Ladies and gentlemen, renegades and travellers – this is my new blog. It is the first blog I’ve ever written… and I put it off for too long, because I didn’t really know where to begin. But you have to start somewhere. So here goes.
It has been quite a week, with one thing and another. First, as you can see from glancing at the previous post, my new book ‘Meet me in Gaza’ is very soon to be published!! It is based on my year and a half inside the Gaza Strip, and is about the people that I met there, their stories, their salty jokes, and their dreams, lived out amidst the siege of their land. It’s been a very long road, but I am thrilled that finally it is going to be out in the world on June 3, and will be blogging more about it on the run-up to publication. The cover photo is one of my own, taken on the beach in Gaza in summer: hopefully it conveys how there’s also joy inside Gaza, alongside the bad news, which is all we hear.
Meanwhile, I am currently languishing in central London, staying on the couch of a generous friend. I am waiting for a visa for entry to a faraway land, rebels permitting. It’s a long story, and one that I will follow in my next post (you see, I’m warming up already!). London is fine, I’ve lots of good friends here, and hope to be leaving by the end of next week, if my visa comes through. In the meantime I went out the other day and fulfilled one of my long-term ambitions on Friday. I got my first tattoo. I’m ridiculously proud of myself for actually going through with it: and you know, it didn’t hurt half as much as I thought it would. It was more like being burnt for fifteen minutes than anything. Hmm…. Anyway, it is small and perfectly formed. A beautiful word. I think everyone should go out and get one!
Ok, that’s it for now… More soon. Thanks for reading this.
