Book – Notes from a small Island by Bill Bryson

I’ve been warned about reading too much Bryson. Whereas I found his memoir of growing up in middle America enchanting, this one about arriving in Britain is frustrating, entertaining and funny in almost equal measures.

I nearly gave up reading a few times but I’m not quitter; I have to keep reminding myself that he had the same level of derogatory comments about his homeland as he does about the UK, it’s not personal. Plus things have changed since 1993.

So that’s the review, here are some interesting points:I love the details about the cost of things in 1973; the pound was $2.46, average weekly take home pay was £30.11 and a colour TV £300. The last one probably hasn’t changed much.

I’m so glad that Bryson thinks as less of BT as I do. Not sure I’d have everyone who works there killed but I’d certainly get rid of the organisation.

Bryson moans about there being nothing to do in Dover (obviously) and yet just stays a few days where he enters the country, but he was young and naive then.

London is big. Yes it does appear to start at Gatwick and end just below Luton.

Possibly my favourite quote about the London underground: ‘That isn’t a city up there; it’s a Jane Austin novel’.

Yes there is no hill or indeed Tower strictly speaking at ‘Tower Hill’ but once upon a time, maybe there was and that’s the beauty of naming places after history, we still remember.

Yes I understand Bryson’s view when talking about ‘an ugly building competition’ and it would be lovely to keep all the buildings from hundreds of years ago but it’s not always possible; sometimes due to lack of upkeep but also I think London needs to have a skyline befitting its status as one the world’s leading finance centres. I feel we have the best of both worlds.

Having spent more than a decade in publishing myself, some of it in Fleet Street, I love the description of printers in the 1980s; over staffed, over paid and underworked. Of course the industry is now all but extinct due to the advanced technology.

Don’t f*** with English puddings. Fair enuff

Mr Bryson, England isn’t the only place in the world that has fog; it’s in other counties too, including America

In England, ‘ladies wait until all the shopping is bagged up before getting out their purses at the supermarket’? Not me, I think he’s talking about older people generally, bless them, not women specifically.

University Challenge – UK v USA? Interesting idea.

Bemoaning the fact that he can’t get a direct train where he wants i.e. Oxford to Cambridge. Well we can’t build a line between every city – do they have that in America? 

With Milton Keynes, my most despised place on the planet, Bryson can do his worst. All he really came up with is its ‘Built like an American mall’. He moaned that he couldn’t find the shopping area from the train station but all he needed to do is ask; it’s just 15 minutes walk after all. Aren’t all train stations built away from town centres, on account of the noise and the big long track that needs to be laid down?

There are constant references to bad food and the rain. On the former you get what you pay for my friend, England is closest to France and we’ve had French cooking (since, joined by just about every other nation) from when you still thought a McDonalds meal was healthy.

On the rain, ever been to Scotland? Or Ireland? Or northern Europe or Boston in fact?

Birmingham: there isn’t a landmark that you can identify Birmingham with. Firstly, does there have to be and secondly, ever seen the Rotunda? Or the Alpha Tower or since the book, the new Bull Ring centre with its iconic Selfridges building for that matter, amongst others. You can go off someone.

Apparently there is not an equivalent American phrase for ‘taking the pi**’, yes there is, ‘yanking your chain’.

There is a constant moan about the lack of trains everywhere he wanted to go, including the remotest parts of Scotland where we think it’s quaint they only have two trains per week. But that’s why we have a motorway system, so we have the option to drive if there isn’t a convenient train service.

I love that he says that bank cashiers open two at a time, expect when it’s busy. They only open one. Hilariously true!

Finally I love that he feels that the Brits always find humour in every situation, perhaps contradicting what he and a few Americans I know, thought originally.

6½/10 Smile factor 7½/10

Talli Roland’s novel, The Hating Game, available today

Help!
The very talented Talli Roland’s debut novel THE HATING GAME is out today and we all think it deserves to hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk .
Please help by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.

