Hello and welcome to How to Fail with Elizabeth Day. The podcast that celebrates the things

that haven't gone right. This is a podcast about learning from our mistakes and understanding

that why we fail ultimately makes us stronger because learning how to fail in life actually

means learning how to succeed better. I'm your host, author and journalist Elizabeth

Day and every week I'll be asking a new interviewee what they've learned from failure.

On the 31st of October 2015 Morgan Hare was walking home after a night out with friends

when he was viciously attacked by a group of strangers. He was stabbed in the heart and lungs

and died later in hospital. Morgan was 20. He was a graffiti artist and a keen musician and he

worked at the local hospital where people remembered him as someone whose smiles seemed to enter

the room before he did. For Morgan's father Colin, his mother Sue and his two brothers Conor and

Aiman, it was the end of their family life as they knew it. The grief was all encompassing.

In the midst of this personal horror, Colin started keeping a diary. It became a record of events,

a testament to loss and a witness to his attempts to find answers to his son's brutal and senseless

death. It was a fight that took Colin all the way to the highest echelons of the police force

and through the maze-like corridors of the British justice system. As Morgan's attackers stood

trial, Colin wanted answers about why and how a violent repeat offender had been released from

jail to kill his son. That diary has now been turned into an extraordinary book written by the acclaimed

novelist David Whitehouse. About a son tells the story of Morgan's life, of Colin's survival,

and of what grief does to a person written with both heartache and hope. It's a book that

moved me to tears with its empathy and precision. It's a book that will leave you changed when you

read it. And it's a book that has brought me to Colin Hare, who sits opposite me now in my house,

ready to tell us all about his beloved son. Colin, I'm so grateful you're here. Thank you for

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