Widely recognised as one of the UK’s finest songwriters, this autumn sees the release of Robb’s latest album The Optimist Hotel. The songs on the album "are all linked by hopefulness," says Robb. "Not everybody lives happily ever after in them, but these songs are about people who are hopeful, & who refuse to relinquish that hope."

In The Optimist Hotel, there’s a man who makes roses out of paper napkins, a boy growing up in the 1960s, a man who didn’t teach Keith Richards how to play guitar, some soldiers who fought back at Bamber Bridge, a girl looking for her cat in Jenin, a woman who feeds the foxes, a woman who sells the Big Issue, the woman responsible for Animal Farm, & a couple sheltering from the rain.