I wish to apologise to all those people in the queue behind me at Heathrow security yesterday. I am really sorry you were delayed by my book.

After using the same carry-on case for my journey from Auckland to Los Angeles and LA to London, it wasn't until the security check for my domestic connection to Manchester that its contents were deemed suspicious.

In it were some computer hard drives, cables and adaptors, and a thick paperback book. Unfortunately, in the x-ray image the cables appeared to be coming out of what might have been a battery and into a dark amorphous mass of something (the book).

The security people stopped the case in the x-ray machine, I was searched and quizzed about its contents. A supervisor was summoned - more quizzing - and finally they were satisfied enough to open it and check. They then took everything out and did an explosives test.

Meanwhile my plane to Manchester took off without me.

I don't hold any ill-feelings towards the security people - they were very good about it - but I wonder why, if the contents looked so suspicious, I was ever allowed onto the aircraft in Auckland or Los Angeles in the first place!

And I do hope all those people delayed by my book scare didn't miss their flights.