I love to travel, mainly to Africa where I was born, I enjoy reading and playing bridge. I go for rambles in the countryside. I collect stamps and go to T'ai Chi classes. I love my two cats and my garden birds. I adore the African wildlife and try to help Conservation groups.
Why Haddon swapped prose for poems.
Haddon began his career as a children's writer. Author Mark Haddon - who shot to prominence with his award-winning book "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" - has spoken about his new work, a collection of poems. The writer admitted that the collection - entitled The Talking Horse And The Sad Girl And The Village Under The Sea - was a rather odd choice of direction to follow The Curious Incident, which sold over one million copies and won the Whitbread Book of The Year award.
"It doesn't look like a very canny career move, does it, to go from a bestselling novel to a collection of poetry?" he told BBC World Service's The Ticket programme. "I've always enjoyed writing different things. When I was writing children's books, occasionally publishers would effectively say to me, 'can we have the same thing again, but different?' That would just make my heart freeze over."
Haddon said that he wanted to write a book of poems because he liked to be challenged, and to do something difficult. "Curious Incident also made me quite a bit of money, which gives me the freedom to write exactly what I want to write," he added. The poems do not all date from after his success with Curious Incident: Haddon said that he has been writing serious poetry for around eight years.
UN urges protection for dolphins.
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website
The United Nations says additional protection measures are needed for dolphins and small whales. A new global survey, released at a conservation meeting in Kenya, finds that more than 70% of species are at risk through snaring in fishing nets. Other major threats include intentional catching, pollution, habitat destruction and military sonar. The UN Environment Programme (Unep) is calling for an upgrade of international protection on eight species.
It wants the Ganges river dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin, Northern right-whale dolphin and five other species to be given Appendix II status under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Existing protection measures on a further seven species should also be extended, it says. A CMS summit is taking place this week at Unep headquarters in Kenya.
BBC listens in to insect chatter.
The alcon blue lives on boggy heathland.
Advanced camera and sound techniques are giving scientists remarkable new insights into insect behaviour. Caterpillars of large blue butterflies have been shown to communicate with ants, making noises that fool them into caring for the larvae as if their own. And scientists are now looking into the idea that these sounds are actually overheard by the wasps that seek out such caterpillars to lay eggs in them.
It is one of many amazing tales to be found in TV's Life in the Undergrowth. The new BBC natural history series from Sir David Attenborough starts on Wednesday. We can get up close and tight, and then you see mind-blowing things said Sir David Attenborough, TV naturalist It shows invertebrate activity never before caught on television cameras. "In the past, in order to get close to something, you had to pour light on it; so much so you were at risk of frying the thing - and you certainly inhibited natural behaviour," Sir David said. "We've now got such sensitive electronic cameras that we don't need that amount of light, and we've also got tiny, tiny lenses; so we can get up close and tight, and then you see mind-blowing things."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
10 THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW THIS TIME LAST WEEK.
Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.
1. In Guy Fawkes's day, those who persistently refused to attend Protestant services were fined £20 a month - the annual salary of a school teacher.
2. Margaret Thatcher "stamped her feet" in anger at the prospect of German reunification, according to Helmut Kohl's memoirs.
3. The first traffic cones were used in building Preston bypass in the late 1950s, replacing red lantern paraffin burners.
4. Britons buy about one million pumpkins for Halloween, 99% of which are used for lanterns rather than for eating.
5. Albania is retiring its Soviet MiG aircraft, which have killed 35 Albanians, but not a single enemy.
6. The French translation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has an extra 120 pages as it is a less concise language than English.
7. Bailiffs cannot evict on Sundays, bank holidays, Christmas Day or Good Friday.
8. Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli was once a backing dancer for Bananarama in the band's heyday.
9. You can dial the emergency services with 112 as well as 999.
10. Cabinet ministers who have been sacked, resigned or lost their seats collect an £18,000 golden goodbye (and those who leave twice get the payment again).
BBC MAGAZINE/
Tergat wins thrilling New York Marathon.
Tergat claimed only his second major marathon victory. Paul Tergat held off the challenge of defending champion Hendrick Ramaala to win the New York Marathon in the closest finish in the race's history. The Kenyan's winning time was two hours nine minutes, 29.9 seconds, one third of a second ahead of Ramaala, who fell to the ground after crossing the line. Meb Keflizighi came third as the 24-year wait for an American winner in the race continued.
