I had a superb evening at the Royal Society Book Prizes last night, accompanied by my special guests Nicola Clark, my wife and business partner; Peter Hingley, the Royal Astronomical Society’s librarian; Peter Tallack, my agent; Caroline Priday, the book’s publicist.

The Sun Kings did not win; that honour went to Mark Lynas for his book Six Degrees about climate change.  It was a great pleasure to meet the other shortlisted authors, apart from Craig Venter who could not make the ceremony, and spend a celebratory dinner with my guests afterwards.

Whilst The Sun Kings did not win, Jo Marchant from New Scientist did award me a special runners-up prize. Read here.