - i.e. promote, talk about, defend his work, y'know: meet his readers. (See below for rant on the Ishiguro Hay-on-Wye interview...)