they said their thoughts and prayers go out to the guests and staff members who have been affected by what happened. police are not treating the incident as terror related. simonjones, bbc news, gravesend. ten homes on the norfolk coast are believed to be uninhabitable, following a0 mile an hour winds and three metre high waves over the weekend. the coastguard says in some parts of hemsby the cliffs have been eroded by 15 feet. robby west reports. on saturday evening as the tide was drawing in, lifeboat crews helped move people's furniture out. stephen chadwick knew he had to go after seeing his garden disappear overnight. yes, i bought it for sea views, beautiful sea views, and now the sea has taken it away. i woke up at 7.30 this morning and had a cup of coffee at the back door and i felt like an earthquake and the cliffjust went. it's a total shock — and watching people taking my house apart. i do not think i would be here tomorrow.

this weekend, home owners were evacuated after a fortnight of high tides and easterly winds that had shed the coast‘s natural defences away. this morning, i was able to see the effect of the storm. you can really see the damage that has been cost by the sea. large chunks of the coastline are completely washed away. lifeboat crews have told me that ten homes are now uninhabitable. the local council say the homes remain in a precarious position and have been inspected after each high tide. paul believes the storm has made his home and safe. along with his wife and two dogs, they have lived on the cliff edge for the past eight years. i think to myself, that is my home and i have lost it. i have got to look on the positive side that i wasn't in there last night and we lost our lives or anything, and everybody got us out and looked after us very well. i have got to move forward, although i have lost my home. five years ago in hemsby, three homes were washed away following a storm surge.

this time, all of the houses are still standing. the question is now whether they can ever be made safe enough for their owners to return home. now it's time for meet the author. blake morrison has packed a lot into his career. a former newspaper literary editor, he became a full—time writer in 1995 and has gone on to publish award—winning novels, poetry and nonfiction. he's probably best known for his bestselling memoir, "and when did you last see your father?", which was turned into a film starring colin firth. so, perhaps it is entirely fitting that his latest novel is about writers. the executor follows a man who becomes the literary executor of an old friend and poet, and the moral dilemmas he faces when he uncovers unpublished and potentially explosive material. blake morrison, the executor raises

a whole host of ethical issues, not least of which is what's more important, the right to privacy or the right to freedom of expression? what was the starting point for the novel? i suppose i have been very conscious in recent years of a lot of controversies about writers publishing stuff that other people perhaps, members of the family, feel is painful, exposing, that they don't like. sometimes they seek legal action to stop such a book, or whatever it is, appearing. so, i think there are moral dilemmas for writers. and i think these days the rights of the written—about seem to have come to the fore. so, it is an old argument. but i think there have been lots of cases, particularly biographies, that have come out where

members of the family really objected to them. this question has become fresh again. because what happens in this book is that the wife of the poet objects to some of the poems that the executor, matt, has found. i suppose what is at the heart of that is what's more important, the wishes of the living or the wishes of the dead? where do you stand? is it a case of publish and be dammned? well, i'm a bit softer on all that. i like to think i would consult members of my family if something deeply sensitive was about to be published. and generally ask people. but then i know writers who are quite brutal about it. you know, they assert their right to write whatever they choose, and to hell with it. i think it's a balance to be struck. i think it's a matter of individual conscience. but certainly there are cases where you are going to expose other people by something you've written. and they're not always going to necessarily go along with it.

i think have been lucky, the memoirs i've written, i haven't had a huge comeback from my family, lots of people complaining or anything like that. but i am conscious of cases where that sort of thing has happened. there's a further twist in this book, if you like, in that it's notjust the reputation of the wife, it's actually the poet himself which could be damaged. i was very struck by one particular line, where you wrote, the life was one thing, the work another. a nasty man might still be a great poet. and looking at the, i don't know, alleged misdemeanours of someone like kevin spacey, i wondered how possible you thought it was to separate the art from the artist? i think, again, if you look to the history of writing, you're going to come across many authors who were not very nice people. i'm very conscious in my lifetime, because i met him, what a bad reputation philip larkin developed, the poet, after his death. and yet he seems to me one of the great 20th—century poets, and nothing that he wrote, for me, is tainted by the fact

that he was accused of racism and misogyny and so on. so, i think this is a really difficult one. could i now watch a kevin spacey film and not be troubled, knowing what i know about him? i like to think that maybe, yes, the integrity of the film doesn't suffer from what we know about the man. but i would assert it all the more in the case of writers. yes, unless, isuppose, it implies tacit approval on our part, if we continue to read their work, watch the films etc? yeah, i think we can like the work and condemn the person for their actions in their private life. but the art, the work, it does, for me, always stand a little apart from the life. there's another line in the book where the poet says there's no point being a poet now, if you're white, middle—aged, middle—class and english, you are a dinosaur. i did just wonder if there are white, middle—class, young english male poets watching this, are you telling them to give up now?

