I drove to Manchester today,  checked in at the hotel,   then caught the train to Huddersfield to deliver a forty five minute lecture at Univeristy of Huddersfield.  The lecture was my response to   receiving the Honorary Doctorate in November.   Before the lecture the Vice Chancellor professor Bob Cryan announced a  Scholarship to  fund     a child in care who has studied at university and  wants  to go on to attain  a PHD:   The Sissay Scholarship.      The first seconds of my speech.

“I am here today first and foremost to Thankyou  University of Huddersfield and in particular   Professor Adele jones.    Thankyou  for the honour and the recognition:  thankyou for the work that you do  in elevating   society;  in providing opportunity and in  believing in your students. To believe so much that you can cast your net outwards and beyond  to those of us who have, for one reason or another,  had to find education outside of your esteemed establishment;  for we who have worked hard, like your students, without knowing  that you were watching,   only to be seen and evaluated and discussed and to be found to be with merit.  To be awarded an honorary doctor of letters is the greatest award  of my adult life.”