Equality

Stephen K Amos pictured here outside the Russian Consulate on Melville Street mid-afternoon. He was appearing along with Joe Lycett, Susan Calman, Chris Coltrane, Zoe Lyons, Dana Alexander in a free street gig hosted and organised by Mark Thomas in conjunction with the Equality Network, protesting against Vladimir Putin's recent anti-LGBT legislation. The right message was sent, the acts were good, the rain kept off and the men on the bicycles powering the generator never let up for a minute.

Bit of a dash around on the domestic front after all that for a few hours before heading down to Unbound later on at the book festival for the Faber Social evening - Michael Smith, Kate Mosse, Luke Wright and DBC Pierre. I really liked Michael (so much so that I was thinking about what he'd been reading - his new book about life in London (from the perspective of 'the last of the Northern romantics' or 'perhaps the finest writer ever to come from Hartlepool' if you prefer) that I wasn't really listening to Kate ( sorry Kate!), DBC Pierre was amusing in a shambolic way and poet Luke Wright went down an absolute storm with his mix of outright humour and downbeat tenderness.

Best have a tune, summat in keeping with the afternoon's event.