At mid day the composer and producer Pete Moser arrives. “I was sat in this meeting” he says exasperated “… that I have given up my weekend for… and .. and I just thought” he looks to the ceiling as if to God “why am I here? So I just got up and left”. He’s visible shocked, not it seems by the meeting, but by the fact that he had “just stood up and walked out”. Was another person growing inside Pete: A person who just leaves meetings against his will! Read more [...]

Hi LemnJust wanted to say from all of us here at Bright Books a HUGE THANK YOU forthe readings last night. I have had lots of calls and text messages from the audience and all have been really positive. Read more [...]

Me though? I’m the card trick. That it is me is  the trick. There is no slight of hand, nothing up my sleeve. No smoke and mirrors. No quick hand movements so the King stays in the palm but seems Read more [...]

"It's in this small world that great things happen." he tells me "I mean how else would you get to say to the lead singer of a band after talking music 'hey want to come back to mine for some cauliflower cheese' and then after the cauliflower cheese go to the grants, do you remember the grants pub, for a beer." The singer was morrisey. Read more [...]

I arrive at the Malmaison hotel and meet Maxine Wrigley MBE in The Northern Quarter, a very hip part of Manchester. It's like parts of Soho in Manhattan, believe it or not. We go to The Bay Horse. Maxine works for A National Voice that works for children in care run by people who were in care themselves. Within ANV there’s Supersonic which was launched at The cinnamon club in Westminster a while ago – it’s in the blog somehwere. Supersonic is a short film and website about people who were in care and who ahve gone on to be leaders in their fields, barristers, television presenters, top footballers etc. The best example of supersonic success is Ivor Frank who after leaving care went from being a bin man to a barrister. Mr Frank has been a central motivator in the achieving of The Children in Care Act which will be ratified by The Queen in October. Read more [...]

You can define a persons career trajectory by the work they turn down rather than the work they accept. When talking to a poet on the scene - whatever one of those is - ask them what work they have recently turned down and you will get a truer picturer of how successful they are. If they've got anything about them they'll tell you to naff off. But you see what I mean. It is not a cynical approach. What is cynical is the festering desperation for success and the crucially limiting short term criteria therein which limits most poet-to-poet conversations to "so what are you up to". This is possibly rubbish and I am probably over analyzing what is a natural question for one poet to ask another, but more often than not it bores me. Not that I want to bore you talking of what bores me. Doh! Read more [...]

Dang I feel down today. Down down down. I’m here in Manchester devising a show for the Lyric Hammersmith. Like the beginnings of most creative projects there’s a birthing process. Manchester where yes it is grey and yes it is rainy and yes it is dark, is slightly depressing? I dunno. It isn’t the city. It’s a beautiful city with some incredible people. And truthfully, it isn't the weather either. . Weather is neither good or bad. It is weather. It doesn't do anything wrong to be bad or right to be good. Read more [...]

Tring Tring. The phone rings. I need broader shoulders but damn how broad must they be. Tring tring it rings again. I'm in the middle of devising this piece Tring tring. I received the news that my agent at William Morris Agency is leaving me after a shake up in the company. I saw it coming. They saw it coming. Tring freaking tring. This after a day earlier I met her assistant who is dealing brilliantly with live readings. She’s goes too. The penny drops in slow motion. Read more [...]

begin the day meeting Karen Gebay a friend and TV and radio producer in Manchester. We meet acoss from the bbc Manchester. The front windows of the building are coloured red iwth large pictures of local BBC personalities. To the left of the entrance door is a massive picture of a presenter called Heather Stott with a very alrge speech bubble that says something like "Life Coaching". Next to it is a picture of Anthony H Wilson feb 1950 - August 2007. I point out this incongrous to Karen. Read more [...]

I travelled to Manchester last night. And from this morning ad all this week I'm  in rehearsals/devising processa t Contact Theatre. The rehearsal/devising process means one must, as both writer Read more [...]