I was on the BBC World Service arts programme - The Strand – yesterday, talking about the book (repeated this morning). After too many years being the one asking the questions, it was a wholly surreal experience with more than a hint of ‘can this be real’?
It was interesting talking to Mark Coles, the presenter, about his own experiences in Africa, and a child in Mogadishu whose eyes he never forgot. Most journalists I know who have worked in conflict or disaster zones – or who have covered court cases or traffic accidents, or knocked on the door of a mother who has lost a child - have one of these children, or maybe a grown up, who goes on to figure in their dreams, sometimes inexplicably, sometimes just because of an expression in their eyes. Perhaps a conscience can be a living person, I was wondering as I walked home.
The interview, far more upbeat than I’ve just made it sound, is here…