26th March 2023

 Aux barricades! The French are revolting - so the King’s visit has been postponed. Over the 12 years we lived in France, the French were always protesting about something. Phrases like gilets jaune have become commonplace. In many ways I found the French to have a sense of personal entitlement far exceeding that of the ‘lowly’ English. Along with the excellent French health system, their amazing carte vitale having personalised medical history encryption, their pension system is generous. Many French retirees receive 50% of their working salary. Claude, our erstwhile French neighbour in 2005, was able to take full retirement at the age of 55 from his job as an electrician with the EDF service, on two very generous state and occupational pensions. He lived the life of Riley, installing an indoor pool in his bungalow. Every day we saw him pootling around on his top of the range ride-on mower. But now, his countrymen are protesting loudly that, for entirely sensible economic reasons, Macron is moving the retirement age goalposts. So our King must wait. Otherwise, like past French royalty, he would be sent to the Bastille. Allons enfants de la patrie…

To read more about our tumultuous life with the French: mybook.to/Ed2paradis

19th March 2023

 It’s Mothering Sunday today in the UK. Such a lot has happened since first I became a mother, but the greatest change has been the rise of IT. Whole new social rules have sprung up. I can tell immediately the likely age of an email sender by the use of punctuation, spelling and correct grammar!  And woe betide an emailer using capital letters - anger personified.  My biggest email worry is not noticing a huge mistake until after I’ve sent it. Once sent it’s too late. Forwarding can be useful, especially with attachments but, as I’ve learnt to my cost, always check before sending that there’s not something incriminating underneath! But even with fixed phone lines, there’ve also been social changes.  These days, only old people seem to use them. When I was young, our first fixed line was a party-line, but no parties were ever arranged thereby. It was strictly for serious matters only. In fact, on the few occasions it rang, someone surely must have died. Ironically, today’s young people feel the same, but for different reasons. All their social interractions are via the ubiquitous cell phone, used on the go outside, even risking life and limb whilst crossing the road. Heaven forbid that, if killed by so doing, the family fixed line at home should actually ring with the dire news. To mothers everywhere, enjoy your day.

12th March 2023

I was reading about how many people, women and men, now use invasive cosmetic procedures as a weapon against ageing. Personally, now that I’ve recovered from my second bout of Bell’s Palsy, I’m so glad that my facial muscles, frowns and all, are actively working again. No way I’d want to stop that. But the truth is: what people really want is not to grow old and not to die. No amount of cosmetic enhancements will change that. I sometimes wonder why adults don’t revert to wearing school uniform in the relentless drive to fool themselves they’re still young. When I see 80 year old popstars on stage, I laugh at their foolishness.  The way we look at ourselves as a society needs to change. Somewhere along the line, we stopped revering the older generation. Years ago, young people would naturally turn to their grandparents for the wisdom they gleaned over their long life. Back then, grey hair and wrinkles were not seen as things to be erased but to be relished. They were signs that they’d reached that coveted stage in life where they’d passed their apprenticeship. Ancient civilisations knew this subliminally, fêting their elders for what they’d achieved, and glorying in their hard-won life education. Forget what you look like to others. Beauty comes from within. Embrace the wisdom.

5th March 2023

 Life today is difficult.  Yes, I know that home comforts have increased by leaps and bounds since the 1950s.  And just look at how wonderful it is to be able to ‘Whatsapp’ with our adult children living in the US, as we did yesterday.  But despite all of this, I still sigh.  Some say that my generation has lived through more technological change over the past 50 years than anyone before. And, I admit to being grateful that iphone cameras weren’t around in my teens to incriminate me now!  But today it’s the lack of courtesy and consideration for others which gets me down, good manners clearly not taught by parents or schools any more. Old people are rarely offered a seat on public transport, bags often occupying places for passengers, and in the literary world, if agents or publishers aren’t interested in your long-prepared submission, no response is sent at all. Some years ago I was walking home from work, wandering a little on the pavement through tiredness, when a jogger suddenly zoomed past me from behind, screaming at me to get out of the way!  And don’t start me on road rage. When did good manners fly out of the window? These days, in the cut and thrust of modern living, everyone has their own agenda,  stabbing in the back anyone who gets in their way. My message to them? Wait until you’re old.

26th February 2023

 Been busy writing two very different genres: the fourth in my mid-grade series, and an adult non-fiction historical book set in my home city. Both require me to write about what I know, but my brain needs to constantly code-switch between the two styles. So, to relax, I turn to more excellent TV drama and watching my football team. This week I’ve been binge-watching BBC corrupt-cop crime drama, Better. And what a nice surprise to see Anton Lesser. His performance in this is superb. What an actor! He’s not only well-respected and Shakespearian-trained, but from my home city, Birmingham. I remember him well from when we both appeared on stage in local am-dram. As a writer, I use as much material as possible, especially for the Birmingham-based non-fiction book, so Anton could well feature as well as Aston Villa history. Meantime, I’m just 8 weeks away from the launch of The Mandarin Seeds, ed 2.  And I’m delighted to have secured a cover byline from my friend Paul A Mendelson, the BAFTA-nominated screenwriter and author. Have also been asked to be interviewed soon by Lee Benson on his local radio show “Listen with Lee”, on Black Country Xtra. Meantime, I’m waiting to see what lovely Nikki from SpellBound Books comes up with for the imminent  new cover design. Watch this space…

19th February 2023

 Authors always say ‘write about what you know.’  It’s called witting testimony - recounting from actual, real-life events and memories, rather than research materials. But, when I watch today’s TV programmes set in times that I grew up in, I instantly spot the errors.  It’s all too obvious when scriptwriters are too young to know the language and mindsets of ordinary people in the period they’re trying to reconstruct.  I was watching the TV comedy Funny Lady, starring Gemma Atherton. As soon as I saw it was set in the 1960s, I knew they’d get things wrong.  Great attention was paid to things like typewriters, cars, and furniture, but the language used was wrong.  When I worked in a foundry in the 60s, amongst working class men, I never heard the F word, nor open talk about intimate things, yet Funny Lady was riddled with it as standard. And, although the background music was correct, they failed to show that there was a big divide in the 60s between what the teenagers and older people listened to.  And in Call The Midwife, set in a similar time period, why does one of the lead nurses wear so much make-up?  In the 60s, a woman looking like that would have been labelled a tart!  Similarly on today’s book covers set in that era. Research sources, unfortunately, rarely include witting testimony - vital for true life realism. They should’ve asked me!

12th February 2023

 In 1990, I was doing some filing in my top-floor office, when the drawer started to shake alarmingly. A minor earthquake, probably caused by old underground mines. But this week’s devastation in Turkey and Syria is another story. Mr Erdogan says “it’s part of destiny’s plan”, but is it? For 80 years Turkish law has required all buildings to have high quality concrete, reinforced with steel bars, but no-one checks. Experts say that if all regulations had been followed, many lives would have been saved.  For 24 years Turkish citizens have had to pay an earthquake tax, bringing in £4billion, but no-one knows where this money has gone. Government changes have meant that the country’s armed forces were prevented from responding this week. Devastated roads hindered international rescue efforts whilst thousands lay dying. We can’t stop earthquakes but we can improve our preparation and reaction. In such zones, all buildings must be made quake-proof, built on stilts if necessary. But there’s nothing like natural disasters to show the utter futility of most man-made wars. It’s at times like this that politics must be forgotten so that all men can help one another in times of need. Our hearts go out to everyone caught up in this terrible tragedy.