So if at times I might appear to be rather unsophisticated...well I am.

Childish yes—but in my line of work that isn’t an insult it’s a blessing!

By the way if you’ve clicked on this blog, it’s probably to hear “ Dream So Cool” (The Harry Potter Fan Song) that I’ve written and produced for SomeGirl with P. Adams.

The song was easy to write ‘cause basically I am a huge fan of the books. In fact I can’t wait to see the show ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ in the West End. And by the way I hope you like the drawings done by Sarah Vincent and the video produced by Rory Edwards of EDfilms.

I first started practising ‘magic’ successfully when I was ten years old.

I was off school, ill in bed with severe tonsillitis and I’d run out of my usual diet of Enid Blyton books and I was desperately in search of something---anything to read.

I went searching through the bookshelves and one particular title seemed to jump out at me. It was called “How to Stop worrying and start Living” by Dale Carnegie.

The title sounded weird but I was intrigued, so I leafed through the book to see if it was something worth reading. It was definitely strange, that’s for sure but I couldn’t put it down. I was completely gripped by Mr. Carnegie’s take on life.

I had never heard of a ‘self-help’ book before so with a ten year olds naivety I assumed that I had stumbled across a book of “real magic” with step by step instructions. I was impressed ---someone in the house was obviously a trainee magician!

I decided to test this out immediately. The book said and I quote “ 90 % of your worries never actually materialise”. To prove this theory Mr. Carnegie told the reader to write down a list of ten things that were bothering them on a piece of paper and then put the list in a drawer and leave it there for ten days. Then on the tenth day you had to take out the list and read it-----And according to Mr. Carnegie 90% of your problems would have vanished.

It was probably the longest ten days of my life. Several times I was tempted to take the list out and see if it was ready yet. But I resisted the temptation remembering what happens to cakes when you take them out of the oven too soon.

However on day ten I was up earlier than usual, eager to open the drawer and retrieve my list.

I read it with trembling hands.

Problem one----gone!

Problem two----gone!

Problem three---gone!

...And so on through the list. But Mr. Carnegie had underestimated his magic formula. All of my problems had vanished, one hundred percent!

That day I had learnt something I would never forget----Magic Works!