'I once lost a race when I'd won it.
It taught me that life's seldom fair.
I watched while they made losers winners,
Pretending that I didn't care.

'I've tasted the beauty of winning.
I've savoured the joy of success.
I've relished the failure of rivals.
I've longed for perfection, no less.

'But now when they make me a winner
I hesitate as they applaud.
For winning can sometimes be losing.
Perfection is often best flawed.

'So tell me I've won, but with caution.
Remind me of others who've failed.
And we'll all wait for that final curtain
To teach us what winning entailed.'


So you have your copy of The Infinite Wisdom of Harriet Rose and you've started to read all about me. After a few pages you'll think you know me very well. A few more and you'll wonder if you don't. Then you'll reach the end and you'll all form different opinions of me. I'll be discussed and compared, admired by some, disliked perhaps by others. There'll be those who think I have succeeded whilst a few no doubt will consider that I've failed. And some of your comments will make me so happy, and others will make me feel sad. Because The Infinite Wisdom of Harriet Rose isn't just a book, it's an experience. And that is what the race is all about.

BREAKING NEWS

Tomorrow. 9th August 2007. A date in a diary. A page in a book. But it is not just a day: it is the day. A day to remember, when you wake up in the morning and plan what you are going to do. A day to enjoy when you make your way with nimble tread to your local bookshop. A day to savour, when you return home, clutching a long-awaited copy of The Infinite Wisdom of Harriet Rose. For tomorrow is publication date for the first edition of the hardback. The Infinite Wisdom of Harriet Rose, the book in which Diana Janney tells the story of my life. Or part of it anyway - there's too much to tell in just one book. So there you are. The day before tomorrow. Relish the moment.

I was about to say that Charlotte Goldman is a bitch, but why offend an innocent animal and a particularly loving and faithful one at that? So I'll stick to my original description of her, the one I gave her even before I knew how hard she was trying to ensnare Jean Claude - a mosquito, a tiny creature, insignificant to look at, noisy in intonation, a nuisance, always looking for someone to feed off, with a rather unpleasant bite which doesn't last long and most important of all, very easily squashed.