The plane swoops out to sea and back inland displaying to perfection the concave of dramatic cape mountains and coast. Cape Town. Read more [...]

Saturday is just what I want it to be: a day to relax. Read more [...]

This morning at 8.10am my friend of nearly twenty years the tv producer and presenter David Akinsanya and I cycle the regents canal to Angel Islington. We are here to meet Clare Tickell and Vivien Fowle of Action for Children. Read more [...]

If I don’t hear about an author I assume he or she is writing. If he or she is writing then I assume he or she is in the blush of success before hitting the cold open air of the market. It is this counter intuitive impulse that can see a writers success. The industry rolls on like a river. And though it is easy to say it is a fast river. It is another view to see that the rocks that take hundreds of years to form themselves into an ever widening turret are where the work is really done, is being done. Read more [...]

He frowns sympathetically at my clumsy attempt to hide nerves “So we take out two of your teeth. If you feel pain hold your left hand up. You will feel the needle, a little scratch”. He nods when he talks but the hungarian accent is soothing. In moments my mouth feels like a rubber attachment. Read more [...]

Having had an enjoyable and enlightening meet with Jude Kelly the artistic director it’s time enough for me to go, as I turned the key in the lock a woman stopped. She was panting and in some distress. “can you tell me the way to the artist entrance?” she says in a high pitched accent that I couldn’t fail to recognise. Read more [...]

Myself and David are men who spent all of our childhoods in care. We are invited to the book launch by one of England’s finest writers whom we both met yesterday in different circumstances. AS Byatt’s novel is called The Childrens Book. Read more [...]

After each visit from Margaret which took place in the sports hall I was strip searched. I was a child that had been in care for seventeen years is all. It was a harrowing institution. We had to walk the corridors in size order. Read more [...]

I wake at 7am and spin down to the Southbank centre for 9.30am to meet an old friend whom I haven’t seen for ten years. Her name is Sally Gross and she is head of the Music Business Management MA of Westminster University. Sally is an extraordinary person. She also manages Gotanproject Read more [...]

I heard the film was being shown followed by a question and answer session with Samantha Morton chaired by Rageh Omar. I called Simon Hattenstone last week to see if I could get tickets. And I called Rageh too. Simon called Samantha who got me tickets for tonight Read more [...]