ALL FM

This morning I went off to Levenshulme and ALL FM's community radio station, invited by Andrew Edwards to be interviewed about Too Many Magpies on his Sunday lunchtime Art Beat programme. I was there once before, when I was producing my 24:7 Theatre Festival play The Processing Room. It's a quirky place, a converted Victorian house on a corner, the green room being the old dining room and the two studios being the once front parlour and back sitting room, I presume, though in fact it's pretty cramped in that last and maybe that was the scullery or something. In any case, there's a lovely friendly atmosphere, and Andrew's great at putting you at ease beforehand. We had quite a lengthy interview; Andrew asked me in some depth about the novel, and I read a short section. He was very complimentary about the book, but he put me on the spot a bit towards the end by saying that he was shocked at the ease with which my female protagonist falls into an affair with a mysterious stranger when her relationship with her husband seems to have been painted in such an idyllic light. This really took me aback, and I had no answer but that I thought I had planted the clues! Afterwards he said he hoped I wasn't offended, and of course I wasn't - nothing offends me about people's reactions to my work: why ever should it? - and I'm more than interested in people's reactions. And I bet it made good radio, anyway: me suddenly sounding utterly phased!

The programme is repeated on Tuesday evening, 9.00 pm: ALL FM 96.9, after which it will be a podcast on the website.