London Eye

Wheel, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Annually Retentive

Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, the series we taped earlier this year starts its run on BBC 3 this evening and runs for 6 weeks.

I've written many times before about how much I enjoy the photo-sharing website flickr. Well now, thanks to flickr, I've ended up taking part in my first exhibition. There are around a dozen artists exhibiting a variety of work in the exhibition which is at St Matthews, Tarring Road, Worthing on Friday evening and from 10-5 on Saturday and as ridiculous as it might seem, some of my photographs (all of doorbells as it happens) will be amongst them. It's part of the Artists and Makers festival. If I can get away for a day I intend to pop down and see what's going on. Maybe I should cycle. No. Maybe not.

Doctor Gorman

I am now a Doctor. Ridiculous. Lovely.

It's an honour...

Tomorrow I will become a doctor. This is a quite ridiculous state of affairs but a delightful one all the same. Many years ago I was a maths student at Manchester University. I dropped out because I'd started performing comedy and knew that it was what I wanted to do with my life. If my sums are correct (and who knows if they are, I did drop out after all) that was back in 1990. Then in January of this year I received a letter from Staffordshire University telling me that the Acadenmic Board of the University wishes to bestow upon me the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University. The letter explains that the nomination is in recognition of my contribution to mathematics through my professional work which I would have thought was approximately nought. (Again - don't trust my calculations, I'm a drop-out.)

Obviously I was very happy to accept and my Mum was very quick to ask about whether she needed to wear a hat. Back in March when a Brazilian magazine asked if they could publish some of my photographs I thought about getting some new business cards printed saying, Dave Gorman: International Photographer. I didn't bother. Now I think Dr David Gorman; International Photographer might be worth it. It sounds like a character in an Agatha Christie novel... which is probably not a bad thing to be. Apart from the increased chance of being murdered.

The Rob Brydon series, Annually Retentive, which we recorded earlier this year starts soon on BBC3. The first episode goes out on July 11 at 10.30pm

A book I like...

I get sent a fair few books from publishers asking if I will read them and give them a quote for the cover. They are almost always books that the publishers think are a bit like mine and that I think are a-bit-like-people-who-haven't-read-mine-imagine-them-to-be in which a young man takes on a self-consciously wacky journey for no reason other than to write a book about it. The end result is that you end up with a book that may have a few good jokes and set pieces but with no real story to keep you turning the pages. I only mention this because this book has a quote from me on the cover and so now you know this book isn't one of those. It's also worth pointing out that a publisher didn't send me a book asking for a quote - I read this quite independently after it was first published in Australia. So... so far I've only told you what the book isn't, I ought to tell you something about what it is. David Smiedt is a South African who moved to Australia as a young boy. Before he left his father took him on a tour of the country. 30 years later he returns to his homeland and retraces those steps. The writing is wonderfully evocative in describing the country, the changes that it's made and those it is still struggling to make and the book is teeming with emotion, both for his country and his family - new and old. It's the emotion that makes the humour work and there's lots of it. That's why the quote on the front says, 'Touchingly funny and what's more, it's funnily touching too.' I loved it. Are We There Yet?

See all the books I've recommended so far here.

Wimbledon

Serve and Volley, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.