Chris Durkin, 1966 and all that.

I met Chris in 1966 as 11 year olds. We lost touch for over 40 years until I discovered him living less than a quarter of a mile away from me. we had been neighbours for years, drank in the same pubs, attended the same gigs. funny old world.

Chris is exhibiting his paintings at The Tabernacle Gallery next month.

Below is a taste of his work.

Gateway Women Coaching group.

Dear Friends,

There are still 6 places left on the Gateway Women Coaching Group which takes place on Saturday mornings 10-11am in Notting Hill.

All the info is in the flyer below and if you click on the image it will take you to the Gateway Women website - or use this link to take you directly to the page:http://wp.me/PssHp-2W

I would be so grateful if you could forward this email to any women you know who would have liked to have had a family (or who are still hoping it will work out).

The Group is intimate, friendly and safe and completely groundbreaking.

I am now a qualified counsellor and am part way through my training to be a psychotherapist - so it's is a safe, fun and supportive space. We'll be doing exercises to help us uncover some of our unconscious issues around motherhood, and techniques for finding our missing mojo. The first week was last Saturday and the Group will be running for another 9 weeks till Saturday 26th November.

Please don't hesitate to contact me for further info jody@gateway-women.com

Thanks for your help in spreading this important work - with 1 in 5 women now not having children, there's a lot of work to be done changing attitudes around being childless -- or childfree as I prefer to term it!

Thanks again, Jody x

JODY DAY
Founder: Gateway Women

jody@gateway-women.com
www.gateway-women.com

5 X 15 Unbound, Alan Yentob and fish pie.

The Tabernacle took a literary turn yesterday. Alan Yentob, armed with a BBC film crew, was interviewing Kate Mosse in the conservatory during the afternoon prior to a special, one off, 5 X 15 Unbound, in the auditorium.

I managed to have a chat with Alan during a break, on the theme of the evenings event; the future of the book. The word Kindle featured quite prominently. I suggested that Kindle may indeed be the way forward until we hit the post I.T. winter. It occurred to me that one day storytelling will return to it's natural medium; spoken narrative. Curious how we seem to have forgotten that books, certainly books

available to the general public, are quite a recent arrival.

5 X 15 Unbound: Here's the idea: you will be treated to an evening of riotous literary entertainment as 10 authors go head-to-head pitching ideas for books they would really like to write.

Authors include the international bestselling novelist Kate Mosse, Booker shortlisted comic novelist Tibor Fischer and creator of cult 90s TV show This Life, Amy Jenkins. Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, Carpool) will be presenting his utopian fantasy, News from Gardenia. Graham Smith will offer up We Can Be Heroes - a lavishly illustrated insider's account of London's club scene in the early 80s.

Vitali Vitaliev, the Russian Bill Bryson, presentsCattivo Recordo, a journey through italy in search of a bad meal. Keith Kahn-Harris, a sociologist and expert on Jewish heavy metal shares Big Fish, Small Ponds, his attempt to find obscure heroes (like the best waterskier in Luxembourg). George Chopping, former Sainsbury's 'shelf replenishment technician' now performance poet unleashes Shelf-stacker Blues. Elliot Rose (aka awarding winner novelist Will Davis) reads fromDemonica, his chilling tale of a woman who loses her face (and also performs an aerial trapeze display piece). And sensational Oxford band Little Fish unveil The New Official Little Fish Paper Club Handbook, a guide to starting modern rock band and perform their new single. After they've all delivered their pitches we'll be gathering everyone's (silent) pledges.

The auditorium was packed, with a peppering of literary names and the odd rock star in attendance. It was a light hearted affair and made a change from the usual 5 x 15 format.

Chef Mark Richardson Knocked up a fish pie for the event which I can assure you was splendid.

The next 5 X 15, back in it's usual guise will be on Monday September 19th with AS Byatt, Misha Glenny, Simon Baron Cohen, Lucy Worsley and Alexander Masters

Alan Yentob's telly thing will be shown in November on the BBC.