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About THE HATING GAME:
When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she’s confident she’ll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she’s perfected from years of her love ’em and leave ’em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £2000,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it’s revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes.
Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

Coming soon in paperback. Keep up with the latest at Coming soon in paperback. Keep up with the latest at www.talliroland.com

Book – Dear Fatty by Dawn French

I read another book, indeed a memoir that I wish I had thought of first. Perhaps I’ll do it in five years when everyone has forgotten this one. Having said that, obviously my books won’t get anywhere near the coverage that Dawn French gets so I can just nick the idea.
Dawn French’s memoirs are written in letter form, each one is a chapter written to different people who have meant something in her life. Superb.
Ms French of course is extremely funny lady but life as we know is not always a bundle of laughs. What struck me most were the letters to her Dad who committed suicide before she had even started college. I didn’t know about that and some of those chapters have the inevitable shadow of sadness but still with an air of cuteness.
Admittedly, my eyes really picked up about a third of the way through when I read Ms French spent a year in New York, still in the dangerous late 1970s, when New York was NEW YORK. She won a place on a programme, due mainly through a teacher’s encouragement of her to join debate clubs and the like so she studied out there, living with different families. If that doesn’t give a teenager confidence I don’t know what will.
The photographs testify to the author’s slimness in those days but she talks of loving her food and we can’t begrudge her that. The Dear Fatty in question appears to be the equally brilliant Jennifer Saunders. What a fantastic pair of comics they have been since they were first plucked for the Comic Strip series as the token women. And they still innovate and amuse now.
There are also frequent letters to her best friend (BF) her mum, her daughter, her nieces and nephews and various members of her family along with an ex boyfriend or too. And there’s the ‘fan’ letters to David Cassidy and the riotous, more recent letters to Madonna.
Finally she writes beautifully to her, sadly now ex-husband, Lenny Henry, only one mind, their life was and is private a fact that I love.
Read if you like memoirs and/or if you have a sense of hilarity.
8/10
Inspiration factor 9½/10

Julie & Julia

Forgot to put this on my Birthday list this year. Not that I desperately need it, I don’t cook and I don’t watch films on DVD, but it’s one of my favourite movies of recent years.

Book – Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

New York Times food critic

The more I read of Ruth Reichl’s memoirs as a food critic at the New York Times after being headhunted from the LA Times, the more I compare her work to those of other food critics.

AA Gill by no means lavishes praise on all the restaurants he visits for the Sunday Times but does he go to the length that Ms Reichl does to disguise himself? Will he visit the restaurant several times in different guises over the course of many months in pursuit of the honest restaurant review?

It stands to reason that when a restaurant critic books a table, he will receive the best service and be fed the best food the head chef can muster. I cannot imagine local newspaper critics being anything other than idols in the eyes of restaurant owners (although I’d love it if they do go in disguise). The free publicity resulting from a decent review is worth more than any advert that can be bought.

Ms Reichl writes about taking on the persona of the lady she disguises herself as, with the help of an acting coach, a friend of her late mother’s. She talks of the character taking over her personality once the wig goes on. Together they create Molly, the former school teacher, mother of two who comes to New York every few months for shopping and theatre visits.

Each of these characters even has their own credit card or otherwise the USA’s premier food critic carries a lot of cash with her for the types of restaurants she reviews, even in the early 1990s.

There’s Betty, Emily, Brenda, Chloe and Miriam – her mother, all visiting New York’s newest or finest restaurants with her family, her colleagues or her friends, each in on the act and playing along. The difference in her treatment when going as an overweight, older tourist to going as her swish powerful self accompanied by her husband or young son is palpable. I guess the people who continue to go to these high and mighty establishments after knowing the service ‘Betty’ received don’t care how other people get treated.

What I love is learning the lengths a truly professional food critic goes to make sure we the reader reads accurate information about the restaurant’s service, not just about the food they give to their most important patrons.

