Oxford Literary Festival

This is William Golding's centenary year - he was born on 19 September 1911 - and the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival will dedicate the afternoon of Saturday 9th April to
A Celebration of Golding, which will be held in Merton College's new T.S.Eliot Theatre. At 2.00 I shall talk to Golding's daughter Judy Carver about her memoir of her father, The Children of Lovers, which will be published in May, and at 3.30 I'll chair a dicussion of Golding and Evil with Booker Prize-winning novelist Penelope Lively and the philosopher John Gray, famous for Straw Dogs and a series of other brilliant and challenging books. At 5.00 the acclaimed documentary maker and TV producer Anthony Wall will introduce archive footing of Golding on film and will discuss the film about Golding he will be making later this year in the BBC's Arena series.

On the bee front, things look good - so far. I went up to the hives on Saturday and the bees from all three hives were flying strongly, enjoying the spring sunshine and taking in pollen. But March is a notoriously tricky time for bees - colonies often falter this month even if they have survived the winter. So we shall see.