I JUST wanted to say thanks to everyone out there who has helped Cycling Back to Happiness get off to a cracking start.

The book has only been out two weeks and it has been flying off the shelves - my publisher has been struggling to keep up!

My kicking and screaming baby is already being cradled on book shelves as far apart as Glasgow, Plymouth, Stockholm and bloody Florida. Ernest Hemmingway eat your heart out!

All of this has been down to you, the people who have stuck by me on my Facebook group for the past seven months and those who have had their curiosity tickled by my outrageous star billing in Adventure Travel Magazine, which gave me Book of the Month ahead of no other than Bear Grylls and Dave Gorman! Ha-ha!

And that's not forgetting the people finding me in regional rags and who I have unearthed via random e-mails. All of your support has been top notch!

Also, a massive thanks to all those people who attended my book launches, especially the Southend event, which was a sell out - 100 books in two hours, breaking both the store and publisher's record.

But I'm not getting carried away. This is a good start and now I need it to carry on and I will remain pessimistic until the end.

I climbed up to the giddy heights of 16th in the travel writers Premier League on Amazon the other day, just below Jeremy Clarkson and above a Bill Bryson book, but soon nosedived back to 25, then 45 and 80 something out of hundreds. A reality check is good for the soul.

But the promotion fight goes on and I'm off to the Netherlands, back to to Texel, and Ribe, my adopted Danish home, for book signings next week. Apparently, they're going to name a drink after me in the bar - but I can't think of anything.

Any smart ideas of sickly concoctions would be greatly received!

I'm also thinking a lot about my next book, which will involve Volvos, the Mafia and Polar Bears!

Take care and be lucky x

P.S. If I could afford it I would buy every single one of you a box of Roses.