Thanks for being here, for reading me.   A car awaits us at Colombo airport. It’s a mere thirty degrees.  Richard Dawkins sit’s behind and Ellah Allfrey the deputy editor at Granta in front. Get in.   We’re driving for two hours through Sri lanka to Galle. I’m tired but nothing prepares for my accommodation!  Taprobane Island is a  hundred yards off the coast.  I wade knee high through the  warm sea to be greeted on the pier.   The other guests are  Josceline Dimbelby and   Simon Sebang Montefiore.  And you.

Over the next five days I give three readings. One is late night in the quad of The Sun House ,  Tom Stoppard is in the audience,  another is in the Cinnamon Room of  Jetwing Lighthouse and finally at the Sudharshana Centre in buona vista I read for  Children.  While on stage at Sun House in Sri Lanka my poem, Applecart Art, is broadcast on TV in UK.   The Random Act poems  are now online and you can view them here:  Applecart Art,  Elephant in The Room and finally  Torch.    Galle Literary Festival is run by dedicated inspiring individuals. It’s a brilliant festival.   On the day I leave Joanna Trollope arrives at the island.  I took this picture of the sea from Taprobane.  Can you see the eye.   This blog is for Sri Lanka 17th – 22nd January 2012. Many of the other writers are travelling on to Jaipur Literary Festival. It could be  intimidating being a  poet amongst all these best selling novelists.  But many of them began as poets.  And so I am flying home on a night flight. Home. Home. Home.