Jottings - February 14th - hibernating

 

Last week it was so very, very cold outside that getting up and doing something (anything) wasn't appealing. Days were dull and cold but with little snow, sunsets were fiery red, and the birdbath water froze solid for three days.

 Maybe the contrast between lovely warm indoors and freezing temperatures outside encourages us to be lazy; to curl up somewhere snug and semi-hibernate. Obviously if you have work to go to, a dog to walk, grocery-shopping to do, then staying huddled inside isn't an option. But I've nowhere I need to go and, having seen forecasts for heavy snow, did my shopping early. 

So I stayed in. 

I tended to the sourdough (made my best loaf so far, plus naan, pizza and dumplings from the discard), 

I started reading Troy by Stephen Fry (one of my Christmas presents) and continued my Wii Lego journey through Middle Earth - that's nearly finished with just a few irritating tasks left to do, and I've decided to start a Lego Pirates of the Caribbean alongside.  Made cake with aquafaba, coconut water and blackberries from the freezer 

I finished the gloves/hat/scarf set made with another Christmas present, and I'm now at that 'find the next project' stage. 

Other places had huge snow drifts or beautiful icicles worth walking to see. We just had cold, iron-hard ground with the lightest covering of snow. On Tuesday I went out in the hope of finding some snow away from pavements and roads ... but didn't, although falling snow made pretty stars on my coat. 

Resolutions again - 2019

Here we go with another new year, full of good intentions and resolutions.



I recently saw one of those word search squares that are supposed to predict what the coming year holds in store for you based on the words you spot first - mine were nachos, love, and wealth - but while I'm waiting for these delights to show up I'm going to try more practical measures




Last year was one in which external factors took over my life. This year could easily turn out the same way, so I'm determined to take charge of the bits of my life which I can control - from losing weight to finishing that Swedish Duolingo course. Primarily, I want to de-clutter my life, so I have more time to give to the things I really enjoy.


First to go is the online rubbish. I love social media so, no, I don't mean cutting down back on on-line chattering, but some things have to go - which means culling my social media 'friends', and unsubscribing from a stash of e-mails.
 Most of the folk I know online I chat to, we comment on each other's blog posts, tweets, FB updates, etc BUT there are lots of followers and friends that I haven't had a conversation with EVER. These guys are going.
I have an e-mail inbox that's straining every morning from notifications of all sorts. Obviously I can't delete the lot but so many are unwanted, and these have to go. Some I've signed up for as part of a competition but some seem totally random - I'd NEVER have signed up for cruise holidays so that was easily the first one to go.

Art and Crafts - inspired by making a jacket for my grandson in little over a week, I'm determined to pick up my knitting needles again. I've treated myself to some lovely maroon yarn in the sales with definite plans on what to knit with it, but also I need to clear the yarn stash that fills so many drawers and cupboards. Also, I'd like to add in the intention to take part in something more creative - embroidery, painting, dress-making, anything really though I'm not sure what yet. Again  this will have an added advantage of using up hoarded yarn, material, craft supplies, and making some space.

Taking charge of the garden. OK, winter isn't the best time to tackle it but it's got pretty neglected out there, and this IS a good time for planning - deciding what needs to be cut back, ordering seeds, and perhaps making a monthly planner of what I'd like to do and when.

Another thing to get on top of is the book blog. I've continued to read for the last few months but not find time to review, so there's a lot of catching up to do. Meanwhile, I've signed up to the Penguin Books classic books reading challenge - more details here - It's a bit of a cheat as I knew before I saw the list that I'd have read several already - turns out that if you include watching plays instead of reading them there are only two new books there - The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Communist Manifesto. Still, it's a good excuse to re-read some oldies.
Also after several months absence I've decided it's time to get back out to Book Club at my local Waterstones. It also ties in with my 'mini adventures' idea (see below) by getting out alone for an evening and seeing new people.


This is the other aspect to the year - inspired by the cover of my diary, I intend to make this year, as much as possible, one of mini adventures - small probably barely befitting the name 'adventure'. It's a sort of follow-on to last years's Sixty Things, continuing as #trysomethingnew. I expect that, as for the past few years, I'll have little chance of a holiday, so my adventures will be very much based around home - new places to walk, exhibitions to see, bands to watch. No matter what your age, no matter how restricted your life, there's always something new to be discovered. Let's see how many things I can find this year.

