intriguingly, we are saying it now? intriguingly, we are getting the story from the telegraph. they are not normally infused on the subject of increased public sector pay. but, yes, it seems to be the case that ministers will be announcing it this week. so perhaps it will be philip hammond, perhaps it will be philip hammond, perhaps he will finally drop his seven—year cap, or at least the tories' seven—year cap on public sector pay. and perhaps, perhaps, people who have seen their pay capped at such a low level of increase, i:e., below inflation and a wheel turns decrease for the past seven years, will start to claw some of that back. but, where is the money coming from? yes, we arranged to see just how much above 1% police officers and probation officers will get, if that is what happens this week will top but it is a big moment. as natalie says, this pay cap has been in place for such a long time. at the moment, it is only going to be police and probation, but it will opened the door for higher rises for other public sector workers as well, you would issue. and if it goes to the percent, for

example, —— you would assume. i have seen example, —— you would assume. i have seen figures in the past suggesting £4 billion per year. it is a huge headache for the government. where is the money going to come from? we will only find out in the autumn at the budget, i guess. the chancellor is any nightmare situation with other financial black hole that he is trying to fill. the chancellor said he will only agree to lift the pay cap if cuts are identified as well. he has challenged suggestions of tax rises that would pay for it. let's wait till wednesday and c, let's see how generous the government is going to be. they maybe not that much, much more generous than the currently asked point let's leap to the last paper, if you will, the financial times. magic mushrooms take a trip into clinical trials to combat depression. hundreds of europeans with depression will have the chance to turn on, tune in and drop out. i'm not suggesting that we go foraging for our own! i'm afraid of mushrooms. i don't know if i told you this before, but i'm afraid of

mushrooms. i'm a terrible vegetarian! is that is what is keeping you awake? they grow in the dark! i don't understand why you aren't afraid! i do a lot of walking in the countryside in the woodland, and they do grow in daylight can get. they are there in daylight, but they are doing the growing in the dock. do you tread on them and squash them? no, i run in the opposite direction! there are loads in the park... rob, would you like a different partner?! i'm very happy! i'm having a lovely time!|j different partner?! i'm very happy! i'm having a lovely time! i was hoping that somebody else would go first with trying to pronounce this... the active ingredient in mushrooms which may be the cure for depression. it is going to be the biggest ever clinical trial to find out whether that's the case. because apparently, the widespread

recreational use of mushrooms has caused no harm thus far. there can be benefits from it, the z, which is great news for my mate mushy peat, which we used to call him in the 19805 which we used to call him in the 1980s because of his love of suspicious mushrooms. i haven't seen him in many years, maybe he is fine. i hope he is! mushy peat, a shout out to you tonight. it is and intuitive, we are led to believe that psychoactive substances are natural... bad for you. but they are natural, though. -- substances are bad for use. blogs evidence shows that people with depression show no signs of improvement with current treatment, so it's worth a try. you can read a detailed review of the papers on the website. we will be back at 11:30pm with another look at it. coming up next... meet the

author. claire tomalin is one of our great biographers. her subjects have included samuel pepys, jane austen, dickens and hardy. now she's done what many biographers don't do — she's written about herself. a life of my own, is her story, her family and her loves, the tragedies and joys in her life; the literary world in which she found her calling, her craft, welcome. having spent so much time dealing with the detail of other people's lives, trying to sort out truths from falsehoods, was it difficult to take the plunge and hold a mirror up to your own life? i think it was the most difficult

book i have ever tried to write. and ifound it very painful, and i asked myself quite often, should i be doing this, shall i go on with it, shall i give up? there are a lot of tragedies in your life which we might touch on. but as a whole, it's an extraordinary life, full of fun and friendship as well. why did you find it so tough? because i had to address, really, really sad things that happened, particularly the death of my beloved and wonderful daughter, susanna. who took her own life? who took her own life. and i wanted her to be there. i felt she was such a remarkable person. and i also feel that the care of depressed young people, we all know, it's not as good as it ought to be, and i suppose i blamed myself in a way, that i hadn't kept her alive. you had to deal with your feelings, you husband, nick tomlin, who was killed, in the yum kippur war, a terrible tragedy but you have

had ups and downs of extraordinary kind during your marriage and it's tough to write about that? yes. but i saw, i learned something from it. i saw that first of all, probably i shouldn't have married him. we were great friends and lovers and we had fun together but we were not really soul mates. and every time he ran off with a blonde and i was left with the children, it had a good effect on me, because i thought, i've got to cope, i've got make my life, i've got to get a betterjob. and if you look at my life, when i came to look, i saw that each time he did something really dreadful, i grew and progressed, so that, most sadly, i mean, it was terrible when he was killed, but i had in a way been prepared to cope. and in dealing with your own feelings at the time,

in the 50s, when you were a student, through the 60s, the tumultuos 70s, fleet street, the literary world, it must be difficult to write about friends and friendships with real honesty? well, i think my friendships with terry kilmartin who, was literary editor of the observer, who was a wonderful friend to me, with kyle miller, with neil atherton, with michael frane, who in the end became my husband, but for many years was a friend to me, with sarah foreman, who was at the sunday times, who i must not leave out. marina warner, victoria glendenning, who was a great friend, because we both had children, we were both making our way in the literally world, and we had such fun together. you moved in that literary world of newspapers, magazines, the new statesman, the sunday times, you became literary editor, and in the late 60s and the 70s these

