and you've told the story through dunstan's voice. yes.e, i hope i've got it right — what is an opening line but a door being opened by an unseen hand? something like that, sorry if i've got... but opening lines are important. that's a good one. it is, but that's the beginning of the prologue. the beginning of the first chapter is "i think i could have hung there all day if they hadn't broken my hands." which i... you see, for me, i do like that a little more. the whimsical quality of writing in the first person meant that i had this old man's voice. and as i was saying earlier, i had to cut some of that out, because you couldn't be too rambling. what's the difficulty of writing in an old man's voice? you're not an old man. no, but i've known a few. my father was 90 when he died and i'm familiar with the way they tell stories, as i heard them so many times. the trouble with that is an old man will tell the same story more than once. i was playing with the fact could i actually do that in a text? and the answer is no, honestly, you can't. i

dunstan came out only two, three months ago, and that's an interesting book, because it's set, as it wont up to now, in a particular historical period, in the england of what people misleadingly called the dark ages. it's told in the first person, which you've never done before. no. to some extent i do like to challenge myself, but i came across dunstan when i was reading dickens's a child's history of britain to my children, as i'm sure you do. he described dunstan, who was a saint and archbishop of canterbury, as a complete rogue and involved in the selling into slavery of a queen. so... you thought, "hang on." i thought this is a good character here. i thought if he's both a monster and a saint at the same time, then i've got another genghis khan, if you like, which is too strong. but i liked genghis because he was hated by his enemies and loved by his own family. i look for that sort of humanising quality. i want them to be rich and varied and interesting, as he is. and, of course, it's a very interesting period in english history. it is, is fascinating, because its book ended by

and you've told the story through dunstan's voice. yes. i've got... but opening lines are important. that's a good one. it is, but that's the beginning of the prologue. the beginning of the first chapter is "i think i could have hung there all day if they hadn't broken my hands." which i... you see, for me, i do like that a little more. the whimsical quality of writing in the first person meant that i had this old man's voice. and as i was saying earlier, i had to cut some of that out, because you couldn't be too rambling. what's the difficulty of writing in an old man's voice? you're not an old man. no, but i've known a few. my father was 90 when he died and i'm familiar with the way they tell stories, as i heard them so many times. the trouble with that is an old man will tell the same story more than once. i was playing with the fact could i actually do that in a text? and the answer is no, honestly, you can't. if you're writing about a young man, described by the old man, you have to do the young man's voice, you have to to cut out som

south—east london, catford hill is closed between the south circular and exbury road, that is near st dunstan'sght last night. we are hanging on that air today. now, we have got a bright start. a bit of cloud around, but sunny spells should develop, and yes, it is still going to feel very warm. now, this cloud will start to the then break and we will get the sunshine breaking through. the uv levels, of course, high, pollen levels high as well. now, we will start to feel an easterly wind developing. feel that across the essex coast, helping a little, perhaps, is not going to feel quite as warm as it did yesterday. we are going to be looking at a maximum of 26, maybe 27 celsius. we had a bit of a breakdown from this warm, hot and humid weather overnight tonight. some heavy, thundery showers moving through. frequent lightning expected through. frequent lightning expected through this evening. gradually, early hours tomorrow morning, they will have cleared. the minimum temperatures, though, again a very uncomfortable night. within the m25, 1819dc. a bit of cloud around tomorrow. the chance of a sho