Hey, it's CHRISTMAS!

OK, so there's a credit crisis, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan; political unrest in Greece, Somali pirates on the high seas; Zimbabwe... and some guy's been shifting 50 Billion dollars from company to company, bank account to bank account for ten years and nobody knows about it? Yeah, right! It's Christmas not April Fools!

And now we have all the multi-national corporations seizing the opportunity to balance their books and settle old scores, sacking staff and writing off billions of dollars from world money markets. Even the residents of Sark, the tiny little island off the English coast have gone all militant. It might seem as if all hell's breaking loose all over the world, and perhaps it is, but hey, it's Christmas!

Even those who don't celebrate Christmas recognise it as a wonderful time to re-charge the batteries. One can look forward to starting all over again... the grindstone, the recession, the electric bill up again, speeding tickets, or worse, parking tickets, newspapers with no news, the smell of napalm in the afternoon...

Righteo, now that's off the phlegmatic chest... hosted a couple of great events during November, the exceptionally warm and erudite poet, novelist and playwright Maureen Duffy and the equally brilliant playwright Georgia Fitch.

Maureen read from Family Values, her much vaunted recently published collection of poems at Stratford Library. She talked about her family connections to Newham and Stratford in particular and built up a beautiful mosiac of what it must have been like to live in Newham just after the war with her incredibly revealing reading style. She followed this by reading from her first novel That's How It Was - brilliant.

It was very exciting hearing her talking with the audience about the tremendous change taking place in the borough. Largely in favour of the massive investment and new opportunities in the area, I wondered if there was a tinge of regret lurking in the back of her mind about the diminishing indiginous culture. But hey, it's Christmas!

The following night saw the extraordinary talented Georgia Fitch at The Gate Library in Forest Gate. Completely at ease in home territory, so to speak, it was fascinating to witness her warm relationship with the audience and her natural ability to engage them with her ideas of what theatre means to her. Georgia regaled the standing-room-only audience with the story of her career from actor to producer to writer and certainly inspired a number of the people there who were keen to write plays for the stage and I have since heard from two of them who are indeed stepping onto that treadmill. There are plans to bring Georgia back to Newham to host a practical workshop for which you'll have to watch this space. Hey, it's Christmas!

Talking about Christmas, I went along to the press night of Theatre Royal Stratford East's panto Hansel & Gretel which I thought was wonderful. The music was great with some really energetic performances and a lovely panto-damish turn from Marcus Powell as Delberta. So, I 'm recommending this show to everyone, the kids are going to love it.

Looking ahead, 2009 is going to be an exciting year for creative writing in Newham, not least because at some point in January we launch a creative writing competition. What I like about this proposed competition is that it will be all inclusive, that means everyone has the chance to enter and perhaps win a prize with publishing opportunities. I'm not going to pre-empt the announcement of the event but again I say, watch this space.

I'm also going to be working on a unique event with young people and film and another event which I'm really excited about is a creative arts project with the Over 60's. In this youth-orientated world I hunger to hear the stories, the thoughts and opinions of the elder generation who have lived through some of the fastest technological advances since Man first picked up a rock and split the atom... well he didn't know he was splitting an atom- to him it was a walnut, but hey, it's Christmas!

It's been a great 2008, but 2009's gonna be greater!

All the best

Peace.