And, somewhere, somehow, I'll be so busy that all my extra weight will magically disappear :)

Read Women - Top Ten Books by female authors

Last Thursday, 8th March, was International Women's Day, and Twitter (or at least my section of it) was filled with people posting their Top Ten favourite books by female authors; the books they couldn't live without, those which made the greatest impression, those which meant the most.
You know me - ask for a Top Ten of anything and I'm there in a shot. Make a Top Ten involving books, and if possible I'll be even quicker. So, how could I resist?
Here they are, in no particular order, other than making sure they were stacked safely enough to photograph ...
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan - This is actually a French copy dating back to my schooldays, and, though I could read it back then,  I'm not sure I could now. When I first encountered this as a seventeen year old, I was taken aback by the 'heroine', Cecile; she smoked, had sex with her boyfriend (unheard of way back then), schemed and manipulated people because life wasn't going her way, causing heartbreak and despair, and all against the backdrop of the exotic-seeming French Riviera. It was like nothing I'd read before!
Villette by Charlotte Bronte - it was a close call between this and Jane Eyre, but I looked at them both on the shelf, wondering which to choose, and Villette won. There are a greater array of characters in it, a country-dance partner-changing series of love affairs, and an (unusual at the time) admission that a woman might have a crush on one man then change her mind and fall for another.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin -  my introduction to her work, a blend of sci-fi, politics, and personal relationships that made it stand head and shoulders above any other sci-fi I'd read before.
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane are married at last, but their plans for a quiet honeymoon disrupted by a murder (almost as you'd expect). What makes this stand out in my mind is that Sayers takes the story beyond the catching of the villain, to his trial and hanging (remember this was written in the days of the death penalty), exploring Wimsey's state of mind as these inevitable events follow his unmasking of the criminal.
The Waves by Virginia Woolf - another book discovered in my teen years, it was possibly a case of jumping in at the deep end with Woolf at her most obscure but I loved it, and to me it's the backdrop to the heatwave of 1976.
Persuasion by Jane Austen - a tale of second chances in love. You might prefer Pride and Prej, but this is the Austen book for me. Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth fell in love but were separated by interfering friends and relatives. When they meet again after several years, their relationship isn't all easy sailing, and for much of the book it seems quite possible that they'll end up with different partners. It doesn't have the Bennet family, but the Elliots are almost as comical.
Possession by AS Byatt - plots within plots and subplots everywhere. Part detective story, as various academics try to trace previously unsuspected correspondence between two Victorian poets, and uncover more than they'd expected, and part romance (as suggested by its subtitle) as love flourishes in both timelines.
Moon of Three Rings by Andre Norton - another back to my teenage years book, chosen by me as a school prize. At the presentation I remember being wrong-footed by thinking I ought to have picked a serious non-fiction book BUT this turned out to be the start of my love for sci-fi/fantasy fiction, and although it came from a 'teenage reads' section, I still reread it today.
Weathering by Lucy Wood - a story about the, not necessarily smooth and happy, relationships between mothers and daughters, about home, and belonging, told in beautiful prose which slips into poetry
A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson - another close call as I almost choose Atkinson's Life After Life, which shares characters with this. Carefully and cleverly constructed, this is the life-story of Teddy Todd, moving back and forth in time, but always circling round the all important, formative war-years. Two things particularly make this book stand out - it's unusual to find a war novel written by a woman (and Atkinson does it as well, if not better, than many such stories penned by male authors), and the final twist, which casts a whole new light on what you've just read.  

Sticking with tradition - more or less

There was a huge sigh of relief this week when I found the (missing, presumed lost) knitting book which contains the pattern for our traditional family baby shawl.
It's titled Knit with Norbury (according to the introduction, James Norbury wrote a regular knitting feature for the Daily Herald), and was published sometime in the early 1950s.

As you can see, it's a little (OK,very) old and battered; the spine has fallen off, pages are dropping out, and even the sellotape used to repair it has seen better days! Oh, and it's clear I always liked knitting books - so much so that I've left childish scribbles throughout.

This shawl pattern, though, is special, and has become a bit of a tradition within the family. My mother knitted this shawl for me, then one for each of my daughters, and now I'm about to start one for my eldest daughter's son.
The break with tradition comes in that my daughter has chosen a denim-blue yarn instead of the more usual white; a modern twist on an old favourite.

I've put pictures of my progress over on my Home Page blog

Off to Curious Arts Festival again ...

This weekend everyone's been talking about Glastonbury festival, and I'm sure it was tremendous fun, but I'm looking forward to a smaller, more intimate festival - Curious Arts to be held at Pylewell Park in the New Forest on 21-23 July.

