March 2008 Archives

Forgive the silence folks. It's been an insanely busy 4 weeks. And the best is yet to come.

10 days and counting until the Muslim Writers Awards hits Brum. Jermaine Jackson is flying over especially for it to join the 1000 strong global guest list and its being aired live to millions of people across the world. Yours truly has pulled the short straw as host for the evening so pray for me please!

It's hugely comforting though to be part of such a fantastic team. They are all working over time and last night we had our penultimate steering group meeting. Between the nervous laughter and slightly less gentle digs at one another, everything is pretty much on target - from confirmed bums on seats to the awesome technical wizardry and brute force of our PR machine. When I left, only the odd heartbeat was going awry.

The Chief Executive of the City Council, Stephen Hughes, has shown a tremendous amount of foresight and leadership in his support of this event. He understands that it will help promote Brum on the global stage as a global City to new audiences and new investors, as well as contributing to building stronger and more integrated communities.

Our PR agent, who also happens to be the Baron of Ballencrieff, asked us yesterday what the perfect headline the morning after would read. After various grandiose and fanciful attempts we humbly uttered: "British Muslims make the Difference Write now" - which kind of gets close to my belief in the power of the arts and inparticularly the written word, to do nothing less but change the world. We can but dream!

Check out the website at www.muslimwritersawards.com. We are reserving a few seats for MAIL readers so if you want to come, do get in touch!