Interweaved with the descriptions of the relationships the author formed during her time at the New York Times makes this a very personal account. Oh and if unlike me you enjoy the cooking and not just the eating, recipes are included.

Fascinating

8/10   Inspiration factor 8½/10

Book – The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

Generally speaking, if a book appears on the Booker prize list I stay away from it. I find it hard to concentrate on reading (on anything) at the best of times and if a whole paragraph is used to describe how a cup is chipped and why that is significant, my mind wonders off to all the cups I have, the ones, I have broken, the special ones picked up on my travels…..

Darn it; I’ve used a whole paragraph to describe why I can’t concentrate.

Having said that, I enjoyed this story and if I understand it right, it’s about 3 gentlemen; Libor who is twice as old as the others and recently widowed by the love of his entire life; Samuel, also widowed although not the same kind of relationship due to his philandering and Julian.

The story is told through Julian’s longing to be a Jew or sometimes even thinking he is one. Unlike his two married Jewish friends, he has remained a bachelor despite fathering two grown up children with whom he has virtually no relationship. The book tells each man’s stories of their relationships, their friendships, their career choices and their Jewness.

Julian is constantly agonising as by no means has he lived a pure life and is paranoid that it will all end prematurely anyway. He has skipped from job to job and pays particular high disregard to his former long term employer, the BBC (I’m guessing there’s something the author was trying to tell us). He now works as a lookalike of any celebrity that is male and of similar build it seems, whereas his more driven friends are a hugely accomplished; author/TV star respectively and their retired teacher.

It is actually a very good read – well obviously it is; it’s in the short list for Booker Prize and I’m glad I read it.
I imagine you will be too.
7/10 Inspiration factor 7½/10

Book – The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson

Following what I think is excellent advice I’m on a mission to read 10 travel memoirs before writing my own. Not that mine are all travel, but there is fair chunk of voyage talk half way through writing the first draft of the book and it is a memoir.

I’m amazed in all the books that I have read in the last 48 months there has not been one travel memoir. Maybe Stuart Maconie’s Cider with Roadies counts or Kerouac’s On the Road?

In any case, I have heard a lot about Bill Bryson’s work and on more than one occasion have been tempted to pick a book up but alas always when there is a big pile waiting for me on the coffee table.

So now that I’m happily forced to do so, I pick the Thunderbolt Kid first. Strictly not travel, it’s about Bryson growing up in 1950’s middle America and centres on his family and school life. Well that’s all there is as a kid. He writes about his uber-forgetful mother, a terrible cook and not exactly maternal but somehow still doting. He writes about all the kids, the ones he picked on and the ones that picked on him. Then he talks about his father and this for me is the most enthralling part.

It turns out the late Mr Bryson senior was a sports journalist of some note, who stayed with the local paper, The Register, despite offers from the big boys. He also spent chunks of time away from home covering baseball games and I’m not sure if they would do that now. It’s just gorgeous to see how well he was rated by his son and touching for him to quote some phrases.

His mother also worked for the same newspaper as Bryson senior but his recollections are only of her being out for coffee, for lunch or forgetting that he was going to meet her at the office despite them having regular Friday ‘dates’. This in the days where he can stroll into a big office building and right up to her desk,

Inevitably in the American 1950s, despite young Bryson not experiencing that much himself during his tender years, he talks briefly about racism and details some local events of needless deaths.

However, the book is mostly uplifting and amusing starting with the anti communism stance of the counties leaders, a world away (or is it?) from the America of today where permission has been granted to build a mosque near the site of the old Twin Towers.

It’s about the era when everything changed; TV came, cars became a regular fixture, women could work as long as they were home makers too, missiles weapons were being tested without recognising the damage done and money was seemingly in plentiful supply. Anything was possible.

What a fantastic time to grow up.

8/10    Inspiration factor 9½/10

Gratitude – August

Wow, it’s a hard month to be grateful but alas, there is always something:

•  5 days in Glasgow for book writing & getting to 32000 word target
• Meeting the lovely & talented Marsha Moore
• Having a light work month so more time for writing
• Match of the Day is back!