I was invited along last year as part of the Our Book Reviews team, and loved every minute. Its style is quirky and eclectic, less of a 'festival' in the Glastonbury sense, and more of a English country fete with a sophisticated twist of up-market food providers, and cocktails to refresh the weary instead of weak, sweet tea.

There were bookish events during the day, comedy shows in the evening, music acts at night, with something to entertain all ages happening all day long.

I blogged about the experience at the time, but as I started looking forward to this year's festival I wondered which impressions had stayed with me from last year ... 

 firstly, the friendly, family atmosphere - being a smallish event, by lunchtime on Saturday I was beginning to spot familiar faces as I wandered round; 

the wide variety of things to do - I went to SO MANY book events in such a short time, while my daughter went to yoga and discussions of the day's political news;  

the food (though don't try tagine in a burger bun!); 

discovering that camping is actually quite fun; 

and partying in the evening.

Then there were quieter moments - being woken at dawn by seagulls; heading to the bottom of the grounds in the early morning mist and catching a glimpse of the Isle of Wight ferry, seeming to glide by on land;

ferry seemingly floating on land

wandering back from the showers (yes, amazingly there were hot showers) late at night and star-gazing while music drifted over from the marquee; sneaking into the Skinny Lister sound check ... I could go on, probably for too long.

As the programme starts to fill up, I'm making my plans for this year. I'm asked along as a book blogger so obviously I'll start with the authors I'd like to see - novelists Rachel Joyce, Joanna Trollope, Matt Haig, and Eimear McBride, poet Lemn Sissay, and Isabel and Julian Bannerman, gardeners to HRH the Prince of Wales.

Tom Odell

Later in the day there'll be music  - Tom Odell is headlining Saturday night, but I've been checking out some of the other acts, previously unknown to me, and I'm hoping to catch Iceland's Junius Meyvant, Aine Cahill, Jordan Mackampa and MarthaGunn.

snail racing

In-between all that (there'll be time, won't there?), I hope to explore the "workshops and curiosities" section of the programme - from wine masterclasses to crazy golf, a late night bat walk and an emergency poet. I might give the snail racing a miss though.

So how was Curious Arts 2017? See here

Meeting-up with on line friends (or setting a bad example)

One of the first things we make sure our children understand when they start using the web is DON'T arrange to meet up with folk you don't know in real life. But how many of us actually hold to that rule? I certainly don't set a good example, as I've been doing it for years now.

As a book blogger, I go along to literary events, and meet authors and their publicists - sometimes it's for a brief  'hello' at a book signing; sometimes a longer chat with an author who's become more of a virtual friend, and we'll discuss gardens, children, or pets; too often it's running into someone in a queue for the toilets!
Occasionally I've met people for coffee or pizza, and once,

when I'd mentioned on Facebook that we were holidaying in Edinburgh, I was invited along to Edinburgh Literary Salon above the Wash bar. My daughter, probably from scare stories she'd heard, was convinced I'd be found drunk and rolling in the gutter afterwards, but fortunately I survived without such drama! 

On Twitter, I'll talk to almost anyone, on FB, I've always been prepared to accept friend requests from anyone who moves in my sort of circles, and I've met up with people from both.

I've gone out for coffee/lunch, walked dogs by the sea, and once invited someone round for the evening while their kids were at a concert, rather than them have to spend the time sat in a burger bar.

Maybe it's more luck than judgement but none of them turned out to be axe-wielding weirdos.

My daughter went on to not only follow my (bad) example and meet up with folk she only knew on-line, but to invite them to stay! That proved to be so much fun that we've carried on offering a place for touring musicians to stay, mainly guys we know, occasionally total strangers, but it's always worked out well.

So when I happened to be chatting on Twitter to Amanda Riley, an American musician who was going to be spending a day alone in Nottingham, and she suggested meeting up, I thought to myself  Why not?

We spent the afternoon checking out Nottingham's (if not England's) oldest inn, chatting about mutual acquaintances and her future plans, and in the evening I went along to hear her play at the Hop Merchant.
Hopefully she'll be back in the not distant future, and maybe to stay with us.

Would I encourage a youngster to do any of this?
No! I'd always say safe is better than sorry.
But just maybe as adults we're a little too cautious or paranoid? Sometimes it's a good idea to step out of your safety zone and see what interesting people you can meet.

The weirdest not-quite-meeting of all remains the time I was walking in a country park and thought I recognised the person (and dog) walking towards me. I didn't say anything then - after all to have been wrong would have looked foolish - but I checked later online; I did know them and I wished I'd say Hi!

