Tidy Bag

Mike Batt launches his autobiography at Foyles

For his official book launch on 26 September, Mike Batt held an ‘in conversation’ event at the flagship Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London.

Mike chatted with music journalist Pete Paphides, telling a few anecdotes from his autobiography including how he squeezed a huge concert grand piano into his teenage bedroom; how he nearly ruined his chances as an inexperienced, self-taught conductor and arranger; how he ‘ran away’ on a family boat trip round the world, which led to how he first met Paul McCartney (and annoyed Linda); and of course, how he asked to record a whole album about the Wombles characters, and the joy of his mum being part of it all by making their costumes.

While discussing the “Womble-shaped shadow” over the rest of his career, Mike recalled that his publisher (Pete Selby at Nine Eight Books) had said they would need to have a Wombles reference either in the book title or on the cover. So they decided on a visual reference, with Mike in his Womble costume looking quizzically at the disembodied head of Orinoco.

Mike said he’d originally written something like 140,000 words, so his publisher had to take out big chunks of it. (He didn’t mention the final word count, but it’s likely to be about 80,000 words.) In fact he’d already written 60,000 words when he’d only covered his life up to about age 30, so he knew it was going to be too long. Alas, we never found out more about what had been cut, as this was just an aside during another story. So roll on Volume 2!

The evening went far too quickly, with Pete Paphides having to skip some of his intended questions as he hadn’t anticipated the level of detail Mike would go into. Mike moved over to a grand piano to perform two songs - Bright Eyes and The Wombling Song - before answering some audience questions. And at the end, everyone formed an orderly queue to get their shiny new books signed.

Mike will also be in conversation at Henley Literary Festival on 3 October, Cheltenham Literature Festival on 6 October, and Louder Than Words Festival in Manchester on 16 November.