A very good friend of mine, Frank Wynne, has just had his first book published: I was Vermeer: The Legend of the Forger who Swindled the Nazis.It’s the story of “a paranoid, drug-addicted, alcoholic, hypochondriac painter whose journey from zero to hero earned him $50 million, the acclamation of the world’s press and the satisfaction of swindling the Nazis. Half a century after his death, his handiwork is still suspected in at least four Vermeers in major galleries, and the ugly daub sold last year at Sotheby’s for $30 million had long been attributed to him. The book takes a wry, sometimes scathing, amoral and irreverent look at forgery, the expert, and the career of a second-rate painter who became the world’s greatest forger.”

There was a nice full page feature in the Telegraph on Saturday, review in the Mail on Sunday yesterday, there’s one in the Standard today plus serialisation begins on Radio 4 on August 14th (9.45am 11.45pm) (woohoo!)

So why am I telling you this? You may well ask.

Reason 1: I thought you nice people might like to know about the book. The subject matter is interesting, plus Frank is a talented writer who has been dedicated and influential in publishing for years in various contexts: he was the Editor of Deadline Magazine for a long time (Tank Girl, anyone?) and more recently did the English translations for Michel Houllebecq’s novels including Atomised and Platform

Reason 2: What else are social networks for, if not to generate viral marketing? Basically, we’re trying to give his book a boost on the day of launch and if you’re interested, you can help.What would be great is for those of you who can to buy the book direct from Amazon (or via this page: www.frankwynne.com/books.html which means Frank gets another small cut via Amazon’s referral scheme) on Monday August 7th, between 5pm - 7pm (or on Tuesday 8 or Wed 9) (the timing is important).

Feel entirely free to leave a short review. Yeah, I know you won’t have read the book yet. You don’t have to give it five stars, any number will do since, as we know, one review will encourage other reviews. If you need inspiration, check out the Observer review.

You will be rewarded by not only having a great new book to read, but also by being showered with my appreciation and experiencing for yourself the warm fuzzy glow of helping a talented author to achieve literary success in his own right after years of graft in the shadows of others.