One of my favourite of Brian’s stories — the time he interviewed Al Pacino with his pockets full of live ammunition. The ending always makes me laugh out loud. He included this in his book On the Snap (Caught by the River, 2015). heavenlyrecordings.com/fanzine/on-t...

I will miss Brian more than I can say. He encouraged and mentored me as a writer and was a constant source of inspiration, advice and reading recommendations. I dedicated my first book to him so I hope he knew what he meant to me.

Me and my beloved Uncle Brian, c.1985. He sent me this pic a few years ago, explaining that it brought back fond memories of the day he first taught me how to light a crack pipe. Brian Case, 17.8.1937-13.7.2026. One of the UK's greatest writers on jazz and the funniest man I've ever known.

Thank you, Google tech overlords, for your confidence-inspiring greeting on my arrival in Bilbao

A proud moment for me — the first time I’ve seen my artwork hanging on someone’s wall! This is my drawing of a 400-year-old chestnut tree and its population of jackdaws at Hevingham church, Norfolk. Limited edition prints are available at Anteros Arts in Norwich, or by mail order if you DM me.

London’s only lighthouse, built in 1864 at Trinity Buoy Wharf. It was never used as a conventional lighthouse aiding ships on the Thames, but as a place where the Trinity House company could test lighting equipment for their other lighthouses and lightships.

Ghost signs on an old warehouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14: Ditchburn and Mare Shipbuilders Mather’s Whale Oil Extraction

This afternoon I interviewed Robert Elms about this book inside the SS Robin, an iron-hulled steamship moored in Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14. I am judging the event a huge success on the basis that no participants or audience members died of heatstroke.

One of the things I love best about Norfolk is that you can drive past a pretty little medieval church in the middle of nowhere, park up and push open the heavy old door, and find… this! Little Witchingham church, Norfolk NR9 5PA

My heart would like the Netherlands to do well in the World Cup. My eyes hope they exit at the earliest possible opportunity.

I’m delighted to say that after years of wondering whether drawing could be anything more than a hobby, I plucked up the courage to ask a gallery if they would sell my work and they said yes! Limited edition prints are now on sale at Anteros Arts Foundation, Norwich (www.anterosfoundation.com)

Just had half an hour to kill in Hampstead so I thought I’d track down a location I’ve wanted to visit for years…

Spotted this old students’ coat of arms in Worstead church, north Norfolk

A good evening‘s work…

This is a satisfying way to spend my Friday evening. Coming soon to a gallery near you (if you live in the Greater Norwich area).

Catching the last of the sunlight on the barley fields and oak trees over the road from us

I, too, have a head full of ducks at present (detail of a work very much in progress…)

I enjoyed how this one moves from a firm ‘Yes’, to it only being ‘expected’, to ‘here’s how we’ll let you know when it doesn’t run’ within three sentences.

Greetings from the former Bounty Bar where Ginsberg and the Beats used to drink, which sits a couple of floors underneath the flat where Burroughs accidentally shot his wife dead in 1951. Monterrey 122, Mexico City. I’ll raise a glass to Ginsberg here on his centenary.

Well, that was a fun way to spend my last night in Mexico!

What a thrill to be here in Mexico holding a copy of the new Latin American Spanish edition of my Joseph Roth biography, beautifully published by the University of Veracruz Press

Cactus and La Pirámide del Sol at the extraordinary ancient city of Teotihuacán, on the edge of Mexico City

Finished (I think!) — a redrawn and, I hope, improved first picture in my series of illustrations of the old song ‘The Fox and the Goose’. I’ve also included the second picture, which I drew some years ago.

I was meant to spend this evening at my publisher’s spring party, but instead I spent it at home, dosed up on antibiotics and drawing this new picture for my ‘Fox and the Goose’ series. I’ve a lot of work to do to make it look like a moonlit nighttime scene but I think it’s going to turn out okay.

I was feeling a bit grumpy that health problems have stopped me going to my publisher’s spring party tonight, but instead I’m enjoying seeing this baby robin have its own spring party at the bird feeder by my window all morning

And one I forgot to include: Monty, our very silly and deeply beloved dog, who sadly is not permitted on the hospital ward when my family visit so I am missing him very much.

And this is one of a series (that I must finish!) of illustrations of the old song ‘The Fox and the Goose’, drawn for my daughters. “The Fox went out on a chase one night, he prayed for the moon to give him light…”

This is Joseph Roth, drawn for a scholar of Roth’s life and work who gave me a lot of help with my biography of him, Endless Flight. It’s taken from a photograph of Roth in Ostend, Belgium, in 1936.

This is our cat, Tibby, drawn for my cat-obsessed daughter’s birthday.

Once I’m out of hospital and feeling better, I’m determined to start taking my art more seriously and see where I can take it. Here are a few bits and pieces I’ve drawn already. First up, a 400-year-old chestnut tree near where we live…