Top Ten Love Stories for Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day so what better than a Top Ten of Love Stories - not all necessarily ending in happy ever after...

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier - a long-distance kind of love as Inman battles his way back from the horrors of the American Civil War to his love Ada waiting, and barely surviving, on Cold Mountain



The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - an anonymous, horrifically burned man lies in a hospital bed. Gradually his backstory is revealed - one of passion, betrayal and tragedy.

Persuasion by Jane Austen - Anne Elliot and Capt Wentworth met, fell in love, and were parted by interfering relations. When they meet after several years, will they fall in love again?

The Ballroom by Anna Hope - meeting in a mental institution may not seem like the best start for a love story but this is where John and Ella meet, and love blossoms.

A Room With A View by E M Forster - Lucy Honeychurch is a conventional young 'miss' till she travels to Italy and encounters art, scenic views and love.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - Gabriel Oak's steady, reliable love contrasts with Bathsheba Everdene's impetuous passions.




The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - Clare lives life as we all do, progressing from A to Z in a straight line. Henry's rather different, darting backwards and forwards in time.





Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - three love stories for your money; one happy, one tragic, one 'middling'.






Versions of Us by Laura Barnett - Again, more than one story, but this time with the same 'lead' characters.  Eva swerves her bike and Jim steps forward to help her, but from that point on their story splits into three different versions.

Possession by A S Byatt -  two university researchers follow a paper trail of letters and diaries, and stumble upon a secret love affair between two Victorian writers. Part detective novel, part love story, it's one of my all time favourite reads


links take you to OurBookReviewsOnline for, you guessed, longer reviews :)

Highlights of 2016 - What a Weird and Wonderful Year!

Any year has its ups and downs, and this year certainly hasn't been without the 'downs', but for me it's also been a year filled with new, exciting things. 

One of my resolutions last January, among all the mundane stuff, was to 'get a life' - interests, movies and music of my own, not just 'borrowed' from my children - and it's taken me to some strange places. 

I've been to more pubs this last twelve months than in the previous twelve years.

 I went camping, and it was much more fun than I expected.

 I watched my Breaking Bad box set on my own, because the rest of the family weren't interested, and I loved it.

SJ Watson and Renee Knight at Curious Arts

Billy Bragg at Curious Arts

I went to my first festival, Curious Arts at Pylewell Park, where over two days I caught half a dozen full author events and dropped in for a few minutes on more, then listened to great music at night.

Skinny Lister soundcheck at Curious Arts

Before this year I hardly seen any live music. This year I've seen over thirty musicians  at various venues, starting with Thom Worth and Tim OT in a Beeston pub in February and ending with Dave Giles in Burton just before Christmas. In between I've seen Lancaster singer/songwriter Joe McCorriston FIVE times (because he's always on tour), Elly Rose, Skinny Lister and Billy Bragg at Curious Arts, Skinny Lister again at Nottingham's Bodega and (sorry everyone else, but this has to be the highlight) Frank Turner's sold out show at Nottingham's Rock City. This time last year, I could barely imagine doing any of this and certainly believed I was too old, but it's been amazing.

Frank Turner at Rock City

I went to the Lara Croft 20th Birthday exhibition at Derby Quad, played with ancient and state of the art games, and discussed gaming techniques and Lara Croft's evolution with an actual professional gamer (!) 

I learned how to drive again - I hadn't actually forgotten but I haven't driven for years and had got out of the habit. Now I'm back to a certain level of confidence on the road, and can happily fetch the teen from the train station or where-ever.

I've met lots of new people through offering a bed/floor to touring musicians. Throughout last year, starting with the people I'd met through my teen's promotions, and expanding through friends of friends, I had folk dropping by to spend the night on a dodgy inflatable bed or a pile of sofa cushions; some visit once, some have become like extended family, and particularly notable was the night a band was let down by their promoter and, being desperate for somewhere (anywhere) to stay, drove up from Southampton and turned up at 4am!

In between all this I went to bookish events - author talks, the launch for Alison Moore's Death and the Seaside, a forum on the future of independent publishing - gardens, theatres, Sotheby's annual sculpture exhibition at Chatsworth ...  

and followed my teen's adventures - heard her on the radio, seen her on TV, watched her play in pubs and clubs, and, possibly the weirdest half hour of the year, saw her sharing a political platform with Jeremy Corbyn.

Looking back, it seems to have been an extraordinary year. I'm not sure how 2017 can improve on it but I'm hoping it will.

Halloween Reads - Top Ten, or so ...

