Matt Haig

I need to talk about that Jay-Z concert. I go to a few concerts. The biggest indulgence I spend on. Going out and seeing music. I don’t even think of myself as a massive Jay-Z fan. But I think I am wrong. I think I am a massive Jay-Z fan but I actually had to see him live to realise it. The dude is 56 years old and inhabits a genre that values youth and the fresh and the relevant and yet I have never felt so much energy at a big concert. Every beat felt like the pulse of the present. It was strangely minimal. I know that is a weird thing to say about a concert that featured film stars (Idris Elba on stage and Michael B Jordan watching) and a 22 piece orchestra and The Fugees and 70,000 people singing happy birthday to Beyoncé but I mean it was essentially just him. Just a man in a black hoodie prowling around the stage reciting banger after anthem after banger after anthem. Like I saw A$AP Rocky recently and that concert featured a full blown warship and helicopters and high-flying stunts and AI graphics. It was basically the Spinal Tap of rap. This had none of that. No AI. Just a big screen showing real life footage of the Marcy projects he came from, or whatever. All the footage feeling more beautiful than usual by virtue of the fact we are so used to seeing AI in these contexts now. It was a creative lesson. If you are good enough at what you do you don’t need props or AI or even a backing dancer. You just shine at what you do. Not once did this feel like a retrospective nostalgia show. It felt like seeing the greatest rapper alive in a great moment. The man who raps about Basquiat and crack dealing in the same breath fuses high and low in every line of jagged broken poetry. The power is how he balances opposing forces. “I move onward, the only direction/ Can’t be scared to fail in search of perfection.” Five stars.

Okay. This was brilliant. Manga classic Death Note is now a musical at the Barbican. Great music, innovative set design, astounding cast. Also a refreshingly untypical London theatre crowd. Strong recommend. Deserves to be on an eternal West End run. Reminded me of the energy of something like Wicked in the early days. Must see for people into Manga or musicals. Five stars.

This is why we are opening @thegoldenbookshop

They took mum and dad to A$AP Rocky and apparently there are reports that he is going to be late on stage and I said he should change his name from ASAP then because I am a dad

Finished a pleasant trip to Edinburgh with a good old fashioned signing stop at Waterstones. Also had breakfast next to Bon Jovi.