Meeting Bill Heine (author of "Heinstein") at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival




The Gatehouse Bookclub met the author of this year's choice. He read from chapter ? , which describes the attitude of his producers at BBC Radio Oxford to his idea to invite a homeless person called "Matt" to co-present his programme during Homelessness Week. I think most of us were quite surprised at such blatant prejudice against the homeless could be so common even amongst members of such a reputedly liberal profession as broadcasting.

Despite the fear expressed, the show went off well and must certainly have changed the attitude of many listeners. hearing this set us off on a discussion of the reasons people are so fearful of the homeless, perhaps, as one person suggested, a kind of "reverse jealousy". You've made it but dont like to be reminded about those who haven't.



Bill was asked about his favourite guest and this turned out to be Gordon Brown, much to everyone's surprise. BH found himself doing a live interview with the PM during his visit to Oxford and whatever he may have felt about his policies, found him to be a very warm human being in contrast to Tony Blair, who he's also interviewed but found much more shallow.

Someone asked about some of the less pleasant incidents related in his book, for example when a local police firearms officers had him round the throat accusing Bill of having set him up. He'd visited the studio to talk about guns and gun crimes and ended up dropping one of his guns in Radio Oxford waiting room - Bill confronted him about that on air which caused several years of bad blood between him and the police.

He also couldn't get away without talking about his iconic shark art installation that since 1986 has graced the roof of his Headington Home and is now world famous.
All in all it was a lively session and Bill was an interesting and accessible guest.