Recently Read or Returned Unread

I read "From a Distance", her most recent book, when it was published in 2014 and have read a few of the other 8 since then. "Come and Tell Me Some Lies" was her first book, published in 1994. Although it's fiction it has hints of her own life.
 Raffaella Barker was the daughter of a poet and lived in Norfolk with numerous siblings. The main character in the story - Gabriella is the daughter of a poet, lives in a ramshackle house in Norfolk and has several siblings. See what I mean?
I enjoyed the story, a quick read but thought it was almost something for teenagers.
I also had another of her books "A Perfect Life" on loan but couldn't be bothered with it as the story was obvious from the beginning and very similar to "Hens Dancing" and "Summertime" two of her other books.
"From a Distance" is probably my favourite of her books.

 I've  read Angela Thirkell's  "Peace Breaks Out" set at the end of the war in the fictional county of Barsetshire and re-read  one of the others -  "Pomfret Towers". Easy light reading for dull February.
Also "The Expert" by Bernard Knight. One of the seven of his old crime fiction books reprinted from the 1960s. This one was actually readable compared to some of the others.
 
Back to the library unread went A Perfect Life, mentioned above. "Gingerbread Mansion" by Lizbie Brown because it had tiny strange typeface which I couldn't read.

Next I'll be re-reading a couple more of Angela Thirkells books unless I go and collect another of the British Library Crime Classics which is now on the reservation shelf for me or even better, "Death of Kings" the 5th and new Rennie Airth book in his Inspector John Madden historical crime series. There is a three year gap since he wrote the 4th so I've forgotten all about the character but I know they are well written.

Back Soon
Sue

The World of Angela Thirkell

"The daughter of a classical scholar, Thirkell was also the cousin of Rudyard Kipling. Her novels, usually peopled with genteel, snobbish characters, are noted for their gentle irony, absurdity of tone, and understated sophistication."

That is what it says about her novels on Fantastic Fiction and the 'irony' maybe explains why some people love her writing and others can't get into it at all.

She was born in 1890 and died in 1961 and wrote the Barsetshire series between 1933 and her death.

I worked in libraries in the 1970s but don't remember her books being in stock, so perhaps they were well out of fashion during that decade.

But Virago Vintage Classics began reprinting her books in 2012 and I was drawn to the cover of the 1st,  High Rising, when it kept popping up on my Amazon page as something I might like to read.

Once I got into her way of writing it made me smile and that is what I like about her books. You mustn't be put off by 'the genteel snobbish characters'. Don't take offence at the gentry's way of speaking about their servants. It is this very absurdity that makes them so enjoyable.

And of course we do irony quite well in Suffolk anyway.

 This is a paragraph from the 1945 novel Miss Bunting that probably explains why her books make some readers despair and never read any further but make others smile and read on.

A nice bit of  fat boiled bacon off the ration (which for the benefit of any readers from another planet we will explain to mean not that the bit of bacon in question comes off your ration but that it isn't  and never was on it) with young potatoes and peas from the garden is not to be despised. Frank did not despise it, by which happy chance his elders were able to talk in peace for a time.

 I've read 14 so far, and as Virago re-print I borrow them from the library (although recently they annoyingly published a few only as e books) and look out for them for pennies at charity shops. I actually picked up some very old tatty Penguin reprints from the 1950's at a car boot sale several years ago but they had such small print that I couldn't read them. A kind blog reader sent some old hardbacks that she had in duplicate so my collection is growing slowly.

Although each book is a separate story they have characters  that pop up now and again in different books, which can be very frustrating as I remember the name but not always their back story. So with Christmas money from Father-in-Law I  ordered Angela Thirkell's World ................

....... Created by an avid Thirkell fan, this reference was designed to help fellow readers keep straight the hundreds of characters that populate the 29 novels of Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire series. Organised alphabetically, the book includes the name of every character, a chronological list of the books in which he or she appears, and a summary of what readers learn about the character in each book.

It finally arrived all the way from the USA last week - the cheapest copy on Amazon. Now I might need to re-read all 14 and put all the others on my wish list so I can make good use of the book. Of course the ones I own are................packed in a box!

Back Shortly
Sue

St Pauls Day, a book and Burns Night

January the 25th is St Paul's Day. In the past many weather rhymes were linked to this date as country people tried to predict what the growing year would be like

If St. Paul's Day be fair and clear

It doth betide a happy year.

But if, by chance,it then should rain,

It will make dear all kinds of grain.

And if the clouds make dark the sky,

Then neate and fowls this year shall die.

If blustering winds do blow aloft,

Then wars shall trouble the realm full oft.

In this rhyme neate is an old word for cattle and even politics can be changed by the weather - who knew?

I was pondering on how various days were remembered in the past. Usually because they were Saints days or important in the church calendar.
Now we have days that reflect the importance of money rather than weather.

Black Thursday and Black Tuesday - The 24th and 29th October 1929, when panicked sellers traded 4 million shares, making the stock market crash and the usually said to be the start of the Great Depression.

Black Friday - The day following Thanksgiving in the US. Now used worldwide to signify the start of a mad spending spree leading up to Christmas

Black Monday - October 19th 1987 - The more recent stock market crash

Blue Monday - the day in January when all the credit card bills arrive for the massive Christmas overspend

Black Wednesday 16th September 1992, when the pound sterling was withdrawn from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism

I think I would rather have weather sayings.


The latest book added to my Books Read 2017 list. I read  this quite quickly. It's Elly Griffiths other series- A Stephens and Mephisto mystery. This is the 3rd, set mainly in 1950's Brighton.

The library website says this-On the eve of the Queen's coronation, DI Stephens and Max Mephisto uncover an anarchist plot and a ticking bomb at the same time as solving the murder of a man close to them.

 Elizabeth II's coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright's possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are for Stephens and Mephisto to be summoned to the case. Edgar's ongoing investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day variety show - and his television debut - so it's Edgar who is sent to New York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He's on the trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone silences him first. It's Edgar's colleague, DS Emma Holmes, who finds the clue, buried in the files of the Zabini case, that leads them to an anarchist group intent on providing an explosive finale to Coronation Day. Now it's up to Edgar, Max and Emma to foil the plot, and find out who it is who's been dealing the cards.

The 9th book in her Dr Ruth Galloway series - The Chalk Pit- is due out next month, the library has loads of copies on order and I'm on the waiting list.

