Today would have been my late mother Thora’s 111th birthday. What would she have made of today’s chaotic world? So many stupidities. At restaurants, diners wear masks until their meals arrive, then take them off to eat. Clearly, the virus goes away when we eat. The world is being ruled, not by elected leaders, but by scientists. How much longer are we going to continue to hide away from an invisible virus? I foolishly thought that now we’ve all had two jabs and a booster, normal life would return, with our own natural immunity plus the vaccines protecting us from serious illness. How long before it’s mandatory to have booster no. 99? I grow exasperated about how the virus and its ever evolving variants have ruined the whole world, maybe for ever. And yet no-one has held the originating country to account for what, to me, is the likely cause - a lab researcher’s gross incompetence. Worry free enjoyment of life has gone and no-one can plan happy future events with any confidence any more. Yet, what are we in the UK complaining about? A Xmas party 12m ago, when rumour has it the other political Parties had similar ones but no-one recorded them! Oh well, as 2022 approaches, I must somehow soldier on. Happy birthday Thora.
12th December 2021
Watching the current government wrangles over an alleged Xmas party which happened 12 months ago, I couldn’t believe it. When we lived in France, there were many differences between life there and in the UK. On the political front, even though I read the French papers and watched French TV news, I was struck by one major difference: we never heard any blow-by-blow accounts of what happens in the Elysee Palace. There was no equivalent to the English weekly live TV comedy hour, called Prime Minister’s Question Time, nor any insider ‘leaks’ of juicy Government gossip to the tabloids. Whenever President Macron appeared on TV, his speeches were always well-prepared, his suits and hair immaculate. In my view, we in this country must stop this constant need to ‘show our sore toe’ on prime-time live TV, in full colour, to the rest of the world. I don’t see that happening anywhere else. It’s time we as a country grew up, discussed government legislation in private, and presented a more balanced and coherent UK stance to the media and the world at large. Our image on the world stage is vital. Time we recognised that and stopped ‘washing us dirty linen in public’ as they say in Yorkshire. It’s long overdue.
5th December 2021
As I contemplate yet another birthday tomorrow, I think about my long journey... I was born two years after the end of WWII. My father was still away with the army, my mother at home alone. No NHS, doctors too expensive, so my mother had to bang on the party wall to alert Mrs S next door when I was about to be born. Winters were harsh and we were poor. Cold lino on the floor, and coats on beds. No-one in our road had a car, so I would run out into the street every time a car went by. No phone. No TV until I was ten, then a rental. Central heating was unheard of, every house having an open fireplace. Coal was delivered by grimy men, who lugged heavy sacks to each house before emptying them, in a cloud of toxic fumes, into the coal bunker along the entry. At five, I walked a mile to school and back, on my own. One house I passed had a bowl of fruit in the window. I couldn’t understand why, if they had such exotic items, they were displaying it instead of eating it. So many changes in my life since then as home comforts improved and technology arrived. And internally, the extreme introversion from my mother gradually morphed into the extrovert style of my father. What a journey…
21st November 2021
We are on high ground here, near the Lickey Hills, so snow is still piled up outside the door. Hasn’t reached Maine levels but at my time of life I’m loathe to struggle out and risk slipping on the ice. A few weeks ago I suffered a bad dental experience as well as a suspected damaged spleen and was feeling sorry for myself. So, I started what I told myself I wouldn’t do: write my 13th book. It’s a way of taking yourself away from the physical present, allowing writers to not only inhabit a dreamlike world, explore another time and exotic countries, but also to tackle issues which need highlighting in today’s world. So, laptop at the ready, using ancient touch-typing skills learned a hundred years ago, I explored a topic and places I haven’t written about before. What spurred me on was watching a documentary on TV. Sometimes in life, there’s a previously-unexplored situation, involving people who are relatively unknown but who have performed miracles. Time they were acknowledged. So, let the snow fall. I’m busy…
21st November 2021
14th November 2021
A big chill is coming. The last members of the Glasgow Cop26 knees-up have now departed on their private jets. “The end of coal is in sight,” said Alok Sharma. But 2 countries were notable by their absence. China and Russia. The coal declaration was not signed by the top 3 coal consumers: China, India and the US, who account for 70% of global CO2 emissions. Hypocrisy everywhere. The US was observed liaising with the UAE to increase oil production. Meantime the UK’s push to instal solar panels ignores the fact that China produce them using coal! And if the UK continues to discourage BP, Shell etc from investing in more oil and gas, from where are we going to source such commodities that the public demand? Russia and Saudi Arabia! So, our hard won economic stability is being transferred eastwards. And me? Yes, there is global warming; yes, man is contributing CO2 into the atmosphere; but I believe the major cause of global warming is the regular (every billion years or so) planetary shift, which in the past caused the Ice Age. I suspect it’s already starting to shift the Gulf Stream, as our weather’s getting like Maine. Warm summers, and heavy snow is forecast….
7th November 2021
Explosions still reverberated outside last night, live explosives inexplicably freely sold to the general public here. Fitting really, as we watched the first two episodes of Valley of Tears on channel More4, the magnificent Israeli drama about the 6 day war. For once I didn’t mind the subtitles, the story was so compelling. It even included actual footage of General Dayan and PM Golda Meir as they broadcast to the nation during the 1967 hostilities. It took my mind back to why I included a chapter about the conflict in The Meleke Stone. As fictional Dov Cohen says to his men on the eve of war: “Israelis only ever fight when attacked. We’re not interested in aggression unless sorely provoked. All our people have ever wanted is to be left in peace on our own tiny bit of land. But today, as usual, yet another aggressor’s on the horizon proclaiming aloud their sole intention to annihilate us.” A question to the rest of the world: what would your country do if continually attacked by a consortium of surrounding states, vowing your extinction? Well, after WWII and being herded silently to the gas chambers by yet another enemy, there’s only one thing the Israelis can do: stand up, be strong and - when attacked - fight back to defend themselves.