no, i certainly wouldn't do that. you have to allow for the particular guy who is saying this, rob, who's just got to that point of becoming a grumpy old man. he feels a bit sidelined. he's had enormous success early in his career, and now he looks around and sees a younger generation, a generation of people where gender and ethnicity are perhaps different from his, and he misses the success he had. so i think you've got to allow for his prejudice. no, i think any young, talented poet should just keep going. robert pope also says at one point poets should not get involved in politics. is that something that you think writers should stay out of, current affairs? no, i think there can be a voice, i think in my own writing i've sometimes done something that could count as a sort of political intervention. because i think sometimes works of fiction, poetry, or different kind of nonfiction journalism can shed light on a public issue, a political issue, wherejournalists, and newspapers, and the media generally have presented

it in a certain way, along comes a writer with a different kind of take, a different sort of insight. so, i've always had this argument with wh auden, who famously said poetry makes nothing happen. i think in a very subtle way, poetry, like anything else, can make things happen. and you have had experience of this as well, when you wrote your book about the james bulger trial, "as if". and i know in that book you said he felt that his killers shouldn't have been tried as adults, and you received quite a lot of abuse for that view, as a result. did that make you more cautious about getting involved in speaking out on topics of the day? i don't think so. i mean, i recently reiterated my belief that ten—year—old boys should not be tried in an adult court. which is, you know, whatever horrible crime that was committed by the two boys, and i'm not denying that, i watched that court case, i was in that court,

and i just felt the whole process of little boys being tried in court was wrong. i continue to say that. i don't think i'm very popular for saying that, and my son said to me, "don't go on twitter, dad. you don't want to read what they're saying about you on twitter." but, you know, writers have to be prepared to stick their neck out occasionally for something they believe in. and i do believe strongly that it age of criminal responsibility in this country is too low. it's much lower than the rest of the world, really. since 2003, you've been professor of creative and life writing at goldsmiths university. and again, in the book, robert pope articulates the view that creative writing cannot be taught. which is interesting, given your position. what do you think? i think it can. do you? well, put it this way, i think skills can be learned, undoubtedly skills can be learned. writers can be helped to develop, they can learn certain techniques. yes, in the end, perhaps talent

is innate, talent is crucial too. but i totally disagree with robert pope on that one. i've seen how students have come along, been helped, gone on to be published and so on. they've acquired skills that, without going on a creative writing course, they might never have acquired. you're probably still best known for your memoir, "when did you last see your father?" do you mind the fact that it's a book that you wrote back in 1993 that people still most associate you with? it would be nice if i had a big success with something now. but, you know, it's inevitable and i'm very touched, and moved, when people still come up to me and say thank you for writing that book, it helped me grieve over my father, or whatever they say. it does bring us back, i suppose, finally, to literary legacies, which is where we began. do you ever wonder how you will be remembered? i try not to think about it too much, because it feels as if,

if you're worrying about that too much at my age, you're kind of writing off whatever time is left to you. so, i haven't appointed a literary executor. i've no idea what will happen after i go, and what will be left behind. and i try not to think about it too much. blake morrison, really good to talk to you. i've enjoyed it. thank you. good evening. sunday has been another wintry day. we've had ice and snow across many parts of the country and temperatures very low for the time of year. here's the scene in devon earlier on in the day. now, we've still got an amber warning in force from the met office. between ten to 20 centimetres of snow across parts of devon and cornwall. that's valid until 3am this morning. there's still some snow flurries across parts of southern england. they're going to be pushing their way west, merging with this snow in the south—west and there could be

another five centimetres here through the night. further north across the country, there are one or two scattered snow showers for parts of north—east england and eastern parts of northern ireland. scotland, i think mostly dry and clear and it stays bitterly cold. having a look through sunday night then, we've still got this easterly wind across all of the country. it is high pressure in charge as we head through into monday, so that should keep a lot of dry weather on the scene, but certainly it will be a cold start to monday morning. so here, the temperatures in the towns and cities, lower than this in the countryside, in fact it could be as low as minus eight degrees first thing monday morning across rural parts of scotland. particularly cold where you've got the snow cover and through the day on monday it does look like a dry day. a few snow showers at the far south of england, channel islands, for instance, seeing a little bit of snow through the morning. most other places look dry through the day. there will be some sunshine, but a bit more cloud moves in for parts of eastern scotland and eastern england as well. now, heading through the week ahead, things will eventually be turning milder. there will be some rain later on in the week, but we start off on a largely dry note with this big area of high

pressure, just moving further southwards across western part of the uk. so that keeps us with a north—easterly breeze through tuesday. things still fairly chilly, particularly in the south and the east, where we will see a weather front bringing a few rain showers. but actually, elsewhere, a lot of dry weather. probably the best of the sunshine through parts of western scotland, north—west england and wales too and temperatures around about six to 9 degrees, so creeping closer to where they should be for the time of year. heading into the middle of the week and you will notice the yellow colours starting to return to the map, indicating some milder air moving in from the south—west. through the day and wednesday it will be southern and eastern parts should be largely dry and bright. towards the north—west though, more cloud bringing a few outbreaks of rain. temperatures still on the cool side, but back into double figures, around eight to 10 degrees. goodbye for now. this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at 8pm. vladimir putin looks set for victory in russia's presidential election. we'll have reaction

and analysis from moscow, with my colleague lucy hockings, in a few moments. the foreign secretary accuses russia of stockpiling the nerve agent thought to have been used on a former spy and his daughter in salisbury. ‘s travel disruption and school closures in the south west from the east" brings snow and ice to much of the uk. also coming up... teetering on the brink. residents from clifftop chalets in norfolk are told to evacuate their homes, at risk of coastal erosion due to the high tide. mps demand answers from facebook, after accusations that data from millions of users‘ profiles is being mishandled without consent. and an arts and textiles teacher from north west london becomes