Adventures in Glasgow-August 2010 Part 2

Sunday I miss breakfast at the hotel. I don’t like eating early, before 9am but it’s there for the taking. I just don’t know where the time goes.

I’m looking forward to Sunday afternoon tea today at Cup, scene of gorgeous lunch last time but I’m not hungry enough. I delay until Monday, when it’s quieter I reason and then promptly forget.
Instead I pay a short visit to Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, opposite the local Bean Scene (and what I am looking at as I write this. Well obviously not that precise moment or everything would be spelt incorrectly)

I don’t fancy spoiling the day by going downtown to the cinema tonight so stay west and complete my word target

Words up to 5000
Lunch: Off Shore
Cupcake: 1, Waitrose

Monday
A bonus day. Same as yesterday, miss breakfast, go to Cresswell St Bean Scene and write 1000 words. It’s a struggle to reach the word target for the second day running.
Yes I have been to the same coffee place each morning and it’s absolutely nothing to do with the guy who works there. Nothing, I tell you, it’s simply my favourite Bean Scene.

I finish early and the vintage place is still not open at 12.10 so I take a little, OK quite a big walk into Partick and back to the museum for more Glasgow story gazing. It’s really quite good in there.

I didn’t go to Cup today either; maybe I know it will never be as magical as the first time. I’ll go on my next Glaswegian visit.

After buying my movie ticket, my plan is to take a look at the ‘other side’ of Glasgow where Caledonia University is. There is nothing there, not even a coffee shop. Where do these students go? There are hundreds – OK many many places around University of Glasgow.

Cupcake: 1 Waitrose lemon & lime 7½/10 photo
Movie Grown Ups 7½/10
Words up to 6500

Tuesday

My last morning visit to the morning Bean Scene and they remember my order! I managed to get the same seat each time too; I’m beginning to wonder why no-one wants to sit there but I do arrive early so there are not many customers around.

What I’ve noticed on this trip

People just take up the whole pavement and many times I’ve had to wait until they move out of the way for me to pass or more often, I just step into the road. This isn’t just once or twice but several times on a walk. Why?
There is definitely a divide between attitudes; warmth towards a stranger in the West End rather than anywhere else. I know my place.

Big plus is there was no rain to speak off. The umbrella didn’t come out once. In fact we had glorious sunshine most days.

Words 7000

New Frocks

Adventures in Glasgow – August 2010

Wanted some vintage coffee tins but found this perfect one; my daddy used to drink Camp coffee!

Another jaunt to Glasgow for book writing, this time for 4 nights so word target is 7000.

Bean Scene visits
Cresswell Lane, West End 4 (each morning)
Woodside 2
Kelvin Grove 2 (nearest to hotel)

Which one do I love most?

I think it’s fair to say I love Glasgow now.

It’s because I stay away from the city centre and only spend time in the areas I like, namely the West End and a little bit of Woodlands. I delve into the city centre twice to get to the cinema and both times, whilst the films are worth seeing, I dislike being there.

If only they built a Cineworld at the other end of town – or will that spoil it?

It’s a rare occurrence that there’s no rain when I arrive on Friday afternoon so I decide to walk to the hotel, with a stop at M&S for hotel room goodies to break up the journey. A random few drops of rain arrive during the final leg of the walk but nothing to wet the umbrella over. I’m home and dry.

There’s something very pleasing about familiarity so walking into the hotel is like coming home. I even recognise the guy on the desk although I’m guessing his recognition of me is politeness.

Early Friday evening is to achieve the word target in the local Bean Scene and then fish and chips. This time I have everything sussed for a traditional Friday – bar the cinema, I give that a miss for tonight.

Words: 1000

Saturday Straight to the West End for writing at Bean Scene in Cresswell Lane. Next door I discover De Courcey’s Arcade, which contains a now obligatory cupcake bakery. The staff reveal that it may not have opened when I last visited.

