Red and black

Che Guevara's daughter was in Waterstones this evening signing copies of her mother's memoir about life with her father. The queue snaking out of the door and onto Broad Street was full of romantic grey-haired lefties and assorted eccentrics (probably almost identical sets this evening) swapping email addresses. I was invited for coffee by a founder of the Dangerous Sports Club - the first person to perform a modern bungee jump, in 1979 - and chatted with people from the Cuba Solidarity and the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaigns.

I have inside information that the photographer from the Oxford Mail wasn't quite sure why he was there until a bookseller explained who Che Guevara was. Made me feel terribly old.

On the way out I thought I heard the faint rattle of miners' strike buckets.

I am off for a few days for some green, some grey, and almost certainly some wet in a place with liberating phone reception. I shall backblip and back-comment as necessary.