There was one big hotel called Lloyd's Baia, which had a lift to go directly to the beach.Where did you go on your first independent holiday?Laigueglia. It's a small spot on the Italian Riviera, and it was my first holiday after getting my first pay check. Funnily enough, it is also the reason I went to Vienna to study years later, because I met a Viennese girl there.What has been your best holiday?Bali, about 10 years ago I spent the whole advance from one book We stayed at the luxurious Amandari and Amankila hotels. Rules which stop the export of important cultural objects apply to items more than 50 years old.. The seaside at Salerno was not far away, and I would be taken there for the day At the time, there were no tourists. Motion said: "The nuts and bolts of writing, and manuscripts, have a primitive fascination."The Government could help by giving tax breaks to writers to donate their archives to the nation and by making the sale of British manuscripts to British libraries exempt from VAT. With a growing worldwide interest in literary archives, British institutions frequently lose out to better-funded international rivals, Motion said.The University of Texas in Austin holds the papers of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene and sizeable collections from DH Lawrence, Dylan Thomas and Tom Stoppard.But Motion said it was not just a question of money, but of the speed of decision-making and the greater value attached to writers' archives overseas.The situation could be improved by the appointment of a "manuscripts tsar" dedicated to highlighting the importance of literary manuscripts, he said in an article for the Royal Society of Literature magazine.

Mr Murdoch has even been known to intervene in his publishing firm's activities, dropping the memoirs of the Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, when they threatened his commercial interests in China.But personal contacts may have secured the arrangement. Mr Dyke was represented by literary agent Vivien Green, who also acts for his friend Melvyn Bragg.Sources close to the deal said readers should "expect fireworks". The book is likely to give full vent to Mr Dyke's fury at Lord Hutton's findings and the way the Government and BBC governors behaved in its wake.Gavyn Davies, the former BBC chairman, is reported to be taking legal advice on suing Alastair Campbell, the Government's former communications director, for accusing him of not telling the truth.. Greg Dyke has signed a lucrative book deal with Harper Collins, the publisher owned by his b? noire Rupert Murdoch, which will spill the beans on his extraordinary departure from the BBC. The deal, under which he will give the full inside-track on his career as director general, including the tumultuous events after publication of the Hutton report, could net him up to an estimated £500,000.In many ways, such an arrangement is surprising. Why did the monkey fall out of the tree?" Well? "'Cos it was dead." And as the room dissolves in girlish laughter, we say farewell to Alex Parks And good luck. Not that it really seems necessary."'Cry', is released on 16 February on Polydor.. But it had to be done, and I'm glad I threw myself into it.")To lighten the mood before I leave I ask her if she's got any jokes "Erm .. It's the first joke I ever heard And it's terrible.

Alex has said that two women together can mean a relationship of almost mind-reading intensity I'd like someone to be able to read my mind, I muse Though they'd probably have to be mental "I thought that, too - but they do. "Yeah." Alex chuckles to humour me, then patiently explains, "But you need a clever songwriter plus an artist, working together." Good grief, that's very on the money "Well, you see, I've got no choice." Run that by me again. "I haven't." Self-mockingly: "I've got my name to keep up." She pulls at her thumb "Or that's what it feels like. I've made this happen, and now it's all on my shoulders, and I have to make it work." (Just to be clear, despite her protestations, she's actually been working incredibly hard. But now I'm in a position where I can write a song about something, a political song, to get my view across - about violence or whatever I've got a voice.