economic renaissance in france, but also wanting reform of the eu. he is off to see angela merkel. two interesting aspect, jetting off to see angela merkel, and it emphasises the central bond in the eu that remains the german/ french axis. it is that axis that is about to be waged against us when these negotiations start. the other reminder that it is not all about brexit, because when he is in germany, he will ask for german help, because the german economy is stronger than the french economy, he wa nts stronger than the french economy, he wants germany to find a way of bailing france out. that reminds us that it bailing france out. that reminds us thatitis bailing france out. that reminds us that it is not all about brexit for other eu countries. where will the reform come from, and how many members will want meaningful reform? david cameron would have liked to have heard about that.|j david cameron would have liked to have heard about that. i imagine he is sitting in his shed thinking, this sounds even if familiar,

jotting down a few notes in his memoir. shepherd's had. i am contracting that into shed. i think the chances of angela merkel folding and setting, yes, let'sjust have germany bailed you out, don't worry, though problem, the pretty slender. the germans have been the greatest winners of the eurozone, and i doubt they are keen to go, let's share that are found, don't mind. what i find interesting in this picture is how much it reminds me of a roman triumph. look how high he is, i can not help that belief one of these men flanking him is whispering, rememberyou men flanking him is whispering, remember you are mortal. the horses, the helmets, the plumes, i see that the helmets, the plumes, i see that the motorbikes are not fully roman, but it reminds me of imperial times. it looked spectacular. we talked

about pomp and ceremony over here. we have a coach. with a cream in it. when the state opening happens, the queen is practically coming on the bus, the carriage is being used for something else. what else have they got? never mind. the daily telegraph, the absolutely fabulous, joanna's a jolly good fellow. marvellous that she has got a fellowship of bafta for all of her lifetime work. we celebrate how excellent she is as an actor and as a comic actor, and we do not celebrate how good she is at designing bridges. that is controversial to end on. we are back again at 11:30pm, and i am back with the main stories at

iipm. from celebrated novelist to poet. michel faber‘s success has come with some long books, like the crimson petal and the white and, more recently, the book of strange new things, which is science fiction. but after the death of his wife eva, he decided to write a book of poems, undying: a love story, that follows the stages of her illness and describes the raw day—by—day process of his own grief afterwards. welcome. as a novelist, was it difficult to commit yourself, especially under these very painful circumstances, to a poetic form? i didn't feel i was committing myself to anything. in the aftermath of eva's death,

these poems came to me. i had no conception that i was going to put them out there. they were just suggesting themselves to be written. it seemed perverse not to write them, given that they were coming to me. i didn't feel that i would put them out there. but when i started reading them out at literary festivals, i noticed that they were connecting with people. and i thought, "well, maybe this is something that is not essentially private. maybe this can be shared." reading these very direct, frank, in some cases brutal poems was in a strange sort of way giving people consolation. because i was talking about things which are almost forbidden to talk about. even though there's a lot of grieving poetry out there, it tends to be quite decorous and beautiful. yes. and you wanted some

of this to be raw. i wanted it to be raw and, in fact, i stopped writing... i could have gone on writing the poems until now. but i stopped writing them at the end of 2015, because i felt i'd reached the stage in my grieving where there was a risk i would just write a beautiful poem that happened to have grief as its subject, rather than feeling grief and needing to express it in some way. they were private expressions of your own feelings, some kind of reassurance, some kind of record, i suppose, of the journey you'd been through. with all its pain and difficulties. and joys as well, along the way. but you'd always thought of them as something personal to you? well, i have a long record of writing things and not putting them out there. i wrote for 25 years without submitting anything. so, yes, if i had thought that they were just me talking to myself about what i had gone through, i wouldn't

have shared them. there is anger in there, there is unbearable sadness. and there are those moments after your wife's death that everyone will recognise at that sort of time. things, for example, like the death of a cat. which takes you back in a weird way to your human loss. and it's the kind of thing people think about but don't often say, let alone write down. yeah. the poem that was particularly significant is... there is a poem called you were ugly. which talks about what happened to her body as a result of the cancer. and that's a taboo, you're really not allowed in our... to talk about the physical changes. yes, yes. towards the end of her life. and when i read that poem out on the radio about a year ago, someone phoned in the radio station and said, "look, i'm not ready

to read this book yet. i lost my wife too recently. but i am consoled that someone has expressed this thing which i've been thinking and felt that i wasn't allowed to think." will this take you into poetry as a medium? no. beyond this volume? no, this will be the only book of poetry that i write. i'm under no illusions that i'm a good enough poet to write poems about anything other than the lost... this one experience. does that mean that you will return to fiction? because it has been quite a journey. as you say, you had a long period where you didn't submit anything for publication. you know, you're sort of famously almost reclusive as a writer in that sense, for a long time. will this have that same effect in you or not? well, when eva was ill, and she knew she was going to die, she was very, very upset

