Well it won’t be quite midsummer, but near enough. I have the honour of conversing with the brilliant Mark Cocker as part of the Belfast Book Festival on 7th June. Mark is over to talk about his latest book on swifts, and of course, where the Crescent Arts Centre is not only home to the Belfast Book Festival, it’s also home to a large swift colony.

I am really looking forward to this event and having the chance to converse with Mark at length. He is one of Britain’s greatest-ever nature writers, and the erudition and poetry of his writing pervades every sentence of his work. I also have the great honour of being his colleague as a fellow contributor to The Guardian’s Country Diary (famously, the oldest newspaper column in the world).

If you haven’t already booked your ticket, get cracking. And if you want to read a bit more about Mark check this wonderful article by Irish News contributor and author, Ruby Free.