Blue Mauritius launched in… Mauritius!
Blue Mauritius was launched in Mauritius during my recent visit, and it was a lot of fun. The launch was organised by and held at the Blue Penny Museum in Port Louis (the capital city of Mauritius) on Friday 20 October – a lot of hard work to get it done so quickly by Alain Huron and his staff, our main worry being that the books would not arrive in time from England, but they did!
A press conference was held in the morning. Nerve wracking but perfectly fine. There have subsequently been articles in Le Mauricien, L’express and Le Matinal. It was a good article (with the right emphasis), and if you can read French you might enjoy it. Over a cup of tea later I learnt that one of the journalists is on Flickr, so I told her about the meeting I had organised and she did come – but we passed like ships in the night and didn’t find each other! Ah well.
It was a curious launch in that if it had been held in Australia the audience would most likely have comprised my friends, family, colleagues and of course Mike. That was not the case. I had some of Mike’s family there (very pleased to see them – my sister-in-law Sunita looked outstanding in a white and gold sari) and other people known to me, but there were people I didn’t know, and was most pleased to meet, from the Mauritius Society of History, the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius, the Alliance Francaise, the Mauritius Post and so on. I was too busy chatting afterwards and signing a few copies of my book to enjoy the hospitality, but what I had of the food was very good!
I have put a copy of my speech online.
I will get to your online speech in a minute, but I wanted to say how wonderful it is to read this post and know that you’re safe and sound in Mauritius. It seems as though you’ve been gone for months and months!
Thanks Barb. Actually, I’m home now. Totally exhausted. It feels like months and months, especially in terms of Flickr. Really out of the swing of things I feel. My speech was ever so slightly pointed, and I asked a few people about it beforehand and they said, go for it!
Felicitations, chere amie! Congratulations on the launch and on a wonderful speech. I only wish I had been there to hear you deliver it. Mind you, just reading it was enough to bring tears to my eyes, so it’s probably a good thing that I wasn’t there or I might have made a spectacle of myself. Now I look forward to obtaining my own copy of the book (for your autograph, bien sur) and to reading the story. Then we will have lunch to celebrate your achievements.
Hi Helen
Just finished reading the book (Sophie spotted it a week ago in Readings St Kilda). It is wonderful! Watching the prices go up and up is amazing. I particularly liked the way that the story ended back in Mauritius. And detailed notes at the end – always a bonus.
The companion Web site is also great, because I could see the stamps, and the envelopes.
Thank you for this – I love it.
Jonathan
Thank you Angela – I’d have loved to have seen my speech bring a tear to someone’s eyes! And lunch was lovely.
Thank you too Jonathan. I’m so glad you enjoyed the book and that you checked out the companion website – and thanks for the heads up on 404 errors too. Agggghhh!