And to anyone with Scottish heritage celebrating Burns' night  - Lang may your lum reek.


Back Soon
Sue

Plough Monday, Book Review and other stuff

 Did you know that today, being the first Monday after Twelfth Night, was traditionally called Plough Monday. This was the  the start of the agricultural year, the day Ploughman and their horses went back to work after their Christmas and New Year break...... usually their only holiday of the year.
Nowadays fields are not often ploughed every year, just rough cultivated straight after harvest and drilled immediately  after that or even at the same time.When we used to have barley straw small baled for bedding we were often in a race to get the bales done and home before the farmer cultivated! If sugar beet is in a farms crop rotation then the fields will be ploughed that year because the beet harvest compresses the soil .

Mentioned this book below the other day and had a comment from Anonymous asking for a review. It is a new book, published in 2016.
Anne was in her late 20's and working in London when she holidayed on Skye in 1989 and spotted an ad in an Estate Agents window for a primitive cottage for sale on Soay.
She'd not even thought about moving and even less to a tiny island, in fact she didn't even realise it was an island and accessible only by small boat!
Although she went back to London without finding out more, the picture of the cottage nagged away at her until she finally arranged to go and see it.

The book covers the years 1990 to 1998 in detail, her naivety as she moved there and how she was helped by other islanders........there were 17 permanent residents when she arrived. She finds out about the history of Soay and crofting, struggles with refurbishing the cottage and lack of cash. She finds a way to earn money by collecting winkles and buys a boat of her own. Several of the islanders pass away or move away over the years until the  winter of 2000 when she would be left almost on her own.
In her early years on Soay the island was used for army manoeuvres and a she met a civilian photographer Robert Cholawo who always came with the men. She began to rely on him for advice and help and when his marriage broke up they corresponded until she went to stay with him in Devon for the winter of 2001 moving back to the island again in the spring.
The years from their marriage in 2002 to 2016  are covered in just a couple of chapters. Maybe she'll write another book to tell more about how Robert bought and modernised the neighbouring house on Soay and their story up to date. They now have their own hydro electric power and keep goats and grow  a lot of vegetables. Climate change means that winter weather now is much windier and they are unable to leave the island for months at a time so have to stock up with coal, animal feed and everything else they need to last a long time.
A good read  but I was left wanting to know more..
 One thing I discovered while reading was that a couple called Comber rented a cottage on the island in the 1960's and the lady wrote several lovely books under the name of Lilian Beckwith. I'd always wondered how near to biography her books were ( A Loud Halo, The Sea for Breakfast, A Rope in Case etc) and it turns out Not at All! 

On Saturday I actually found something in the sales
Had a trip out to Felixstowe as they are another place with The Works and I was still searching for the 4 in a box game. (have come to conclusion The Works in our area didn't stock these as they had lots of the other wooden games but not that one and had no idea what I was talking about - just like the lady in Ipswich branch but Suzanne at Life at Number 38 has found it for me 'up North', she's a star!)
Anyway Felixstowe also has an Original Factory Shop like Saxmundham and that's where, last year, I got the shred and cellophane for the Christmas Hampers. Luckily they just had a few packs left reduced from £2 to £1 again so 2  purchased plus on the counter they were selling off the final few boxes of 10 Christmas Crackers for £1. I bought one. That's my January Sale shopping done!

We thought we had better get some quotes for removal companies, so we can get boxes and start packing. 3 quotes  varied by nearly £400 - how on earth can one man look round and decide they can do it for £700 and another says it will cost over £1000? I pointed out to the man from the company who moved me in that  he'd charged us £200 extra last March when his was the only company available after other arrangements with firms fell through because of changed dates. I think he looked slightly sheepish and has priced it  less than our move here. The lads were really good in March so we'll probably go with them again - this time they weren't the most expensive.

Welcome to a new follower.........a nice round 450 now.........goodness me. Thank you for all the comments for and against Yellow Sticker shopping.

Back in a jiffy
Sue

From that first visit, once I had set foot on Soay the house no longer became my primary obsession, but merely a means to an end. I had never experienced a place like it in my life. After only 10 minutes on the island I had fallen under its unfathomable, magical and enthralling spell. Unbelievably, I had found my longed-for childhood “middle of nowhere” and apparently, completely by accident.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/lifestyle/island-fling/

From that first visit, once I had set foot on Soay the house no longer became my primary obsession, but merely a means to an end. I had never experienced a place like it in my life. After only 10 minutes on the island I had fallen under its unfathomable, magical and enthralling spell. Unbelievably, I had found my longed-for childhood “middle of nowhere” and apparently, completely by accident

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/lifestyle/island-fling/

  

From that first visit, once I had set foot on Soay the house no longer became my primary obsession, but merely a means to an end. I had never experienced a place like it in my life. After only 10 minutes on the island I had fallen under its unfathomable, magical and enthralling spell. Unbelievably, I had found my longed-for childhood “middle of nowhere” and apparently, completely by accident

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/lifestyle/island-fling/

Long Live Great Bardfield - Review

Thanks to Persephone for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Eileen 'Tirzah' Garwood was born in 1908 and from  1925-8 she went to the Eastbourne School of Art where she was taught wood engraving by Eric Ravilious who she married in 1930.
She began this biography whilst recovering from breast cancer, looking back at her childhood and teenage years and then their life among some of the artists of the time who gravitated away from cities to live in Great Bardfield, and neighbouring Essex villages. Much of the book focuses on the love life of the various couples who seem to fall in and out of love with other members of the group all the time.
Her descriptions of all the people - friends, family, villagers are so good, as are the details of the places she visits with Eric when he is commissioned to paint landscapes or murals. Of Morecombe she writes" We should have to wait a whole week in this sad town that was only meant for visitors in the proper seasons; now it lay like a sluttish prostitute who hadn't yet bothered to get out of bed and paint her face". 
Eric and Tirzah had their first son - John- in 1935 and from that time Tirzah did very little in the way of wood prints or painting as she struggled to look after the children, James arrived in 1939 and Anne in 1941 and to keep house - often in very primitive conditions.
When war broke out Eric became an official war artist and was lost presumed dead while on a plane journey over Iceland in 1942. At the same time she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began an informal biography for her future grandchildren while recovering. The biography finishes in 1943 and the story of the rest of her life is told through letters and memories by her daughter Anne. Tirzah married Henry Swanzy, a BBC producer in 1946 and died when her cancer spread in 1951
The book is illustrated with black and white photos and Tirzah's engravings.

