The Coronavirus crisis poses existential questions for The Arts as for so much of society. Everyone at NUCoL is doing what we can to adapt to the new situation. Our mission remains the same, building a better world with words, chiefly by fostering literacy and well-being through creative writing. In particular, we’re supporting our young people and our city’s writers, whose work was recognised by Nottingham’s UNESCO status. Reading and writing are crucial tools to help us through these times. I have three books on the go, a challenging novel, a huge, fact-filled biography and, my bedtime comfort read, an omnibus of 60s novels by the great US crime writer, Ross MacDonald. Most of the creative writers I know are, like me, not finding it…

Getting used to the new normal is going to be testing. It’s hard to concentrate on writing at the moment but moving what can be moved online is keeping me busy. Meanwhile NUCoL is gearing up to meet this challenge and work out how best we can continue our mission of building a better world with words. Tomorrow’s launch of the MyVoice book at the Council House has had to be postponed, which is very sad for the students involved and our staff who have spent so much time working on it. But the book will be available soon and we’re making new plans. Talking of which… Next week I was due to meet one of my favourite novelists, Geoff Nicholson, a Sheffield born author…

David Baddiel’s a busy guy. Already this year he’s made a powerful documentary, Confronting Holocaust Denial (available on BBC iPlayer until March 19th), as well as debuting tonight’s show, about social media. The gig sold out so quickly that a matinee was added. That sold out too. He’s preceded by three minutes’ worth of onscreen tweets, one describing his look at an awards show as ‘Aldi Jeff Goldblum,’ a gag that he, naturally, embraces. How much you like this show will depend partly on how much you like Twitter, which Baddiel happily confesses that he is addicted to (I can relate). If I were trolling him, I’d be tempted to point out that tonight’s generous two hours must have been one of the easier shows…

Judy Collins is a folk-rock legend, both as a songwriter in her own right (‘My Father’) and as an interpreter of others (she discovered Leonard Cohen and was first to record early songs by both him and Joni Mitchell). At 80, her long silver hair as big as ever, she shows no sign of slowing down. She says she recently played over 115 shows with Stephen Stills, who wrote ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ about her. Tonight, she is accompanied by Russell Walden on piano and begins with Jimmy Webb’s ‘The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress’. You can never get enough Jimmy Webb and she is one of his finest interpreters. The first hour is a mix of songs and storytelling. All the greats turn out to…

Every year since 1989, my partner Sue and I have sent a compilation of our favourite music released in the previous year to friends near and far. Since 2001 they’ve been on CD (before that: cassette, 8 track and eh… wire recording). And every year since 2005, in the run up to new year, I’ve written near daily sleeve notes to accompany the CD, with MP3s of the songs for those who don’t receive it. I know that some friends save up the CD and won’t read this until they’ve heard it. Fine. I start posting them this afternoon. Hey ho, let’s go. Listen to each song in the little players below each entry. Hot Chip – Melody of Love You have to start with…