Hi everyone,

just a quick one to let you that the Midland funding drive will formally end at midnight on August 14th. The book is finished, proofed and copy-edited, the cover is designed and finalised, the blurbs are written, and soon the whole package will be sent off to the Unbound mountain to be carved into giant marble tablets for our descendants to ponder and squabble over for aeons to come.

So if you'd like your name to be included in the great list of pledgers that will be memorialised in the back of the book and worshipped down through the ages, now's your last chance! Pledge now, any pledge will do, and your name will be sent to the man with the chisel. After midnight on the 14th, though, while you'll still be able to pre-order a book, it won't count as a pledge, and you will not be included in the roll call of those who helped midwife the great work that is Midland.

(Tip: as well as the marble version, there's also a paper version that will be printed in October, and which would make a great Christmas present, especially if you buy it on behalf of a loved one and ask for their name to be listed in the back of the book!)

Thanks as ever to all of you for your support to date.

Soon Midland will be with you, very soon...

Jim