were exhilarating times in the literary world, weren't they? i was very lucky. i mean, journalism was booming. i had these brilliant friends, and it was a very entertaining world to be part of, yes. and newspapers and magazines in those days, to an extent which i think it isn't there now, really cared about the original poetry, the job of the critic, about what the literary pages should do. it was thought of as being important. i thought they were very important. i thought they really mattered. well, they did. i thought to address literature and the arts seriously and write seriously about them, and entertainingly, which i had these very, very funny reviewers, like the brilliantjohn cary, i thought that was very important. and i thought each week, i must make my pages the best pages! there must be something on my pages, that everybody has... ppeople who don't usualally look at the book page, will want to read, and that was my goal. in some ways, it's a book,

in part of course, about your family, but also about what it was like in that era. through the 60s, when things opened up, when a sort of deferential social attitude gave way to something wilder and more spontaneous. 0ur sexual life changed. well, absolutley, that was it. i mean i put in the book the moment in 1963, when i'd had my fourth baby, and i went to my gynaecologist and he leaned forward over the desk and held up a packet and said, "i think you might like these. these are pills that will stop you getting pregnant." and i said, "yes! yes! absolutely!" and i saw at that moment that things had changed between men and women. there's a great deal in the book about your growing affection for the english language, for literature, your discovery of thomas hardy, for example, whom you came to deal with as a biographer much later in life, and the start of yourjourney into samuel pepys, and mary woolstonecraft of course. with mary woolstonecraft, i was 40 when i wrote that book, my first book. and i fell in love with the whole process, with research and writing.

and i realised at once that i had found my mitre. and you would always do that. but then i couldn't. i had to earn my living. you can't earn your living from writing biographies. so i was very lucky to have the job at the sunday times. wnd when i left the sunday times after wapping in 1986, i was able then, in my 50s, to start on my career as a writer, and for the next 25 years i wrote historical biographies, and i was very, very happy doing it. well, there's an enormous amount of happiness in this book, despite all the ups and downs, the difficulties, and indeed the tragedies, you seem to be somebody who is somehow able to cope to a remarkable degree. yes, well, that is true. you do have to cope. if you don't cope... what's left? you might as well give in. and i think i learned to cope a bit in childhood. because i was a child who was disliked by my father and loved by my mother. and i had that curious experience as a small child of realising this, of being well aware that my father

didn't like me, and that my mother was my supporter and the person who loved me. your father was french and lived into his 90s. yes. how did the relationship change? i think when he began to realise that i was a clever child. when he began to want to have a divorce from my mother, he spoke to the family doctor and said, you know, what about the children. she said, "well, you don't need to worry about claire, because she's very clever." this had never occurred to my father. he was always surprised. he was very surprised when i got into cambridge, very surprised when i got a first. he said, "that's all very well, you need secretarial training." i mean, at my wedding to michael, when he was in his 90s, to which he came, he said, "you never crease to surprise me, claire!" i began by asking you how difficult it had been to decide to do this and to write honestly about your own life, the difficulties, the joys

and the sadnesses. what was it like when you finished? what did you you feel when you finally sent off that manuscript? i felt maybe i shouldn't publish this book! and i hadn't written quit enough. and my very good editor, anita butterfield, wrote me a letter saying, "look, there are things you haven't said, there are things you haven't really said about writing your books and that matters. " and she made me write some more. it was very good advice. are you happy you've done it? yes, i am happy i've done it. i mean, when i was young, andre doitch said to me, "you've had an interesting life, you should write a novel." but i said, "i'm not a novelist." but then i began to think, but i have to a story to tell. everybody has a story to tell. your life is material, you know. even if, i mean, you have to deal with everything, an affair with martin amis, which everyone will notice. my most famous affair, yes.

well, it was an office romance, and it was very short and it was very delightful. and there we are. these are the things that make up a fascinating life. thank you. claire tomalin, author of a life of my own, thank you very much. alone. a blustery weekend is soon to give way to a blustery week. it sta rts give way to a blustery week. it starts as early as monday with a big area of low pressure close by to the north of scotland. very strong winds whipping around the south—western border. such that in the first part of monday, across a good part of wales and the south west of england, we will see some pretty strong winds. if you on the move first thing on monday, just be aware of that. it could well be that we see some gusts of wind across the exposed headlines of around 50, possibly than 60 mph, and copious showers from the world so word go, some of them heavy, gang up for the middle of the date —— from the word go. moving further eastwards. we

have persistent rain across the north—east of scotland. if you end up north—east of scotland. if you end up with a dry monday, you will have done very well. you will be the exception to the rule. something quieter on tuesday, but more persistent rain is back for the north of england and wales on wednesday. full this is bbc news.

the headlines at 11:00: hurricane irma slams into florida with winds up to 130 miles per hour. around a million homes and businesses are without power. there's barely a soul on the streets anywhere here, due to risk of flying debris. there's also a risk of tornadoes, and the storm surge is predicted be up to 15 feet high in some places. this is a life—threatening situation. remember, in south—west florida, the storm surge comes after the strongest winds. do not think this storm is over when the wind slows down. in cuba there's been "significant damage," and the recovery process is now beginning. ivana's streets