I had a call this morning from the charming and multi-talented Rowan Hand, who presents a programme on Five FM on Saturday mornings, asking if I would like to come in to the studio to talk about Still On The Sound. Rowan's style is very informal and I think the idea is to read a few passages and chat for an hour, during which I get to choose some pieces of music.
Rowan always asks about my mother, as they got to know each other while mum was a BBC Governor. If this wasn't enough to endear him to me, he has always had a good word for my father - progressive and liberal-minded, he understood and appreciated my father's efforts in the area of cross-community cooperation at government level in Northern Ireland.
Rowan tells me his chief preoccupation at the moment is with the charity he founded, the Newry Africa Link, which supports projects run by the Society of African Missions in northwest Nigeria, including the construction of schools and hospitals. I know he is a tireless and passionate operator for the charity, which according to the website works on a simple principle: "Better to light a candle than to sit in the dark".Not that there was ever any doubt about going on the programme, but when he said that Still On The Sound has been sitting on his bedside table between Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, it was a done deal.