with my decision, which i had already made, that i would write no more novels. her attitude was, "never say never." but i would be astonished if i wrote another novel for grown—ups. i do want to write a novel for children. it's something i haven't done before. with each book i wanted to do something that i have not done before. i also think that in the world as it currently is, a little magic doesn't go amiss. a little benign adventure. there are writers, thinking earlier about thomas hardy, who lived to the late 20s, but wrote his last novel in the mid—1890s, and spent the rest of his life writing poetry. now, you say you're not going to do another novel,

another volume of poetry, but it does seem as if the moment you've reached in yourfiction writing and with this break, because of the circumstances you find yourself in, it is time for something completely new. yes. and something i also want to do is figure out whether i can have a life beyond being a writer. because... do you not know? i'm so used to inhabiting that little sanctum and creating works of art, which is an alternative to hanging out with real human beings and smelling the roses and all those things that ordinary people know how to do. when you're not writing, when you're not sitting in that quiet room, what are you doing? are you reading fiction at all? i don't read fiction at all. i will occasionally read a book about music. mainly, i listen to music. instrumental music, mainly. so my space has no language in it.

it's an extraordinary thing to hear, in a writer of your celebrity and accomplishment, saying he no longer reads fiction. do you ever feel guilty about that, or is thatjust the way it is? it makes... in some ways it makes things a lot easier, because it means when i meet another writer and i haven't met their work, haven't read their work, it's not that i'm choosing against... you can say, "i haven't read anybody else's either." i haven't read anybody else's either. so that's sort of socially convenient. but maybe in the future i would like to become the sort of person who reads again. so whether you're writing poetry in the sadness after your wife's death, or whether you are contemplating a move to fiction for young people, or listening to music, you're always, finally, looking for a new horizon. somewhere. yes, but maybe the ultimate new horizon is to become

more like other people. because that has been my mission in a way. all my life. because i started off very, very alienated, very strange. and i didn't want to become an alienated fringe dweller. it's frightening in a way for me to become more connected, because as you become more connected with other people, you're vulnerable to their lives going bad. and if you're a solitary fringe dweller, you're protected from that. whereas once you welcome these people in, life is harsh. but it's a risk you feel you now have to take. i feel it's a risk i now have to take. well, not have to take, but want to take. michel faber, author of undying: a love story, thank you very much. thank you.

most of us caught a bit of sunshine today, it was not too bad, a couple of showers, but a pretty good day. a different story for monday, the cloud rolling off the atlantic. this weather system will spoil the weather system will spoil the weather for most of us tomorrow. the clear weather across the uk now. the evening is looking clear across most of the uk, but by midnight we start to see the cloud approach our shores. this is what it looks like over the coming hours, clear skies across the east, and in the early hours of monday it turns wet across the south—west of england, wales, the south—west of england, wales, the irish sea, northern ireland, the south—west of scotland. across the hills, the rain will be heavy. it pushes through to northern ireland

as well. it is wet across the lake district, into north—western england, through wales as well. plenty of rain in the south west and southern england. it is not raining in kentand southern england. it is not raining in kent and sussex or through east anglia or up into lincolnshire and eastern parts of yorkshire, but eventually, the second half of the morning, into the afternoon, most of the uk is engulfed, and it will be damp. the rain will not fall in any one location all day. it will wax and wane. it is quite warm as well, despite the rain and cloud. the low pressure on tuesday across the atlantic, weather fronts being pressure on tuesday across the atlantic, weatherfronts being sent in our direction. head office, the cloud breaks, with the rain coming out of the south, it could be very warm. it will be pleasant enough at least.

wednesday, it will not stay warm across the south—east, we will see cloud and rain. overall, a relatively unsubtle spell of weather beginning thursday and in towards friday, we start to see cooler conditions coming in off the atlantic, so it will be a showery end to the week. thursday and friday of relatively cool, with showers on the way. this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 11:00: a warning that more computers could be affected by the unprecedented global cyber attack as the working week begins. seven nhs trusts in england, and 11 boards in scotland are still affected, with patients told to expect further disruption. emmanuel macron is sworn in as france's youngest president, and declares the country is on the verge

of a great renaissance. nurses vote overwhelmingly in favour of a "summer of protest" over pay. also in the next hour meet the world's oldest skydiver. d—day veteran verdun hayes took to the skies to smash the record at 101—years—old. and we'll take a look at tomorrow's front pages, including the guardian.