‘Okay we have time for one more… Black t-shirt, red hat at the back.’

‘Thank you, James Peterson, Mail. You said that your motivation for writing came from reading and from nature do you believe that the Nature First movement is affectively shining a light on our global warming problems?’

There was a pause while the author pieced together his response. He had it clear in his head, he knew what he wanted to say, but to make it clear was the reason for his silence. The lack of sound within the room made the guests start to fidget. He sucked in some air and the wrinkles around his eyes stretched to his ears.

‘I get my inspiration from the things around me, it isn’t necessarily nature or reading, it could be an interaction between a bin man and a bin. It could be the way he leaves the lid open so all the rubbish is put in one bin and not the other, saving him time when he has to empty them. It doesn’t matter what it is, just that there is something interesting going on. That there is a story. But you see this story telling has started to cause problems.’

He paused for a moment, while the journalists ruffled their papers and scratched their pens.

‘Writers have been doing it for years to get people to read their books or watch their films, but now we have a problem because everybody creates a narrative to gain traction for their,’ he struggled to find the word, ‘modus operandi and to get people attracted to it. They create a sound bite, in this case Nature First. But it’s bullshit the words don’t mean anything, the tagline is purely to gather the relevant opinions to one place, I say relevant, but the thoughts are not relevant they are momentary, ill thought through and lacking substance, or lacking credible story, but because of the volume of them they are perceived as true or popular. I genuinely think that the majority of comments are actually bots. But hey, maybe I am wrong. Anyway I digress, but I would prefer it if you asked questions about my thoughts on global warming or nature, rather than these references to media campaigns.’

The Mail reporter looked slightly puzzled frowned and re-phrased his question. ‘Do you think we are doing enough…’

He was cut short, ‘I don’t know… I just think that we need better information to have a proper opinion and people should not deal in headlines.’