But by bit some of this will not come true that families who are suffering will suffer more. come true that families who are suffering will suffer more. I am afraid it is here to stay. We we still have a large Public Sector deficit. So let the rich pay more. I dont mind, do you . On top of this. And every conversation i hear on the subject is about social housing is well. Please do more about this. I think the Housing Market is broken. We need to build twice as many houses. In 1968 they we re twice as many houses. In 1968 they were building twice as many houses as they are today yes, but they were building an affordable houses. 50 housing. You have opened a can of worms. These are bank of england statistics. A lot more houses. The market will take care of it. We will keep talking but we will say goodbye for now. You can watch this on my player. Stay with us here on bbc news because next we have meet the author. Claire tomalin is one of our great biographers. Her subjects have included samuel pepys, jane austen, dickens and hardy. Now shes done what many biographers dont do shes written about herself. A life of my own is her story, her family and her loves, the tragedies and joys in her life, the literary world in which she found her calling, her craft, welcome. Having spent so much time dealing with the detail of other peoples lives, trying to sort out truths from falsehoods, was it difficult to take the plunge and hold a mirror up to your own life . I think it was the most difficult book i have ever tried to write. I found it very painful and i asked myself quite often, should i be doing this, shall i go on with it, shall i give up . There are a lot of tragedies in your life which we might touch on but as a whole, its an extraordinary life, full of fun and friendship as well. Why did you find it so tough . Because i had to address, really, really sad things that happened, particularly the death of my beloved and wonderful daughter, susanna. Who took her own life . Who took her own life. And i wanted her to be there. I felt she was such a remarkable person. And i also feel that the care of depressed young people, we all know, its not as good as it ought to be, and i suppose i blamed myself in a way, that i hadnt kept her alive. You had to deal with your feelings, you husband, nick tomlin, who was killed, in the yum kippur war, a terrible tragedy but you have had ups and downs of extraordinary kind during your marriage and its tough to write about that . Yes. But i saw, i learned something from it. I saw that first of all, probably i shouldnt have married him. We were great friends and lovers and we had fun together but we were not really soul mates. And every time he ran off with a blonde and i was left with the children it had a good effect on me, because i thought, ive got to cope, ive got make my life, ive got to get a betterjob. And if you look at my life, when i came to look, i saw that each time he did something really dreadful, i grew and progressed so that most sadly, i mean it was terrible when he was killed, but i had in a way been prepared to cope. And in dealing with your own feelings at the time, in the 505 when you were a student through the 605 the tumultuos 705, fleet street, the literary world, it must be difficult to write about friends and friendships with real honesty . Well, i think my friendships with Terry Kilmartin who, was literary editor of the observer, who was a wonderful friend to me, with kyle miller with neil atherton, with michael frane, who in the end became my husband but for many years was a friend to me, with sarah foreman, who was at the sunday times, who i must not leave out, marina warner, victoria glendenning, who was a great friend, because we both had children, we were both making our way in the literally world and we had such fun together. You moved in that literally world of newspapers, magazines, the new statesman, the sunday times, you became literally editor and in the late 605 and the 705 these were exhilarating times, in that world, werent they . I was very lucky. I meanjournalism was booming. I had these brilliant friends and it was a very entertaining world to be part of, yes. And newspapers and magazines in those days, to an extent which i think it isnt there now, really cared about the original poetry, the job of the critic, about what the literary pages should do. It was thought as being important. I thought they were very important. I thought they really mattered. Well they did. I thought to address literature and the arts seriously and write seriously about them and entertainingly, which he these very, very funny review vorax like the brilliantjohn cary, i thought that was very important. And i thought each week, i must make my pages the best pages. There must be something on my pages, that everybody has to, people who dont usualally look at the book page, will want to read, and that was my goal. In some ways, its a book, in part of course, about your family, but also about what it was like in that era. Through the 605 when things opened up, when a sort of deferential social attitude gave way to something wilder and more spontaneous. Our sexual life changed. Well, absolutley, that was it. I mean i put in the book, the moment in 1963, when id had my fourth baby, and i went to my gynaecologist and he leaned forward over the desk and held up a packet and said i think you might like these. These are pills that will stop you getting pregnant. And i said, yes yes absolutely and i saw at that moment that things had changed between men and women. Theres a great deal in the book about your growing affection for the english language, for literature, your discovery of thomas hardy, for example, whom you came to deal with as a biographer much later in life and the start of yourjourney into samuel pepys, and Mary Woolstonecraft of course. With Mary Woolstonecraft, i was a0 when i wrote that book, my first book. And i fell in love with the whole process with research and writing. And i realised at once that i had found my mitre. And you would always do that. But then i couldnt. I had to earn my living. You cant earn your living from writing biographies. So i was very lucky to have the job at the sunday times and