'A face like a cartoonist's suicide note' A.A. Gill, Sunday Times Richard Whiteley was the first person to appear on Channel 4 on Tuesday 2nd November 1982. With the words "As the countdown to the launch of a new channel ends, a new Countdown begins". Nobody was to know, of course, that the new face on the channel was still to be there 17 years later, and that Countdown would be dominating the channels Top Ten ratings. Richard Whiteley is known for his jackets and his puns - opinion is divided as to which is worse. However he is regarded as a cult figure among a broad section of society. He has appeared in such shows as Hale and Pace, TFI Friday, Shooting Stars, Light Lunch, Mrs Merton, Fantasy Football, received a 'Gotcha' from Noel Edmonds and is constantly on the receiving end of Terry Wogan's gentle mockery. He most recently appeared on McCoist and MacAuley and 'The Greatest Rory Ever Told', as himself and as Carol Vordeman. He was the hit of the Edinburgh Fringe this year with his one man show... 'If you like Alan Partridge you'll love Richard Whiteley. Singing along with the Countdown theme and pretending to be the Countdown clock was a stroke of brilliance.' Independent

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Put on the shared bookcrossing table of books in the museum cafe.

Picked this up at the meetup today. Mrs Deltic has pinched this book and is now reading it!

I enjoyed this book very much, although I did skip one chapter towards the middle, but that was probably because I had got heavily involved with another boo and lost track with this one. I always liked Richard Whiteley, but also him a little annoying at times, and the book was the same. He'd probably have said the same about me!
I particularly enjoyed the chapters about Countdown. Who knew that the programme started life in France? I didn't! And Richard was also the Mayor of Wetwang!

On the way to a Bookcrossing friend in North Yorkshire.

Well, if asked, I'd have confidently asserted that I read this years ago, but a quick scan of my reading records hasn't provided proof of that statement, so I'll add it to the reading piles, thank you very much, especially as it fits plum-crazy's January reading theme for which I don't have many appropriate titles as yet!
Thank you, Deltic. It's always good to get a book parcel!

I trudged through to p62/224, which took me a week, and I must say it felt like a very long week, before giving up the struggle . . . The combination of a dry and boring writing style and the constant dropping of irrelevant names still hadn't raised any interest at all . . . And to answer my earlier question: No, I definitely haven't tried reading this before . . .

Today's a big step forward in the easing of lockdowns: the Rule of Six is back and we're allowed to visit people in their gardens again! We took the opportunity to visit family in the Spring sunshine and I swapped a couple of books in this well-stocked book-sharing site. Wonderful!

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Nearly two million people around the world give their books a unique BookCrossing IDentity number (BCID) before sending them out to find new readers. Since the start of the scheme in April 2001 over thirteen million such books have been put into circulation. This is one of them!

Our hope is that we can track the progress of our books once they've left our hands - and that's possible if finders like you visit the website, key in the BCID and leave a comment, however long or short. It's fun, it doesn't have to cost anything, although the site always appreciates donations towards running costs, and you can remain anonymous if you wish. You don't have to join but if you do you'll be able to number and track your own books!