Matt Haig at Newark Book Festival: Notes on Nervous Planet

Myself and Michelle had a fantastic afternoon at Newark Book Festival.  We visited all of the bookshops and chatted to lots of like minded people.  It was very hot though!!

We discovered that we both have a desire to publish a book; me - writing one, and Michelle -  illustrating one.  We planned our future over scones and lemonade.

In the evening we went along to see Matt Haig at Newark Theatre.  This had been an idea of Michelle's as she has a book by him. While speaking to one of the writers in the market square, she was good enough to tell us that Matt would be signing copies before the event, so we got there early and were very lucky indeed.  Here I am with my signed copy (Matt wrote 'Calm Reading') of Notes On A Nervous Planet with Matt and Michelle:

When we got into the venue itself, we were lucky enough to have front row seats and to see Tim Rideout in the interviewers seat.  Tim recently interviewed Ann Cleeves when we went to see her at The Collection.

Matt was a great speaker - especially when you realised his latest book is about dealing with panic attacks and anxiety.  It's a discussion of the links between what he felt and the world around him.  I love him just for having been blocked by Piers Morgan on Twitter.  He discussed the anxiety inducing effects of social media, and how he dealt with it.  One of the later chapters (in Notes on A...) says; 'Be aware of how much time you are spending on your phone, of how much the news is messing with your mind, of how your attitudes to work are changing, of how many pressures you feel, and how many of them stem from problems of modern life, of being connected into the world's nervous system.'

Notes On A Nervous Planet is exactly that.  Very short chapters highlighting things we need to focus on / think about.  His two page chapter entitled; 'We need the time we already have', finishes; 'we often find ourselves wishing for more hours in the day, but that wouldn't help anything.  The problem, clearly, isn't that we have a shortage of time.  Its more that we have an overload of everything else'.

He also discussed his love of Emily Dickinson poems and the metaphors and similes' of Graham Greene, and he told us all about his recent partnership - working on an album - with ex-Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows (Matt writing the lyrics) https://andyburrows.co.uk/#html-page   The album is entitled 'Reasons To Stay Alive' - the title of another one of Matt's books.

See: http://www.matthaig.com/