SWINDON LITERARY FESTIVAL REVIEW: WHEN Blake Morrison was growing up, the last thing he expected to be doing as an adult was writing about his parents.

Like most young people, he was eager to break free from them.

But when his father died suddenly from cancer, Blake turned to writing for catharsis.

The result was When Did You Last See Your Father? a moving account of his father's life and death.

Since then he has written a memoir of his mother.

Blake was in conversation at the Arts Centre with playwright Nell Leyshon. It was an interesting pairing, as the two are quite different, although they both share a passion for the lives of ordinary people.

Although Blake started off writing poetry and fiction, he now tends to concentrate on non-fiction, while Nell hates writing anything factual.

The two made for an engaging discussion it was just a shame it was shared by only a handful of people.

By Tamash Lal