column writing. so as someone who hadn't done an awful lot ofjournalism and heriot—watt didn't have a student newspaper for the first couple of years we were there, my sense of being a journalist was about writing my thoughts and, of course, because i was 21 or 22, i also assumed that everybody would be interested in my thoughts, which, when i look back at it now is a little bit fanciful. well, i don't know, it does show a certain kind of confidence, which i really like, reading your book it made me wonder how much was your mum's influence. a lot of it had to do with my mum and my upbringing. my mum was born in barbados, came to britain as a 19—year—old, was first a nurse and then became a teacher. had three kids, then my dad left when i was 15 months old — i was the youngest. and so she had this project. we were her project.