I enjoyed this book although there are so many people mentioned throughout  that I sometimes took a while to work out who was who!

It was only previously published in a limited edition hardback in 2012, so well done to Persephone Books for bringing it to a wider audience.

Back Soonish
Sue

Book Review etc

First the book review...........


I've finished reading Trio by Sue Gee, an author who I hadn't read before so must have come across details of this one on a blog.
 I don't really enjoy sobbing my way through a book so probably ought to have abandoned this after the first few pages as it begins with the traumatic death of a young married woman from  TB.

Set in Northumberland the story starts in late 1936 with Steven Coulter, a young enthusiastic history teacher and his wife living in a remote moorland cottage. He has been caring for his sick wife Margaret and teaching at the boys school  in town but comes home one snowy day to find her dead.
Months later Frank Embleton, head of history at the school reaches through Stevens grief to invite him to a concert given by his sister, Diana, a cellist and two friends - the trio of the title. Frank, Diana, Margot the pianist and Phillip a college trained violinist, have been friends since childhood and have been giving concerts for many years in the local area. Steven has no musical knowledge at all but finds in Margot someone who is also lonely - her mother died when Margot was a child and she has lived with her father in the "Big House" ever since.
They are both shy and from completely different backgrounds but eventually  music brings them together. War is creeping ever nearer and each person in the group also has a back story which affects them now. This part of the book finishes in early 1939.
Then suddenly it's 2015 and the rest of the story is told by Geoff who is Steven and Margot's now elderly son whose  beloved wife Becky has just died. This last part of the book moves back and forward so that the missing 66 years are gradually explained.

Beautifully written account of grief and love, but in a way almost too sad to enjoy.


Thank you for all the comments on the last post.
Do doctors/people really think that overweight people don't know they ought to lose weight? Of course we B***** well do and I have several times since I was 16 and weighed and 9 a half stone and was told I was overweight by "friends" .
Unfortunately knowing  and doing are two different things.

Things then got worse as Colin had to go back into hospital on Friday evening as he started shivering and running a high temperature and low BP. So once again he is on antibiotics.They soon had him on a drip..... saline then platelets and blood. It's not unusual for patients who've had lots of chemo and stem cell transplant to have to go back in but this Cancer thing is just NOT fun.


Just adding in this latest photo of Jacob to cheer me up!

But lost the original post with your comments - Whoops - Sorry




Back soon-ish. Sue

Coincidences and books........both reviewing and selling

We watch several quizzes on TV and often the same question will pop up  on different programmes within a day or two. If I've remembered the answer then I can look really clever!
The same thing happens with books. A mention of something in one book can lead onto reading of the same thing again very soon after.
 This month Persephone Books are republishing "Long Live Great Bardfield; The autobiography of Tirzah Garwood". The title jumped out at me because Great Bardfield is a village in Essex and we've been there for their Garage Sale Day with our friends who live in the neighbouring village of Finchingfield. Hadn't a clue who Tirzah Garwood was but turns out she was the wife of Eric Ravilious,.............. hadn't a clue who Eric Ravilious was either but apparently he was an artist. Anyway I put the book on my wish list just out of curiosity. Then Dean Street Press sent me a copy of "Bewildering Cares" by Winifred Peck which they are republishing, also this month, and who is the painting on the cover by? Yep, you guessed.......Eric Ravilious.

Weird.


Cover illustration detail from "Village Street" (1936) by Eric Ravilious


I've now read Bewildering Cares and enjoyed it, although not as much as House-Bound or maybe I'm just mis-remembering.
 As the grandaughter of  bishops - on both sides of the family, and daughter of a vicar, Winifred Peck is able to write with some knowledge about the life of a vicars wife in 1940.

It starts with a letter from a old acquaintance asking what she does as the wife of a vicar "and as I am trying to do without a library subscription in Lent", Camilla Lacely tells her husband Arthur "and there are no evening meetings owing to the blessed blackout, I shall write down for her what the life of a parsons wife is like. Just one week to show her everything happens and nothing happens"
Most of the happenings during the week are the effect of the curate's sermon " I wish I'd been there instead of at the Mission" Arthur says when told of the upset Mr Strangs sermon has caused "What did he say?". Camilla casts her mind back and realizes she can remember nothing and must have nodded off!
There are quite a lot of small happenings during  Camilla's week " It's a storm in a teacup of course,but then we live in a teacup".  Two romances, an illness,  a "Quiet Day", a death, anxieties about their son in the RAF ,an inheritance and  of course Camillas attendance on many committees, which, as all the young parishioners have joined the services, are mainly attended by  the same elderly spinsters.
Some of the sentences in this book are a bit long which necessitates going back to read them again but there are many humourous and witty lines. "It was an opening for Mrs Pratt, of course, but she would find an opening in a steel wall anyhow"...............made me smile
And this observation struck a chord with me "As with so many girls who have lived in shops and offices, her values are all wrong. She looks on so many things for show as necessities which seem to me merely luxuries."

Overall a good read  ( Many thanks to Dean Street Press for sending me a copy of this book, books and magazines are the only things I will receive and review on this blog!!) and now I've ordered House-Bound from the library to re-read, thought I had a copy but haven't.


Thank you to someone for the mention on their blog of Ziffit.com. As you know we moved here with well over 1000 books, most of which are still boxed under the bed and we, sorry that should be I, seem to have acquired 30 or 40..... er 50? more in the 6 months since we arrived.

 The time has come the old woman said 

to sell  some books from under the bed.

 Ziffit.com buy books, not all books - they are quite particular on what they want -  and two of mine have been sold to them for just over £6 each! I boxed up 7 books and await a cheque for £23!

Still waiting for the Amazon voucher from the survey thing .......within 2 days the email said. It's now 5 days. Thought it was too easy to be true.
 
Welcome to Mandy, taking followers to 387 and thank you for Halloween comments, what a grumpy lot we all are!!

Back Shortly .............why can we say shortly but not longly?

Sue

Not Preparing For Winter and Other News

Several years ago when we lived on the smallholding and I wrote for the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter, I did a couple of pieces about preparing for winter, mainly written for people new to the countryside. There was a check list to prepare................
 Animal feed, lag outside taps, wood for woodburners, cylinder gas for cooker, coal for the Rayburn, examine welly boots for cracks or holes, warm weather and wet weather gear for outdoor work, emergency stuff in case of power cuts, spare diesel for the car and tractor etc etc.

