'Once stood near Jackie Kay on a station platform and I chickened out of fanboying and telling her how awesome I thought she was and her book was, so this would be an opportunity to redress that Epic Fail. It's above all for her novel Trumpet that I want to offer fealty. I found it so intensely moving - I felt as if I was reading with something sitting on my chest. And there on page 186 is the description of an angry, confused man, relenting enough to nod and wink at the little boy watching him, fascinated, on the tube. He is rewarded with "a smile to die for". "Doesn't cost much, Colman thinks. Doesn't cost much to nod at a little geezer and make his fucking day." In an era when slanders about the supposed odiousness of human nature are routine, the kindness and love in that observation don't just make it beautiful; they make it important' --Guardian