I am patron of the Ilminster Lit Fest and try to get down to this lovely corner of Somerset as often as I can. This year, as well as my own event on Saturday night, I was meant to be interviewing Wes Streeting about his childhood memoir, ‘One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up’ on Sunday, but the election intervened and the Shadow Health Secretary has other obligations. Elsewhere on this site you’ll find my blog from Cheltenham where Wes and I did manage to get to talk about his book and my fervent desire that he becomes one of my successors as Health Secretary.

On Saturday I was interviewed by the writer Kirsty Crawford (whose best selling novels carry the non de plume Lulu Taylor). She was a meticulous and engaged interlocutor which made our event at the Warehouse Theatre great fun for both of us (and, hopefully, the audience).