Imagine my surprise this morning as the Volvo dragged itself onto the A34 to see former child actress Patsy Kensit bedecking the side of a lorry.

At least I think it was her, and there are certainly worse ways to wake up in the morning.

The strange apparition got me thinking, and I cast my mind back to 1984, when she starred alongside Jenny Seagrove in a BBC adaptation of RF Delderfield's novel, Diana.

Delderfield told a story nice and straight - there were no post-modernist techniques involved - and I'm sure I saw my dad re-reading a paperback copy of Diana the other week.

The author's book, To Serve Them All My Days, was adapted for the small screen in 1980, and both TV dramas got me hooked on Delderfield.

I was delighted to discover through my wikipedia contacts that he became a journalist in 1929 on the Exmouth Chronicle, and later succeeded his father as editor.

He started off writing plays before moving onto novels, with A Horseman Riding By perhaps the best known of the family sagas.

I'm a massive fan of the 1969 novel Come Home, Charlie and Face Them, a tall story about a bank clerk in a small town in Wales who helps to rob the bank after meeting a stunning Italian waitress in the local caff.

Shortly before he died in the early 1970s, Ronald Frederick Delderfield completed his autobiography, For My Own Amusement, and I shall now try to track a copy down.

Other tomes I am perusing at the moment including the new collection of Betjeman verse issued by Faber to celebrate their 80th birthday, with an introduction by fellow poet Hugo Williams, and the updated paperback edition of the David Cameron biog.

A hard day on the planet yesterday meant I missed out on a much-needed trip to Gloucester Green market but I may get a chance to go book-hunting next week.

Still no sign of The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, the follow-up to the bestselling The Shadow of the Wind. I live in hope.