Matt Haig

I can’t ignore the pattern recognition that beautiful October brings this feeling with it. Anyone else?

Happy 79th birthday to my mum. On Desert Island Discs recently I talked about the sad stuff, like her depression after me and my sister were born, but that is a fraction of the story. My mum is FUN. She was adopted and was therefore determined to make a stamp on life. She once saw an ad in the paper to be an au pair in Paris so she moved from Devon to France and got engaged to a Parisian called Gerard but then broke it off to go to drama school. She agreed to go on a date with my dad because he was studying architecture and she thought architects were rich. I once took her clubbing in Ibiza and she got chatting to a male stripper about her favourite books. She started a breakfast club at the school she was head of and transformed the prospects of hundreds of kids. She collects the theatre programs of every play she has seen since 1967. She doesn’t like it when I slag off Newark (‘we have a lovely tapas bar’!). She is an inspiration. She is busier than me or anyone I know. She has just come back from having a blast in Bordeaux. She has exactly as much fun on the cusp of 80 as she ever did.

Okay I feel I need to update you on our plans for The Golden Bookshop, Especially as a lot of clever sleuths in Brighton have noticed that the sign that said ‘Under Offer’ last month now says ‘To Let’. So yes, we had a place in Seven Dials in Brighton and it was potentially perfect. We had an offer accepted. We got plans together. We got the builder around. We got some architectural plans underway. But then, suddenly, we had a warning from the lawyers. These weren’t any old lawyers they are some of the best in the country and they were doing this work for us because they wanted to (I had done an event for their law firm a while back) and they told us WAIT A MINUTE. They said that they had never seen a contract like the one we were being asked to sign. There were, let’s say, some unusual conditions and clauses. I literally can’t say more than this for legal reasons. But however much I am looking forward to setting up a bookshop café it has to be right. Although it goes against every ADHD instinct of mine to hold back I am also not stupid enough to ignore a lawyer when they tell you they haven’t been able to sleep because of a contract. So, basically, we are having to find somewhere else. This has set us back by three months. Maybe more. But we are still as passionate as ever - more so - about setting up a bookshop. We just need to be sure the place is right and that the contract isn’t so strange it causes lawyers to have insomnia. In other words I am for once in my life being a professional. I am sorry. But we are looking for somewhere new. Brighton probably but right now other options are on the table. We ideally want to set it up for someone to run. I still want to write books and see the world, but also have the resources to set up something non-profit that can truly give back to a community. It’s still very on. Just not where we thought it was, so dear people posting letters and applications through that letterbox, you can stop now. Running a bookshop is hard enough without having to make it harder with bad terms. We want it to be perfect. And watch this space. Sorry. Thank you for your patience. I am not a business person and this is all new. Matt x

The government wanted a report into neurodiversity to prove it is overdiagnosed and it proved the opposite. The government-backed review shows that the prevalence of adhd and autism in the population has remained largely the same over decades. The only change has been in terms of awareness and understanding. Correct diagnosis would ease social problems, from addiction to mental illness to prison rates. Only the most narrow minded politician would think diagnosing fewer people would save money.

Me via @youngmindsuk

Out today. One person will win this graphic novel version. Adapted by genius Fred Fordham. Simply comment below for a chance to be chosen. Happy Thursday.