How horrific that I have not been here for months. I have just arrived from a night with Jeanette Winterson, Jackie Kay and Ali Smith. I expected to see a lot of people I knew. Maybe I don’t know many people. Indeed it was my birthday on the fourth, so a friend bought me many delicious things from Wagamama and we talked about the world, literature, music, ambition etc. It comes from attending a brilliant course the other week organised by Chroma magazine. A house full of queer people was the initial attraction and was the reason for a steep learning curve: is the personal political? ooh, who knows? But a very articulate scottish lady introduced me to Maud Sulter; two Bermudian men made me want to visit the island; there was Poland, Vancouver, New York, Jamaica, Ireland and Cambridge; and the course was a nice conclusion to two weeks of sudden exposure to Black, Queer politics. I remember whining to someone in Paris that it seemed everything had been done, there was nothing left to do. I live in an era of ‘post’ this or that. It still feels that way, but at least I’ve found contacts who might have some idea of ‘where next’…