Oh how much simpler life is in town .............not that I really want a simple town life but Hey Ho! All we have to do is to get the gas central heating boiler checked. That's now been done and Thank Heavens all was well despite the boiler being quite old (but apparently a very reliable make) so bill paid - sorted.  I was a bit concerned that the man would slap a red Do Not Use label on it which is what happened many years ago when we got someone out to repair the grill on a Calor (cylinder gas) cooker. He said the whole cooker was too old, didn't comply to regulations and stuck the label across the door. I'm afraid I just carried on using the hob and oven for several more months until we could afford a new cooker.


Very much enjoyed the above book which I finished while at the beach hut on Tuesday. Certainly doesn't glamourise what Londoners went through during the Blitz or soldiers caught on Malta during the siege. Here's the details from the library website..........
"When war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to give it a miss - until his flatmate Alistair unexpectedly enlists, and the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright and brave, Mary is certain she'd be a marvelous spy. When she is - bewilderingly - made a teacher, she instead finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget. Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary. And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship and deception, and inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams."

The book finishes with a few pages about the authors grandparents who formed the basis of this fictional story. There is a mention in one newspaper review that he is working on a sequel set in the first years of peace. 


 Then I went to the beach hut again on Wednesday and read some of this

 
The fourth book written by Jill Paton Walsh using the characters created by Dorothy L Sayers. Another well written story. When I worked in libraries all those years ago Jill Paton Walsh was a children's author so I've enjoyed discovering these books for adults and she also wrote four other crime novels set in Cambridge. I've now requested the first of these from the library.

I know parts of the country haven't been enjoying the mini heatwave that we in the east have had this last week. By golly it's been HOT. The grass in the back garden is brown apart from one small bit that's always in shade. Windows have been wide open and blinds closed, in hospital where they don't have windows that open wide, Col has had 2 fans running to keep cool. He does seem to be feeling better again although last time I said that he plunged down and had more problems so I won't say anymore.

Only a couple more days of Paralympics, it has been SO good and I shall be disappointed to go  back to regular TV. I think only in this country would we have a programme like The Last Leg!  BTW am I the only person who isn't getting agitated by Great British Bake Off moving to Channel 4? I've never seen a single episode, although if it was Strictly Come Dancing or Wimbledon tennis disappearing from terrestrial TV to Sky then I would be out there shouting!

Thank you for comments on the last post

Back in a jiffy
Sue

Book Reviews......The Good, The Bad and The Indifferent.

These are short stories all set in the area know as The Suffolk Sandlings, mainly around Snape, Blaxhall and Aldeburgh. The author uses the real names of the villages and locality but then weaves in past and present, magic and supernatural.
Having lived  on the edge of The Sandlings for 23 years I know the area well, so was interested to read these stories even though I'm not keen on short stories and even less fond of ghost tales.
As I'm not much good at writing reviews and I couldn't find a short review anywhere,  here's what it says on the back of the book, big enough for you to read, hopefully.

I enjoyed most of the stories, but probably only because of the area, as it's not something I would choose to read normally.


Next up - " The Lanimer Bride" by Pat McIntosh
11th in this series set in 15th century Scotland. A stand alone story but as always things make more sense if you start at the beginning. All 11 have been a good read if you like historical crime.
This is the note from the library website
How could the heavily-pregnant bride of the lanimer-man vanish into thin air? Young Mistress Audrey Madur is missing and her husband, responsible for maintaining boundaries and overseeing land use in the burgh of Lanark, is strangely reluctant to search for her. Gil Cunningham, answering the frantic appeal of Audrey's mother, finds himself searching the burgh and the lands round about, questioning family and neighbours. He and Alys uncover disagreements, feuds, adultery and murder, and encounter once again the flamboyant French lady Olympe Archibecque, who is not at all what she seems. And then another lady goes missing.

Wish these books included a translated list of the difficult old Scottish words the author uses, it would make them easier to understand.



Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther was first published in 1939 and begun as a column in The Times. I read it many
years ago but wanted to re read after reading her other book "Try Anything twice". The cover of this edition shows a still from the film starring Greer Garson. The book and film were both popular in the States and here. Churchill said they did more for the war effort than a flotilla of battleships and Roosevelt claimed it had hastened America's entry into the war. It's short essays and sketches about a  family during the early months of the war. An easy enjoyable read.

Next "Second-hand Stories" by Josh Spero

The library describes it thus.............Every second-hand book tells two stories: one within its pages and another of the life it lived before changing hands. Whether mundane or extraordinary, on a grand scale or intensely personal, every second-hand book conceals the story of its past life. Lives filled with love, loss, scandal and conflict, these are the intimate and incredible stories that author Josh Spero uncovered after tracking down the previous owners of 12 of his second-hand books.

I thought "how the heck did he know who owned his books previously?" But it's because they are all books read while he was studying Classics at University and have the name and often the school/college and dates noted in the front. For each book he writes about what he was doing at the time of the previous owner's ownership( if you follow) and then a few pages about the previous owner, why they had the book and why it was disposed of for him to be able purchase it. Unfortunately after about 20 pages I became an anti-snob snob! With all the books being translations of Greek or Latin texts, I soon found I wasn't interested in why he had bought them or why the previous owner had owned them. Back to the library unfinished.

Edward Marston ( real name Keith Miles) has written a lot of books, all - I think-historical crime and there are many different series. Looking him up on Fantastic Fiction I found he's been writing 2 or 3 books a year since the mid 80's

Sadly I think it's about time he stopped! This one - Signal for Vengeance - the 13th and latest in The Railway Detective series, is not well written. He tends to repeat whole paragraphs about the characters in each book and now seems to write in very short sentences. I did finish it because it's a crime book and I needed to know who-did-it and because I've read all the previous in the series and if he writes another I'll probably read it and moan all over again!
This is a fascinating read. Most people do research by reading other books but of course Ruth's research has involved all the various TV programmes where she has dressed and lived the part. This is what it says about this book on Amazon -

The Tudor era encompasses some of the greatest changes in our history. But while we know about the historical dramas of the times - most notably in the court of Henry VIII - what was life really like for a commoner like you or me?
To answer this question, the renowned "method historian" and historical advisor to the BBC Ruth Goodman has slept, washed and cooked as the Tudors did - so you don't have to! She is your expert guide to this fascinating era, drawing on years of practical historical study to show how our ancestors coped with everyday life, from how they slept to how they courted.
Using a vast range of sources, she takes you back to the time when soot was used as toothpaste and the "upper crust" of bread was served to the wealthier members of the house. Exploring how the Tudors learnt, danced and even sat and stood according to the latest fashion, she reveals what it all felt, smelt and tasted like, from morning until night.

