A whirlwind

Last week was a whirlwind, albeit a brilliant one, and I'm only just starting to recover!

The readings in Birmingham and Oxford went very well, thanks to the efforts of their organisers (Matt Nunn and Elaine Christie in Birmingham and Peter King in Oxford), while the Rogue Strands event in London was simply surreal from a selfish point of view.

Why surreal? Well, it provided me with an chance to sit down and listen to amazing poetry from some of the poets I most admire, one after the other, almost like a personal mix tape. What's more, it was gratifying to see a healthy audience who also seemed to enjoy themselves. Oh, and to top it all off, my co-organiser, Mat Riches, tells me we've raised almost 400 pounds for the Trussell Trust. The challenge now for all of us is to ensure that their incredible efforts won't be quite so necessary after 12th December...!