A mortifying moment of last year was when my mum insisted I go say hi to James Meek at the Orwell prize event in London. He’d just won the book prize for his collection of essays (essential reading if you want to understand why modern Britain is so messed up) and I made the mistake of telling her my actual goal in life was to write with as much elegance and art. She pushed me forward to ‘network’ (why didn’t I inherit more of that chutzpah?!) and I thrust my hand out, mumbled something and scurried away, while he looked slightly confused.
On the plus side, I was in a room with Mr Meek cause I’d been shortlisted for my journalism alongside some of the bigger beasts of British reporting, which was pretty exciting.
I got a lovely write up from my tireless champions at openDemocracy and Lacuna:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/orwell_prize_once/
http://theorwellprize.co.uk/shortlists/filter/type-Journalism%20Prize/year-2015/
Banner photo by Matthias Guntrum Some rights reserved