I've said frequently on social media that many supposedly chilling ghost or horror stories don't get the whole spine-tingling vibe going for me. Too long is spent setting the scene, then there's a couple of short, sharp shocks, and a quick resolution. For me, a spooky novel must have a good but rapid build up of atmosphere, sustained menace, and proper characters that it's possible to care about.

Having asked around for suggestions, I've been reading MR James, Stephen King, Wilkie Collins, and many other authors; short stories and novels, books that have turned up for review, some that have been waiting for ages on my book shelves, quickly downloaded e-books, library books. I still have a list of 'those I didn't get round to' so maybe they'll be here next year.

Anyway, here are my Top Ten Halloween reads, and a short story collection ..or four. Some of these are stories with very definite ghostly presences, some just exude a feeling of dread, some hint at a world beyond our own which slips past the veil from time to time .... and some aren't scary at all ...



First, proper ghostly, scary stuff ... where better to start than Sugar Hall with its slave boy returned to haunt the descendants of the family which once owned him ... I've read and re-read this, and it doesn't fail to chill.





Another mysterious house, David Mitchell's  Slade House lies hidden up a narrow alleyway, but every nine years it entices someone inside its walls - and they're never seen again... need I say more?









Marcus Sedgwick is best known for his gothic thrillers for children and teens (though many of those, especially  My Swordhand Is Singing , could have made it onto this list) but A Love Like Blood  is an adult read, a tale of vampires and obsession, exploring the depths that love, fear and revenge may drag us into.







It's back to the haunted house theme with Chris Priestley's The Dead of Winter - although a teen/YA read, the only things that mark this as such are the main character's age, and a lack of gratuitous violence. It ticks all the boxes for a chilling ghostly read - a lonely house, secret rooms, noises in the night, and a growing sense of something evil waiting for the unwary. I definitely felt a chill crawling up my spine as I read it!

Another book for teens but quite scary enough for me! The Creeper Man by Dawn Kurtagich - nearer to 'horror' than a 'ghost story' it tells of two sisters who seek refuge in their aunt's country manor, another isolated house, this time surrounded by impenetrable woods, where The Creeper Man lurks and bides his time. The trees begin to creep nearer, the sense of claustrophobia builds and the horrors outside start to work their way in ...






Not all ghosts have to be scary and/or evil - so two 'different' ghostly tales




In A Ghost's Story Lorna Gibb brings back to life 'superstar' spirit Katie King, star of Victorian seances. Told from Katie's point of view, this is actually a very human story of a search for companionship and even love.

Lucy Wood's Weathering is a story of mothers and daughters, about home and belonging - told through the relationship between three generations of women, it just happens that one, Pearl, is a ghost. Poetic prose, close observation, a stream-of-consciousness style, all make this a delight to read.








Vampires, zombies and flesh-eaters - well, Halloween wouldn't be the same without them ...


The Radleys are nice, middle-class suburban vampires hiding in plain sight. Acting the part of a normal couple, they share many of the problems that normal couples have - getting middle-aged, looking back with nostalgia to their long lost youth, and coping with their teenage children. Yes, it's about vampires but also about that average family that they're trying so hard to be.


Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - to be honest the title says it all. Seth Grahame-Smith takes Jane Austen's original, works in some extra zombie-killing action, and there you are! One for if you don't mind classic literature being taken a little less than seriously.





Sweeny Todd meets Desperate Housewives in Natalie Young's tale of middle-aged, Volvo driving Lizzie Prain, who murders her husband and then is needs to dispose of the body - again, it's all in the title!  Season To Taste, or How To Eat Your Husband








So, I've managed to whittle it down to ten top novels, but there's still space for some otherworldly story collections. I've always loved Mrs Gaskell's Curious, If True collection and these all share that ambivalence about what is real, and what imagined...

Sing Sorrow, Sorrow - a chilling collection from Seren Books, drawing on the darker side of folk tales.



 The Woman Under the Ground, and other stories - dark, disturbing, don't read in the dark tales by Megan Taylor

The Other World, It Whispers by Stephanie Victoire - a bit of a cheat, as this isn't published till mid-November. Maybe a little less scary than some, these nine spine-tingling stories tread the fine line between this world and the other.

And last, and by no means least, I had to include this  - The Penguin Book of Classic Fantasy by Women. It includes ghostly stories from Mary Shelly, George Eliot, Edith Nesbit, Virginia Woolfe, Isak Dinesen, and, my favourite, Katherine Mansfield's parable-style story, A Suburban Fairy Tale; it's not so spooky as some, but carries a message as important today as in 1917 when it was first published.

Now .., what do you think I should have read?