Perhaps not a book for reading straight through but as an-inbetween-other-books book it's really good.

Back Eventually
Sue

Half of August gone and links to old posts

August days are creeping by and Col has now been in hospital for 2 weeks. We hope by the end of this week  a lot of the nasty chemicals will have worked their way out of his system and he will start to feel much better. As well as not sleeping, stomach ache, sickness and diarrhoea, he now has sore mouth and throat and not even enough energy to write on his Facebook page. So  it's one thing after another just as the cancer nurses told us - they've seen it all before.
He's been trying to avoid infection by keeping all visitors, except me, away, but a text from him this morning say's he has a temperature so it will be antibiotics and all their nasty side effects added into the mix now. No wonder this is the worst part of the treatment.
 I've been plodding along at home trying not to worry and watching lots of Olympics .

On Friday the beach hut tempted me away from the TV and I spent over 4 hours down there including a swim in the flat calm sea. I read most of this while I was there.


Jan Struther is more well known for her book Mrs Miniver, but this is a collection of very clever and witty essays and sketches. Although written in the 1940's by a "upper middle class, lower middle age woman" the humour in the stories hasn't dated at all. You just have to love the writing of someone who says ".....and there are people to whom making lists is an end in itself, a pure, abstract and never failing delight". Oh yes!

Saturday saw me biking to the library, but going the long way round so I could call in at the  Emmaus Charity shop where I  found a pack of 3 Pairs of M&S pants - Col's Size - for £2 - handy. ( Question - in the States what we call trousers you call pants so what do you call the items of underwear that we call pants? )
Then I spotted this for £4,

  I'm a sucker for baskets,( I wrote about baskets when we were still at the smallholding) as long as they are cheap, I have no idea why I'm so tempted and the problem is .....................now I've got it what the heck do I do with it? I already have a smaller one with dividers for 4 bottles that I used to use standing in the upstairs bathroom for cleaning stuff etc........here it's in the kitchen holding shoe cleaning bits. Then I have a small hamper that I begged from Col's brother after he won it in a draw last Christmas. That's standing on the TV unit holding all the chargers and other bits and bobs. 2 big storage baskets are up on top of the wardrobes holding shoes and winter wear. My favourite from that old blog post is in the kitchen holding potatoes (on newspaper and covered over with black fabric to keep out the light).
I'm really an idiot for buying it as we are so short of space here and a bargain is only a bargain if you actually need it! I'm thinking it would be more useful if I took a pair of secateurs to the 6 canes holding the dividers in place and made a nice big oblong basket.

Sunday I did a bit of tidying in the garden, re-potted the thyme, shopped at Asda, visited Colin and watched more Olympics........ even the finalé of the golf was exciting!, then in the evening things got more and more enthralling with medals being won all round. Andy Murray's tennis medal was real fight.

Yesterday apart from a visit to Colin, I took a few more bits to the charity shop and started on unpacking and sorting another box from the shed. I didn't find anything we needed indoors but chucked a couple of bits in the dustbin and others into the charity shop bag and re-packed most into a sturdier box.

Thank you you for all the interesting comments about housed deeds and house prices. We've always been so lucky with buying and selling houses. I wrote about all our house moves HERE.
So many house moves in our married life, I can't imagine staying in one house for life like many people did in the past and a few do now I guess - Col's Dad is 85 and has only ever lived in 2 houses!

Back Soon
Sue






 .

The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

 

  Another (short) book review
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh. A novel starting in London society but mainly set in 1880's South Africa. Frances Irvine is left penniless when her father dies and faces a choice of living as a maid  with an aunt or marrying Edwin a distant cousin who is a doctor in South Africa.
She chooses the latter and boards ship to make the long journey with the " ladies middle class emigration society".
The story ranges from diamond mines to a smallpox hospital and The Karoo -one hundred and fifty thousand square miles of barren landscape. Because of a man she met on the ship and the conditions Edwin has chosen for them she is unhappy and hopelessly out of her depth.
 I guess this is two steps up from a romance story but as it based on factual background I learned some of the  history of South Africa and the lives of immigrants.
I'm pleased to say it has a proper happy ending!

You can read lots more reviews [HERE]

Thanks for comments about everything on the last post

Back later in the week
Sue

Hurrying towards the end of June

Moving on swiftly from yesterdays slightly maudlin post.

This is all the other stuff that's been going on here......................

My Wednesday post had a list of things to finish and I'm pleased to say the owl cross stitch and the watering can have both been turned into cards. The puzzle is gradually being pieced together but the book pile is only going down slowly and the lavender bags are still waiting

  A small silver 9 year old Fiesta has entered our life.
 We've been a one car family for several years, ever since the County Council stopped paying a car allowance and forced Col to use a hired works van for bridge inspections - (How hiring a van was cheaper than paying a mileage allowance I have no idea).
Several times in our married life we've  had long periods of only owning one car, simply because we couldn't afford to run two cars. While Col used the car for work I would use my bike, local bus or we would only go shopping at weekends. We've had spells with two cars - usually two very old cars, especially after we moved to Knodishall when we were miles from everything. Now the Hyundai we bought in February 2015 as a replacement for the gas-guzzling Jeep Cherokee, needs a new clutch - the 9 roundabouts, 3 sets of traffic lights and a dozen other stop-starts between here and hospital have worn it out! It really ought to be swapped for something smaller and more economical for town life except that when Col is better and we get around to towing the caravan to all the places on my long list we will need it again.
Hence the Fiesta, I would have liked bright red or blue but Hey Ho! Just got to get used to all the differences between the Tuscan and the Fiesta now and I'd only just got the hang of the Tuscon after the Jeep.

