Benjamin Zephaniah

After a busy day which included washing, making a birthday cake, working on the Japan book, we went to Dosa, a South Indian street food place in Jesmond to meet the family to celebrate Mr C’s birthday.

The food was really tasty and all the children like dosa. They all had made Grangrand, as James calls him still, lovely cards. Then the dad’s took the children home to bed and we and daughters got the metro to Gateshead. (Didn’t drive as we thought the roads would be busy with Ed Sheeran being on at the Arena.)


We weren’t at that gig - we went to the Sage to hear Benjamin Zephaniah. We couldn’t believe the last time we saw him was 24 years ago in the Angel in Bury St Edmunds with about 50 people in the audience. His dreads are a lot longer now, right below his behind. He’s 60, but his audience hadn’t all grown old with him. Some children were there and young adults as well as older people. His poems were funny, angry, touching and pertinent. His parting shot was to say “don’t put your faith in priests and politicians. They’ll always let you down”.