We catch up and resolve old issues and it’s like we’re two teenagers basking in each other, but a little older and certainly a little wiser.   more »

In the cafe Kari asked for a deep black cappuccino so I reiterated the drink list to Abdullah the Turkish cafe owner “one soya latte and a deep black cappuccino”. A deep black cappuccino! He looked at me with playful suspicion. Deep black cappuccino? It was De-caf cappuccino!!   more »

I present Gaiem with my book in which I quote him. He said “If , as Marx said, religion is the opiate of the people then Nationalism is the crack cocaine”   more »

The smiling asian taxi driver drops me off at the top of the street “it’s down there he says”. I look into the sea of drunk white people and all I can think of is Shaun of The dead and Zombies.   more »

On the first programme on Monday at 3.45pm I explored an idea. I found from the steps of the service station that the traffic on the motorway sounded like the sea. So I wrote the entire first script with reference to The Coleridge poem, The Ancient Mariner. All this may pass by unnoticed by the listener, no matter it should work beyond the reference.   more »

It is something I think about on a weekly basis, public art and particularly Poems as Landmarks in hackney. The last one I did was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu in The City.   more »

I ask for a small manageable selection of the manuscript. A day later I receive four hundred pages and two prefaces. My heart plummets.   more »

Until the word scientist was invented by a member The Royal Society, the oldest of its kind in the world, was known as The Royal Society of Natural Philosophy. To give their work more gravitas the term scientist was invented taking its inspiration from the term artist.   more »

How do I feel the day after the night before? How do I feel in my hotel overlooking the square in this picturesque city drinking a smooth coffee at 10am as the crisp Scandinavian light skims through the window? My mind drifts. But how do I feel?   more »

I arrived here in Stockholm yesterday. A picture of The Taxi driver is below this article. I asked him if he liked Sweden "you twalkin ta me" he replied. I spent yesterday and today writing script in the solitude for a radio series at the hotel..   more »

Maybe Mothers Day is connected to the other most significant day of this year: Sunday is the first Day of Spring.   more »

On 3rd  March  I gave a speech at The Booktrust Conference. Here it is. Please have a listen and let me know what you think.
http://www.lemnsissay.com/LemnSissayspeech.mp3.

This talk by Elizabeth Gilbert is everything I believe about creativity   more »

The bicycle is beautiful but there is no time to ride it. By 6pm the journalist and I are off to see Warhorse at The Lyttleton Theatre in the grand National on the southbank of the thames   more »

I turn only to be confronted by two police officers “What’s your problem” says a female officer with no trace of irony. My brain slips what is this?   more »

But family has nothing to do with truth. My mother’s side of the family are distinct from my fathers side in that they remain as they always have been towards me. There's a certain unconditionality about that. It is what it is and it is all good. We all have a laugh over food and the hours pass easily. Come five PM and I have to run. We say goodbye. There’s no drama. There is in its varying degrees, love. I'm at ease with it all at last. As I leave I think that maybe I have arrived.   more »

“you are here to interview a jazz musician. Who is he?” says the customs officer as he skims my visa details. “Gil Scott Heron”. I reply. His eyes don’t lift as he splays my passport “never heard of him” he says.   more »

The sound of the motorway is the sound of sea... a constant shhhhhhhhh... The moon is the headlight of a lone motorcyclist weaving his way through the mist towards the gap. And the cars in the car park in front of me are turtles basking in the moonlight   more »

In a whisper , and before I get to gulp my tea, I am whisked away to the first floor of the conference centre. Michael waves. Jaqueline Wilson is on the first floor. We are to do a photo-shoot together. She smiles confiudently at me.   more »