I've  finished another Angela Thirkell book - Northbridge Rectory - it's my favourite so far. This is the new reprint by Virago Modern Classics of the 1941 book, the 10th in her Barsetshire series which were written between 1933 and 1962. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed them before the age I am now - are younger people reading them? So many of the people she created I can recognise from the village I went to school in during the 1950s. I remember elderly spinsters living with even more elderly fathers, sisters eeking out a living by sharing a house, cooks and cleaners and huge families and slightly strange, scholarly, old men. They all appear in the world she created. Each book is a story in it's own right but often mentioning people in previous books.
 Northbridge Rectory mainly revolves around Mrs Villars, the rectors wife and how she and the rest of the village deal with the 8 members of the Barsetshire regiment who have been billeted at the rectory. There is parachute spotting from the roof of the church, bird-watching ( Thirkell invents wonderful names for birds to save her having to research details of real ones -I think!), genteel tea parties. Nieces partying with the soldiers and the awful wife of the Major.All great fun.
VMC are reprinting 3 more  in November but Why oh why have they only done  the 9th -"Cheerfulness Breaks in" - in an e book edition? They've "forced" me to buy an old copy - damn that one-click Amazon ordering thing!

Yesterday I went here

 to listen to this

And very good it was too. Col said he would come too and go down to the beach hut while I was at the talk to check everything was OK, then after picking me up we collected fish and chips and went back to the beach hut for an hour of sea air. We were very excited to spot a seal, at least we supposed that was what it was - one minute what looked like a seals nose popped up and then after a couple of minutes vanished.

We have met our probable-soon-to-be new neighbours. Our previous neighbour has gone into a sheltered housing flat not far away. He is 85 and a nice old boy but had been on his own since his sister died a few years ago. The new people are a couple a bit older than us moving here from the other side of Ipswich to be nearer their daughter and because this is a nice quiet road.  So hopefully  no noisy parties!

We voted - 'nough said on that!

And I actually watched a bit of women's tennis from Eastbourne, it's got more interesting now we have a British lady doing well otherwise I can't seem to work out who's who - except for the Williams sisters who always look so fed -up when playing.

Later today- weather permitting - I'm walking to the library - with camera. I promised photos of Ipswich and so far you've only had the view over the town from the top of the next road!

Tomorrow is the start of two weeks of tennis - Yay! and I believe there is a football match too. Come on England! England!

Many thanks for all the words of support and prayers, I think positive thoughts from so many people is sure to help.

Back Soon
Sue

A short post with news of visitors

Thought I ought to change the header, because the map of Suffolk that I was using came from google and I was reminded on someones blog that people do get fined for using copyrighted images. This rose will do for now until I find something more interesting. My problem is that every time I change the header it takes me an hour to remember how to do it. I always think "must make a note of what I did" but then I don't remember how I got there!

Just finished this book - very enjoyable. It's another one gleaned from the archives of the Mass Observation organisation. What I like about diaries is the immediateness of the writing. This is how people actually thought about things at the time, not what a historian thought several years later.
Small shopkeepers had to work hard during WWII; ration books, coupons and points, information constantly changing, lack of supplies and moaning customers. Most of whom didn't grin and bear it just because the country was at war.
Nothing is known about this lady before the diary and all that's known about her later years is what was written on her death certificate. She was unmarried and had no nieces or nephews, but this little bit of her life has been recorded forever.



Col had his second blood test of the week today and we were both pleased to hear that all the important things (platelets, nutrophils, red blood cells) were all creeping up nicely. This means that the stem cell treatment will be sooner rather than later. We go to Addenbrookes hospital near Cambridge one day next week for the pre-treatment check and chat and for him to sign consent forms. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Very exciting weekend ahead with eldest daughter, son in law and baby Jacob coming from Surrey to stay - just for one night, I doubt they will be arriving very early as H say's it takes her a couple of hours to get organised  and out of the house-  and that's just to go to the shops!

                                                                                 ☺

 Welcome to Barbara - a new follower

Back after the weekend
Sue

All I Do Is Read

All I do is Read
This ought to be the title of my blog.

We are waiting for Col to go in for the 6th chemo session. Once that's done he will be ready for the last, final and nastiest bit of the treatment for NHL. In the meantime he is having a echo-cardiograph and lung function test. The CT scan showed the blood clot in the lung had gone, one piece of good news.
The weather hasn't been good enough to go to the beach hut, the house is tidy, washing and ironing up to date and the grass cut, so I'm reading

Here are  two books read in the last few days. First,  A presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L Sayers
When she died Dorothy L Sayers left some letters describing what her hero - the amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey - might have done during the war. Jill Paton Walsh used these letters as the basis for this novel.  Although I've not read any of the original Sayers books (why?) I enjoyed this. A well written story.

Second The Shepherds Life by James Rebanks.

Flagged up as 'The surprise Hit of the Year' this is a lovely book about what life is like for a third generation sheep farmer on the fells of Cumbria. James Rebanks was a failure at school - he just wanted to be out with the sheep and his Grandad. Several years later he discovers that he is actually clever enough to go to university and sets his sights on Oxford.
Now, as well as being a prize winning sheep farmer he works for the World Heritage Sites part of UNESCO.
The farming year from shearing to lambing and through harsh winters is told from the point of view of someone who has always loved the area and always knew he had to keep farming the Herdwick sheep that are specially bred for the landscape.





A welcome to someone over in the Google followers, not sure who, maybe Jules? Thank you for clicking the button. 

I picked up more books from the library yesterday, so better keep reading.

Back in a day or 3
Sue

As requested - a book review of The Button Box

Each button in Lynn Knight's button box tells a story.
I'll quote from the library website

"

An inlaid wooden chest the size of a shoe box holds Lynn Knight's button collection. A collection that has been passed down through three generations of women: a chunky sixties-era toggle from a favourite coat, three tiny pearl buttons from her mother's first dress after she was adopted as a baby, a jet button from a time of Victorian mourning. Each button tells a story. 'The Button Box' traces the story of women at home and in work from pre-First World War domesticity, through the first clerical girls in silk blouses, to the delights of beading and glamour in the thirties to short skirts and sexual liberation in the sixties."

I had already read and enjoyed " Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue, The Story of an Accidental Family" which is the story of 3 generations of adoptions in Lynn's family. So I guessed this new book would be just as readable, and it was.
The amount of research that was done for this book is amazing - books, magazines, film and TV - there are dozens of quotes. The author says" Some of my research was an indulgence, enabling me to read and re-read many memoirs,autobiographies and academic accounts". All her reading has made a fascinating story of how fashion has shaped women's lives and vice versa.
She has listed all her resources in a brilliant bibliography, and I intend to photo copy this list before the book goes back to the library so that I can track down several that sound interesting. I'm also going to have a look through the buttons in my button tin - some were from my mums button tin but also many older ones bought years ago from a jumble sale.

