Matt Haig

I was going to be cynical. I had been trying for 48 hours to find the last remaining eclipse glasses on the island, going into pharmacy after pharmacy and saying ‘tienes gafas para el eclipse?’ in my terrible accent. We went to San Antonio. Not my favourite place, Witnessed my first fist fight EVER on this island. (Even in the 90s no part of Ibiza was Magaluf.) Listened to some naff music. The sun was covered with cloud for a while. The crowd was 80 percent North European embarrassing themselves to the locals. But then it happened. The sun disappeared behind the moon. And then became a circle of light and the air became a kind of green blue gold I have never seen. And then the light burst through the other side to remind us that, through it all, there is always the sun and we love it. And it was emotional. And beer boys wiped their eyes. And for a few seconds the world held a fragile magic. I briefly remembered a Victor Hugo quote but it has gone again. Anyway. Hope you had a good one.

They are pathetic little men trying to bury their feelings and address their own wounds by turning humanity into a calculable information market they can control. It is now revolutionary to FEEL

Me and my son went out dancing last night. We went to three clubs - Ushuaïa, UNVRS and finishing at Hi for Black Coffee and Skepta. The vibes were pure music. Togetherness. Like the old days. Lucas had his ID checked with the scrutiny of a witness interrogation room. Alas, I did not. I have not fallen off the wagon. I was sober as a judge and had more fun than I ever did raving here in my 20s. Got my steps in. The vibe was all just togetherness and dancing and music. I was once told by a rather snooty literary peer that it is rather ‘unusual’ to have a background as a raver for an author. It’s this kind of nonsense that puts people off books. Books and raving go hand in hand. They are both immersive art forms. And both things authoritarian moralists clamp down on when totalitarian regimes take over. (Ibiza only became party central as a radical response to the fall of Franco in the late 70s. Ibiza, in essence, is antifascist and pro-freedom.) Just a pity now money and commercial interests have taken over. But still, the vibes are there, especially well away from the VIP areas. (Always the dullest areas of anything.) I love loud music and quiet novels. Reading and dancing are the symptoms of a free life. “Let us read, and let us dance,” wrote Voltaire. “These two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

Reasons to Stay Alive is eleven years old.

I was asked today why - of all the holiday destinations - do I return to the one where I lived for three years as an addict and ended up nearly dead.