The best sighting is yet another vintage clothes store in Glasgow. However, I do like Just for You because I receive personal shopper service. Almost immediately the owner begins collecting frocks for me to try whilst insisting throughout I’m a size 8 and me arguing I’m 10-12. Also, her stock ranges between Karen Millen and designer – no Top Shop in here (how is that vintage anyway?). Obviously I love Top Shop, even though I should have grown out of it at least ten years ago but there’s not an awful lot of point in buying second hand Top Shop or Miss Selfridge.

The lady does me a deal so I buy the second dress that I love but don’t need along with the first dress that will be very handy indeed for all these functions I have to go to for my charity project work. We become ‘firm friends’ and I go back each day just to say hello – not to see what else has been bought in, honest guv.

Cupcake: De Courcey’s Arcade strawberry & vanilla 7½/10
Lunch: Off Shore near the university again (I keep wanting to spell it Off Sure)
Movie – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – 8/10
Words up to 3000

Part 2 to follow

Book – The Truth About Melody Brown by Lisa Jewell

Because there’s a girl’s name in the title, it’s written by a female and the story is about a woman, one would assume this is chick lit, a phrase I dislike as much as ‘RomCom’.

I dislike it because I assume it to be a ‘Bridget Jones’ or ‘Shopaholic’. Not that I dislike those, in fact, they are the only two I have read of this genre albeit, before I realised it was a genre. I thought they were just comic novels but aimed at women. I’m put off because whilst I am happy to have read these, I don’t want every book to be about shopping, not being able to get a man and bleating on about being single or worse, all of the above.

So I dislike the term because just as the RomCom tag means I have probably missed out on some very funny movies, the chick lit label means it’s possible I have missed out on some great books.

This would have been one of them.

It’s such a painful admission to dislike it as I probably write it.

I don’t know where exactly but I did read about this book and something must have appealed to me. It’s one of those stories that is so simple yet full of complications, I wonder why no one else (me) didn’t think of it. Lisa Jewell throws enough spanners in the works to make this almost thriller like.

The book alternates between now and then; Melody Brown is 9 years old when her family home burns down. She grew up having blocked out all the memories before that moment and thinking the people she lived with…well I won’t spoil it.

She’s now a single parent, living in Covent Garden, London (oh the glamour) having lost contact with her parents when she found herself pregnant, nearly 18 years ago.

The then story kicks off when Melody’s parents break up and she and her mother move into a squat on the Kent coast. A myriad of characters come into her life but none of these are part of Melody’s memory, until she goes to see a live hypnotic show and is asked to be up on stage to take part. Only when she is transported back to being five years old does her mind start to unlock and the book tells of her first 9 years of memories slowly, painfully and sometimes excitedly coming back over the approaching days.

Melody stars putting back the pieces together as lost family and friends start entering her thoughts.

I don’t find it as sad as some reviewers but I do agree it’s uplifting. It’s what they call in the trade, a page turner.

I’m looking forward to reading Ms Jewell’s back catalogue. Any you recommend first?

8/10     Inspiration factor 9½/10

Adventures in Birmingham: August 2nd

Two weeks of too much going on meant too much going out means getting back into writing and reading mode. I haven’t got back into my book a week habit (that’s reading, not writing one) since before the world cup.
So having said all that about Birmingham being so fantastic there is rarely a need to London, this weekend a few of us are going to see Hair, the musical in London.

I say Hair was the first production I was in whilst at primary school but in a few ways, this is not strictly true; firstly, my debut production was the nativity, 3 months into my school career and I was picked, not auditioned, to play Mary, largely a non-speaking role. I’m sure there may have been another nativity or two before Hair. Now that I come to think of it, I don’t remember a production, just rehearsing so maybe it was just part of dance class or the like? My memory is only of waving scarves and swirling around the floor to the tune of ