Election Eve by Xanthe

My 13 year old daughter, Xanthe, wrote this the night before the 2013 Zimbabwe elections.

I watch my mother cry for a cause I barely know.

Zimbabwe,her life, her love, her home.

An identity lost with politics and war.

A country I was born in, but hardly ever saw.

I'm British born and bred, that’s what everyone sees.

but that’s not really true, that’s not really me.

Who am I then?

And where do I belong?

Zimbabwe or England?

Which do I call home?

My mother’s heart lies in Zimbabwe, but she wears a British mask.

School runs, work and drinking tea, but I can see right past.

She waits for the elections, she weeps for her country.

She could go back home or she could remain in safety.

Zimbabwe, England, my mother and me.

Should we be who we are, or who we're supposed to be.

Saturday 7th July Weekend Edition

Another busy Weekend Edition on Saturday 6^th of July coming up. News on the hour, every hour as well as a rustle through the international papers and a selection from our global playlist between 8 and 9. The Curator, highlighting the best bits from the week follows and then The Stack, with a package on Vanity Fair launching in France and a focus on typography. At 11, London time, I’ll be playing some music that is joining our playlist – and as well as a few jazzy pieces from Japan, look out for some classic disco. The Review brings recommendations for books, music and a to do list if you find yourself in Bilbao this weekend and then at around 14.15 London time, 9.15 in New York, John Burnham Schwartz, the American writer, will be telling me how his parent’s divorce inspired Meryl Streep in Kramer v Kramer and how Dustin Hoffman used to read his school books out aloud to him. We’ll also explore his own work, including the hit novel and now film, Revolutionary Rd and the Sun Valley Writers Conference, one of America’s primary literary events. Tune in if you can….