I’m not at all good at early starts but I click awake at 5.59, a minute ahead of the alarm clock. I’m ready to go when the taxi shows up at 6.30. I’m the first to arrive at Rob’s (our companions living much closer to him) but we’re on the road by seven, stopping only for a second breakfast somewhere on the M5. Traffic is light and we approach the festival site through back lanes. There’s no queuing whatsoever, in stark contrast to my 2000 experience (this diary will assume you’ve read my 2000 diary and the novel Festival). The main suspense is whether there’ll be room in the hospitality car park (there’s loads) and – now this is more familiar – when it will…

Piled around me are a borrowed tent (I left my old one at Glasto 2000), a sleeping roll, sleeping bag, toiletries, a towel, a baseball cap, giant torch, pillow, sweater, a kagoul, two polo shirts, shorts, a sweater, an REM t-shirt and two changes of underwear. Downstairs are 4 cds I’ve made for the journey, some food and a little alcohol. I just need to dig out my wellies, then choose what book I’m going to read (I have to read before going to sleep last thing at night, no matter where I am) and make some sarnies. I’ve finally finished the fat novel, Flicker, that I’ve been reading for the last week – it sagged a bit towards the end, unfortunately. I might take…

Welcome to the web-site of Nottingham novelist, David Belbin. The site includes a biography, a bibliography and a regularly updated diary discussing matters that might be of interest to readers. As a professional writer, I’m a firm believer in Samuel Johnson’s dictum: No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money. That said, a web-site is a useful promotional tool and readers will only keep coming back if the content is frequently refreshed. So it will be. Except when I’m away or immersed in writing a novel. There’ll probably be as much stuff about music as there is about literature. Indeed, the diary element begins with an account of the 2003 Glastonbury festival, following on from the 2000 diary (researching my novel Festival) that…

I was born in Sheffield, moved to Leicester when I was two and West Kirby, on the Wirral, when I was five. I’m the eldest of four children. When I was sixteen, we moved to Colne, in Lancashire, where my dad still lives. I went to university in Nottingham. I liked the city so much I’ve stayed here ever since. I still have strong ties with Sheffield though: my sister, youngest brother and oldest friend all live there. I did a degree in English Literature and American Studies. After graduating, I tried to write a novel but ended up becoming more of a full time activist – for CND, my trade union and the Labour Party. After eighteen months on the dole, I did a…

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS 1990 The Foggiest (Scholastic Hippo) 1993 Shoot The Teacher (Scholastic Point Crime = PC) 1994 Avenging Angel (PC)Final Cut (PC) 1995 The Beat: Missing Person (PC)Break Point (PC)The Beat: Black and Blue (PC) 1996 The Beat: Smokescreen (PC)Deadly Inheritance (PC)Dark Journey (Reed)The Beat: Asking For It (PC) 1997 The Beat: Dead White Male (PC)The Beat: Losers (PC)The Beat: Sudden Death (PC)Three Degrees of Murder: The David Belbin Collection (omnibus containing Avenging Angel, Final Cut and Deadly Inheritance) 1998 Love Lessons (Scholastic Press)The Beat: Night Shift (PC)Haunting Time (short stories – Five Leaves)The Beat: Victims (PC) 1999 Dying For You (PC, Chivers audio book)The Beat: Suspects (PC)Nicked (Barrington Stoke)Stanley Middleton At Eighty (Five Leaves, co-edited with Prof. John Lucas) 2000…