This book is definitely worth reading.

Back Soon
Sue

Missing.................

or to be more accurate ..............in a box somewhere in the shed

My large cream metal colander
A chopping board
A pile of new tea-towels and  new oven glove
Stainless steel meat carving plate with spikes
and lots of other things that I haven't missed.............yet.


 I've just finished the latest Tracy Chevalier - The Edge of the Orchard. I've read most of her books and I like the way they take a real person from history and weave a story around them. The real person in this book is Johnny 'Appleseed' Chapman who took apple trees and seeds all round the States.
This is the summary from the library website.

What happens when you can't run any further from your past? Ohio, 1838. James and Sadie Goodenough have settled in the Black Swamp, planting apple trees to claim the land as their own. Life is harsh in the swamp, and as fever picks off their children, husband and wife take solace in separate comforts. James patiently grows his sweet-tasting 'eaters' while Sadie gets drunk on applejack made fresh from 'spitters'. Their fighting takes its toll on all of the Goodenoughs - a battle that will resonate over the years and across America. Fifteen years later their youngest son, Robert, is drifting through Goldrush California. Haunted by the broken family he fled years earlier, memories stick to him where mud once did. When he finds steady work for a plant collector, peace seems finally to be within reach. But the past is never really past.

My rating - A Good Book

I've just heard on the news that we have to limit our intake of Dolmio pasta sauces to once a week, that should be simple here as they are something I never buy. A Pasta sauce made from a tin of tomatoes, a chopped onion, some tomato puree, a little brown sugar and some seasonings must be one of the easiest things to make. Vary it by adding in some chopped veg - aubergine for instance-  make a big batch and pop in the freezer.
Simple.

Oh Goody, the countdown to the EU referendum starts today. Odd really as I seem to have heard quite a lot about it already! Are you like me.............the more I'm told what I ought to do the less likely I am to do it.

Thanks for all the comments

Back Soon
Sue

Into April...........random notes from my diary

I                                               




 I wish I could remember who mentioned this book on their blog, but thanks to whoever it was I've just hugely enjoyed this first novel by a new Author.

Here's what it says on Amazon
"England,1976.
Mrs Creasy is missing and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands.
And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined…"
Behind each door on The Avenue is another secret, most have been hidden for  nearly10 years and some secrets are not pleasant.
A really good read, a kind of mystery but also about being ten years old during that long hot summer. 

We've been here for nearly two weeks and everything was jogging along until Cols latest blood tests which showed very low platelets then he started to run a temperature so he is back in hospital for a few days until they can sort things out.  So I'm getting plenty of practice driving through the traffic of Ipswich. After all the years of country living without endless roundabouts,traffic lights and busy junctions, I'm now getting moaned at for being in the wrong gear/lane and Col says I'm ruining the gear box on the Tucson which was already a bit dodgy. He had been thinking about changing to a Ford Kuga when the house sale money is sorted until his brother told him about a friend who had to use You-Tube to find the oil filter which then took three hours to change due to being hidden away and under other bits.............. so maybe not a Kuga after all.

We rang a local company to get a cat flap fitted in the bottom half of the double glazed kitchen door. We are going to have the glass replaced by a plastic coated metal panel instead of glass, it won't make any difference to light in the kitchen and it's a bit cheaper. When the man came to measure up Col recognised him as someone who had stayed on the campsite, the son-in-law of one of the regulars  - Isn't it funny what a small world we live in!

I've cycled to Asda a couple of times, it's easy- peasy as there is a cycle path up beside the main road and a proper push button crossing because it's part of one of the national cycle routes. I measured it on Mapometer website and it's just a fraction over a mile, so not really energetic but every little helps. I'm now planning my route to the nearest car boot sale!

We've filled in the forms to register at the local doctors which is literally just round the corner and walking back on Thursday I got soaked by a hailstorm which was preceded by three big claps of thunder and followed by rain - strange weather. The forecast is for a bit warmer for the weekend, I hope they are right because there is some tidying to do in the garden so I bought new secateurs as all our gardening stuff is still on the trailer in a barn at a friends. Col is not sure when we can fetch it - depends on how he feels next weekend and who we can get to help. Thanks to our son calling in on Thursday afternoon we've now cleared a bit of space in the garage for workshop stuff and the gardening bits we need. I still think Col is being over optimistic about what we have room for.

Which reminds me of the most annoying thing here........... The Fridge, it's bad enough having an under counter fridge after my old tall one - but it's ridiculously tiny and stupidly it has an ice box - which isn't needed because we have a small freezer in the kitchen and the chest freezer in the garage, 6 steps from the back door. We bought the fridge with the house but it's driving me nuts, so I think I shall fork out for a larder fridge, without icebox so an extra shelf to use.

That's it for now, thanks for comments on the last post
Back soon
Sue

Review of a Very Large Book + A.N Other

Because of our extra long and frustrating wait to move house, and with most of my possessions packed in boxes I've had plenty of time for reading, both at home and when sitting around in the hospital waiting for Col.

This is the biggest book I've read for a while - 712 pages!

Simon Garfield first came across Jean Lucey Pratt via the Mass Observation Archives He used her MO diaries for his books We Are at War, Private Battles and Our Hidden Lives with her name being changed to Maggie Joy Blunt. Through this he heard of her niece who had a collection of Jean's diaries written between 1925 and 1986. Eventually he was able to use them for this book.