Jelena Prokopcuka beat Susan Chepkemei and Derartu Tulu in the women's race. With four miles to go, the women's race looked like a straight battle between Chepkemei and Tulu, with Prokopcuka having fallen off the pace. But as the race entered Central Park the Latvian caught up with the leaders and her increased momentum coincided with Chepkemei running out of energy. With half a mile to go, Prokopcuka broke clear, condemning Chepkemei to a second successive runner-up spot in the race.
Britain's Alice Braham, a former junior track star, scored a creditable 22nd place. A BBC producer, she was an amateur entry to New York having debuted in the marathon in London with a time of 2:45. The elite runner's department saw her time and invited her to join the professional race and Braham clocked 2:46:47.
Britain's Jon Brown finished ninth in the men's event for his eighth top-10 finish in a major marathon, but John Mayock's debut at the distance was not a happy one as the 35-year-old retired from the race at the 30-kilometre mark. Ramaala said he hoped to get his own back on Tergat next year in London. "I was beaten by a big champion. I'd love to race Paul again. I know he is running in London and I think Gebre (Haile Gebrselassie) will be there too so I want to be there for sure."
Tergat also had the date etched in his mind when he was asked about his future plans, saying: "I don't know where my next race but I know I will run the London marathon."
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New York marathon men's result:
1 Paul Tergat (Ken) 2hr 09min 29.9 sec
2 Hendrick Ramaala (RSA) 2:09:31
3 Meb Keflezighi (USA) 2:09:56
4 Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (Ken) 2:11:01
5 Abdihakim Abdiramam (USA) 2:11:24
New York marathon women's result:
1 Elena Prokopcuka (Lat) 2hr 24min 41 sec
2 Susan Chepkemei (Ken) 2:24:55
3 Derartu Tulu (Eth) 2:25:21
4 Salina Kosgei (Ken) 2:25:30
5 Bruna Genovese (It) 2:27:15
BBC SPORTS NEW REPORT
10 THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW THIS TIME LAST WEEK.
Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.
1. In colonial America, servants negotiated agreements that they would not be forced to eat lobster more than twice a week.
2. The daily cost of water for the average household is 68p - what it would cost to buy a 2-litre bottle of Evian in a supermarket.
3. Bill Gates does not have an iPod.
4. The majority of those living alone are aged over 65, particularly widowed women.
5. There used to be signs on buses in the UK warning against spitting to guard against the spread of TB.
6. Carousel fraud, a VAT scam in which products are circulated around fake companies, is so widespread that it costs EU countries the equivalent of the VAT take of France.
7. Des Lynam saw Laurel and Hardy on stage at the Brighton Hippodrome in 1951 aged eight.
8. Rather than abstaining, an MP can vote both for and against a motion at the same time.
9. Prince Charles may not live the most carbon-neutral of lifestyles, but he does drive a hybrid car.
10. And he wrote a fan letter to Jamie Oliver after the TV chef's School Dinners series.
BBC NEWS MAGAZINE
Pet radio purrs around the world.
DogCatRadio believes dogs and cats can be friends .A California pet lover has founded an internet radio station designed to ease the lives of lonely dogs and cats around the world. Styled as "the radio station all pets prefer", DogCatRadio.com goes out live 17 hours each day from a van in the car park of a Los Angeles recording studio. DJs speak to pets directly, and ask "pet parents" to send in pictures.
Founder Adrian Martinez, 34, says the station aims to keep pets company while their "parents" head out to work. DogCatRadio's daily play list ranges from the soothing sounds of wispy Irish singer Enya to Elvis Presley's classic anthem, Hound Dog. In between tracks, Mr Martinez and his fellow DJs offer practical advice to pet owners, plus a liberal sprinkling of the station's signature sound - barks and miaows. Housebound hounds chewing their way through the family furniture come in for an occasional ribbing.
Mr Martinez, an independent record producer, hopes that many of his audience will be listening in while at home alone, albeit with a little help from their human friends. "My cat, Snickers, asked me to do it," Mr Martinez told the New York Times. Faced with a nervous, restless cat at home one day, Mr Martinez discovered that Snickers calmed down almost as soon as he turned up the background music a little. Quickly realising how happy Snickers was with a regular slice of 1980s rock, Mr Martinez set up DogCatRadio to spread the message.
"I wanted to do something for the pet community," he said. The station, which claims 8,000 listeners each week through its website, currently makes no money. But the US pet industry is worth an estimated $35bn (£19.7bn) annually, and Mr Martinez eventually hopes to attract advertising.
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