I am in Derby. Last night I drank alcohol for the first time in a year: a few pints of lager and a bottle of wine in an hotel on my own. Bit stupid really. Not very clever of me, not at
all. I am picked up by Javid Akhter at 9am. I am on stage at 11am t takes me forty five minutes to get ready. We leave. It’s an hour long car journey and on arriving
the organisers are not happy.
The audience were there at 10.30am. But my contract says 11am. At 10.30am the audience was full but many had left obviously feeling rejected. Not good for an event for kids in care. I get on stage and read for about thirty minutes. And then I am off again in the car for an hour long journey to the train station. It takes me about four hours to get back to London on a Sunday.
I did this reading for half the fee. It has taken a total of fifteen hours. I am shattered. By the time I get back I have an email from the organisers apologising. They had got the timings wrong – not I. But the damage has been done.