712 pages

Born in 1909, Jean's mother died when she was 13 and from that time she longed for love. The book is the very frank writings of a single woman who is never really happy, searching for fulfillment, living at a time when life for a spinster is difficult.She begins qualification as an architect, works in the office of  an aluminium manufacturing factory during the war but really wants to write and does indeed eventually have one book published. She wants companionship but longs to be on her own. As other reviewers on Amazon say - you want to give her a shake, get really cross with her but also sympathise, and you just have to keep reading. The men she falls for are always married/ rotten, her friends seem to drag her down. She laments the fact that she is among the surplus woman due to so many men being killed during the two wars. Her brother is abroad for most of the years of the diary but she does become a school holiday guardian for her niece although I wasn't really sure that she enjoyed this. Wee Cottage is the home she rents  in Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire  where she cares for cats, gardens and writes. Needing an income she starts to run a small bookshop and specialises in books about cats becoming the leading expert on this subject. One thing I discovered from this book is that artificial "e" cigarettes are nothing new. They were around in the 50s under a trade name when Jean tried desperately to give up her expensive smoking addiction. They didn't work for her and it was only many years later when ill health forced her to give up her 30 a day habit.
I would have liked to go back to Garfield's books listed above to re-read which parts of her diary he used, especially the wartime entries which are much shortened for this new book. Unfortunately they are all packed in boxes so that will have to wait, but I will add this book to my wish list because it's one to keep and read again.
By coincidence the next book I picked to read from my library haul was "Superfluous Women" by Carola Dunn. This is the 22nd in her series of historical crime mysteries featuring The Hon. Daisy Dalrymple. In this book the superfluous women of the title are 3 single friends -one a friend of Daisy,- who move into a house and find a dead body in the locked cellar (as you do!) Like Jean the women are on their own because of the men/women in-balance after WW1. These books are light crime fiction, they don't take long to read but seem to be well researched. At the back of the book the author acknowledges and thanks Virginia Nicholson for the information she gleaned from her book "Singled Out -  the story of the 2 million women who never became wives".
Another book for me to order from the library.

I see there are 2 new followers, so welcome  to 'Elsie May and Bertha' and 'Kenneth and Kaye'.


I will be back soon with moving/not moving news
Sue

Monday - catching up on all sorts

Thank you for the continuing support through lovely comments. As Marlene said in one of the comments - we do feel like we are on a merry go round, trying to hang on as it goes round and round between hospital and home! 
Welcome to 2 new people in the followers pictures - Chars and Edwina. I apologise in advance as you've started following just as my blog seems to have got stuck on just two subjects - Moving House and Cols Non Hodgkins Lymphoma! At the beginning it was full of self-sufficiency, frugal living and campsite news but our world has changed considerably since April 2013. Follower numbers are now back to where they were before Google started chucking out non google followers, although having said that things will probably go peculiar again.

Col is feeling well after the blood transfusion, it seems strange to think he gave 50 pints of blood between the ages of 18 and 55 and is now getting some back (not his own obviously!). He started giving blood when he worked for a builder in the village where he lived and the men would all go together - what a good idea that was. When he changed to working for the County Council he had to go in the evenings, I went once but felt very faint afterwards then of course I was pregnant, we moved out of town, had the children and it would have been complicated for us both to go. He got a lovely pen as a gift for his 50th pint, I came across  it when sorting and thought it might as well be used rather than sitting in a box in a drawer.

More things got cleared out this weekend as our son and future daughter in law came and collected a settee and also moved a single bed frame and mattress downstairs for us. We didn't think we could take it to the auction sale but I was reading through their on-line catalogue to check our stuff was listed and saw they had a pine bed and mattress on the list so maybe we will take it over there for next week. They have nearly 800 lots for sale today so I think we will be lucky if we get £10 each for our few bits of modern pine. We also delivered a few items of gardening stuff to our youngest as they now have an allotment in Leiston and they came and sorted which of their stuff that has been here since last May can be chucked. Col has organised a friend to come and collect the last lot of scrap during the first week of March and taken a photo of an old caravan chassis to list it on eBay. So little by little the list is getting ticked off.

Some good Rugby on TV over the weekend - England v Italy and some not so good - France v Ireland and did they say it was the 10th time in a row that Wales have beaten Scotland? We also watched the Snooker Shoot Out competition where they got 10 minutes to see how many balls they can pot. Just one chance to go through to the next round. It was interesting to see lots of new faces.

Two books have been added to Books Read 2016 over the couple of weeks. A new-to-me-author writing crime fiction = G. M. Malliet - Pagan Spring. Unfortunately I found it's number 3 of a series but there are two newer ones so they've been ordered. This is another author from the States writing books set in England, a fact given away by the spelling of 'gray' and the mention of 'scallions'! but a good read nevertheless. The other book was Angela Thirkell - The Brandons. One of her Barsetshire series first published in 1939. I love the look at Country Life of the period, where the gentry and the servants Knew Their Place, full of genteel snobbish people but looked at with gentle irony and flashes of humour that make you smile. Her books are gradually being reprinted by Virago Modern Classics, with 6 more due this year.

This morning I popped to Saxmundham  for bits of shopping - still trying to find things Col fancies eating, he has gone off muesli, our usual teabags and home made bread after this last chemo session, it may be different next time - makes shopping quite complicated!  Picked up a mail re-direction form from the post office too.

That's our news up to date

Back in a day or two
Sue

How one book leads to another

Toward the end of last year I read My Life In Houses by Margaret Forster.    I'd not read any of Forster's books before but it had  popped up on my Amazon suggested reading list because I'd looked up Angela Thirkell's - Three Houses.  A couple of people suggested her other autobiography "Hidden Lives", which I ordered  and picked up from the library van. Now I've just finished and enjoyed that - though it's not a particularly happy memoir - and thought perhaps I should check out her fiction even though I assumed they were a bit too literary for my taste but 'Diary of an Ordinary Woman'  sounded interesting. Now here's the weird bit ................. I went to Leiston this morning for milk and to check out the new EACH charity shop, in fact I went round all 5 charity shops we now have and found nothing I wanted/needed at all. So heading back to Co-op, passed the hardware shop which has a basket of  (usually tatty) second-hand books outside with a SCF collecting box attached, and there, sticking up in the top was Margaret Forster - Diary of an Ordinary Woman. How odd is that! needless to say I popped 50p in the collecting box and the book into my bag!

It's sods law  that the day after I posted  Cols doctors note form thing off to an office up north, attaching a stamp (to apply for any benefit he might be entitled to) we then get a letter in the post containing a pre-paid envelope for us to use? Damn - my efficiency cost me 54p!!
 But before that note could have possibly got to the right place we had a letter to say he is eligible for £73 a week -  that's good but in another letter on the same day, we had a giant form to fill in and return which says if you don't return it you won't get the £73 a week!
In all the 34 years Col worked for the County Council he only twice had more than a week off work and we never claimed a thing when he was self-employed and unable to work due to the heart problems. So it will be quite an 'adventure' claiming anything - but I fear not in a good way!

Thank you for all the comments yesterday

Back Tomorrow
Sue