when i left the sunday times after wapping in 1986 i was able then, in my 505 to start on my career as a writer and for the next 25 years i wrote historical biographers and i was very, very happy doing it. Well, theres an enormous amount of happiness in this book, despite all the ups and downs and indeed the tragedies, you seem to be somebody who is somehow able to cope to a remarkable degree . Yes, well, that is true but you do have to cope. If you dont cope. Whats left . You might as well give in. And i think i learned to cope a bit in childhood. I was a child who was disliked by my father and loved by my mother. And i had that curious experience as a small child of realising this, of being well aware that my father didnt like me, and that my mother was my supporter and the person who loved me. Your father was french and lived into his 905. Yes. How did the relationship change . I think when he began to realise that i was a clever child. When he began to want to have a divorce from my mother, he spoke to the Family Doctor and said, you know, what about the children. She said, well you dont need to worry about claire, but a shes very clever. This had never occurred to my father. He was always surprised. Very surprised when i got into cambridge, very surprised when i got a first. He said, thats all very well, you need secretarial training. I mean at my wedding to michael, when he was in his 905 to which he came, he said, you never crease to surprise me, claire i began by asking you how difficult it had been to decide to do this and to write honestly about your own life, the difficulties, the joys and the 5adne55e5, what was it like when you fini5h . Ed what did you you feel when you finally 5ent off that manu5cript . I felt maybe i shouldnt plu5h this book and i hadnt written quit enough. And my very good editor, anita butterfield, wrote me a letter 5aying, look, there are things you havent 5aid, there are things you havent really said about writing your books and that matters. And she made me write some more. It was very good advice. Are you happy youve done it . Yes, i am happy ive done it. I mean, when i was young, andre doitch said to me, youve had an interesting life, you should write a novel. But i said, im not a novelist. But then i began to think but i have to a story to tell. Everybody has a story to tell. Your life is material, you know. Even if, i mean you have to deal with everything, an affair with martin amis, which everyone would notice. My most famous affair. Well, it was an Office Romance and it was very short and it was very delightful. And there we are. These are the things that make up a fascinating life. Thank you. Claire tomalin, author of a life of my own, thank you very much. Hello once again. Something rather less 5teamy then well come back to the british weather, which was a real mi5match today. At times there was some heat in the sun, when you got into the blue 5pot5, but no di5gui5ing the fa ct blue 5pot5, but no di5gui5ing the fact there were plenty of showers to be had and even when it wasnt showering on occasions it looked like it would and for some it certainly did. Thankfully many of those have now died away, theres a little nose of High Pressure thats come in to settle things down ahead of the next set of atlantic fronts and here i can show you the last couple of hours of radar frames and theres only a trickle from the irish sea to and into the south west, really showing up ahead of the next weather systems. Through the next few hours where the skies clear behind that showery regime weve had through the day, the temperatures will fall away acro55 the sandy sores of east anglia and the sandy sores of east anglia and the south east, four or five degrees. Maybe an early dip before we get the early blanket of cloud coming over that you saw on the satellite to the western side scotla nd satellite to the western side scotland and Northern Ireland. A wet start here, what a contrast with the south east, the midlands, central and southern england. The odd passing shower here perhaps and when the sun has been out for a couple of oui the sun has been out for a couple of our temperatures coming back nicely, 13 or 1a. Out towards the west through the western side of wales and into the north west of england certainly, and of cloud here for the odd showery burst ahead of the main weather front and then this great raft of cloud tied in with a big area of low pressure to the west of scotla nd area of low pressure to the west of scotland and then certainly pushing its way to Northern Ireland too. All of which means if you dont get your skates on in the great north run then youll end up getting quite wet. Not the hottest days, perfect running conditions for those that can get around before the rain sets in. Those of you who may take the odd hour or two longer, well, that rain will come to see you at home over the line in south shields. Ahead of that again towards south east and east anglia, you wont stay dry until getting on for early tea time and following on from that weather front, maybe one or two brighter spells. Then i think the main event in the early part of monday is this tightening of the isobars and if we have the sums right that be 50 or 60 mph worth of wind in the far south west. Word on monday itself, a blustery old do with plenty of showers going around. Tha nkfully with plenty of showers going around. Thankfully something a wee bit quieter come tuesday. This is bbc news. Im james coomarasamy. Our top stories. Cuba is the latest victim of Hurricane Irma as the storm rages along the islands northern coast tearing through towns and villages and knocking out communications. Even those places that were supposed to serve as safe havens like the capital havana, are now under hurricane warning the eye of the storm is now moving towards florida where 6. 5 Million People have been ordered to leave their homes. The death toll rises to 65 in mexico as emergency workers continue to hunt for survivors of thursdays earthquake. Also in the programme here in britain Manchester Arena reopens with a benefit concert, more than three months after the terrorist attack that killed 22 people
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