"Jon Ronson just looked at me and pointed his book in my direction."
This is my Other Half, also known as Mr Reading Matters and occasionally referred to as T.
We are at the swanky offices of Pan Macmillan, just down the road from King's Cross Station, and we're here to find out all about two upcoming non-fiction releases by Picador: Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test and Gavin Knight's Hood Rat. Jon has recently walked into the room, but he's stuck by the door talking to a small circle of "publisher types".
The rest of the room is heaving with bright, young things, all dressed in chic casual attire, but Mr Reading Matters has come straight from an afternoon of meetings and is looking all debonair in his pin-striped suit.
"It's probably the suit you're wearing," I say. "He might think you're the CEO of the company or something."
Later on, when Jon Ronson takes the microphone and begins regaling us with excerpts from his book, interspersed with funny comments (and a carefully-worded put-down to the woman in the front row whose mobile phone rang at the most inappropriate moment), I realise why he might have spied Mr Reading Matters across a crowded room.
"Wearing a pin-stripe suit is a classic sign of a psychopath," he tells us all.
Cue nervous laughter. From me. And Mr Reading Matters.
Afterwards, when the formal aspect of the evening was over, I nabbed a proof copy of Jon's book (by which I mean I stole it from the neatly ordered display), borrowed a pen and headed in Jon's direction, dragging Mr Reading Matters with me. (Please note, two glasses of white wine had fuelled my Dutch courage.)
"I'd like you to meet a psychopath," I said, introducing him to T.
Turns out it was a good opening gambit. Jon was affable and charming and witty, and the sort of chap you'd get on well with over a pint in your local. Of course, he's a journalist (and documentary film-maker) so being approachable and friendly is all part and parcel of the profession (how else do you gain people's trust and wheedle information out of them?). But he was very genuine and the least pretentious writer you could ever wish to meet.
He very kindly signed my book and posed for a picture (I tell you, it was the wine, I *hate* getting my picture taken), too.
Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test is published by Picador on June 3.
Gavin Knight's Hood Rat (which, judging by Gavin's eloquent reading, is a terrifying glimpse of Britain's criminal underworld), is published on July 1.
