Midsomer murders is ‘The last bastion of Englishness.’ according to producer Brian True-May in Radio Times. It’s why there’s no ethnic characters in the show. Subsequently he’s been suspended Read more [...]

As the first poet commissioned to write a poem for The Olympic site 2012 through Winning Words I would like to share with you how it came about. The part of the winning words commission which my poem centred Read more [...]

In the darkness backstage I am sat with Mark Haddon, Monica Ali and Margaret Atwood. After each reading the group dwindles until it is just Margaret and I. She leant over “what will you be reading” she said “I’m reading an excerpt form Tennysons Ulysses”. Just as she was about to say something a man leans over “I’m afraid Mr Boris Johnson must go on next” Read more [...]

I know too many people who were transracially adopted to say that it can not work. Clearly in some cases it does. The success stories are undeniable by virtue of their success. The ones for whom it doesn’t Read more [...]

This was a last minute interview in Feb 2011 blogged in March. I'm sat outside the BBC News Studio listening to the Libyan ambassador and a man who decribes himself as an anti-terrorist talk about Read more [...]

I’ve spent the week in Den Hague at The National Theatre on stage each night. But on the way to the National Theatre, to the Friday masterclass, I’m inspired by hundreds of university students Read more [...]

Though the night was dark it didn’t stop me noticing the purple tinge on the crisp note against the black wet tarmac. After a second thought I circled and looked again. I bent down and picked up Read more [...]

I’ve spent each spare minute of the past two weeks with my nose facing the centre crease of a book that you could, if you so wished, finish in days. Laughing out loud on the number 38 bus is not Read more [...]