Out of the blue this morning I received a message.  It is both an apology and a request I amend or omit a reference to Bloodaxe on my website.  I haven’t heard from Neil Astley (the editor at Bloodaxe)  or Bloodaxe for around seventeen years when  they published me then refused to reprint after my book sold out while at the same time refusing  my next manuscript.   I have a  compulsion –  as point of record –  to upload to my blog  his message and my reply.  Should I?

The message was on my mind as I travelled from Paddington station  to Bristol,
a city I love,   to do the penultimate reading of the year  for The Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in children and young people’s services. It is the final reading of five given around the country this past two weeks and part of a positive experience of self reflection for Childrens Services managers around the country.    

But first I visited my good friend,  and honorary Bristolian,  Joanne Prince at her gallery  Rainmaker. Joanne works with specific top end native American artists whom she regularly visits in America. Bristol is lucky. She used to run Rainmaker in Manchester.  It is a labour of love.   I wave goodbye  and go to work myself. It’s also a labour of love.  After reaching the venue, then a one hour  speech and reading I walk a mile to Bristol Temple Meades and home back to London.