Bowen very much in the thick of it

Monkey is working on a banana humble pie recipe after publishing an item in the MediaGuardian print section on the whereabouts of the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen at a time when the Libyan uprising is in full swing. Bowen had been on holiday last week – but only while waiting for his Libyan visa to be approved. Once what was left of Libya's government agreed to let him into Gaddafi's part of the country, the BBC man broke off his trip and headed out to Tripoli on Friday. Unfortunately that was the day that Monkey's earlier report asking about his whereabouts was written. Anyway, needless to say, anyone watching the BBC's coverage of the Libyan uprising since then will have seen Bowen very much in evidence on the ground in north Africa – and on Monday he jointly interviewed Muammar Gaddafi. As for John Simpson, he was clearly so successful undercover that Monkey seems to have just missed him on the BBC last week. Simpson has in fact been in Benghazi and in eastern Libya since Tuesday of last week – and we look forward to him meeting up with Bowen in Tripoli soon enough.