Author Justine Picardie will have had her share of bad behaviour from the stars in any one of her roles when she was a journalist – either as editor of the Observer Magazine, or of British Vogue or a writer for the Sunday Telegraph.

Since giving up the day job to concentrate on writing books, Picardie has published the award-winning If the Spirit Moves You and earlier this year the novel Daphne. She has also continued to write articles on a freelance basis.

In this capacity she was asked by Harper's magazine to interview Angelina Jolie. Picardie couldn't, she said, as she was already appearing at the Ilkley Literature Festival.

For perhaps the first time, a Hollywood star's schedule was adjusted and now Picardie will fulfil her commitment to appearing in Ilkley before flying out to New York for the Jolie interview.



Jimmy Carr, in case you don't know, is one of the nicest men in showbusiness. Honestly. On stage his jokes have occasionally landed him in hot water – a couple of years ago on a BBC radio show he told a joke which was considered offensive to gipsies and he was pilloried for it – but he really is a lovely man, even if his humour is not to all tastes.

Further confirmation of this was received this week when Carr brought his national stand-up tour to the York Grand Opera House.

A member of staff at the theatre who had a chance to spend some time with Carr admitted that she watched some of the show but wasn't really all that impressed.

"He's actually a lot funnier off stage. I was talking to him this afternoon and when you're just chatting he's so lovely and so quick-witted, he's really funny," said the anonymous member of staff, before adding: "But I don't actually enjoy his stand-up stuff that much really."



In 1986, Alastair Campbell cracked up. The culmination of months of intensive stress at work, too much alcohol, and a myriad of complex issues, simply made his head explode.

Though it is now 22 years ago, he remembers it as though it was yesterday, in intense and sometimes terrifying detail.

"My head was a cacophony of noise, brass bands, pipe bands, orchestras, dozens of conversations going on. I did not know what was happening to me. I thought I was being tested for something, I was failing the test and I was going to die."

This is the revelation TV viewers will hear about the Keighley
boy who became Tony Blair's closest ally in Cracking Up, a one-off hour-long documentary being screened on BBC2 this October.

Campbell gives his first in-depth account of this life-changing event; revisiting the people, places, and landmarks of his breakdown and subsequent recovery, as well as meeting people who have had similar experiences.

As part of his revelatory and sometimes painful journey Campbell speaks to those who helped him during and after his breakdown including Patricia Hewitt MP, his GP, and the doctor who cared for him the night he found himself in a Glasgow hospital room.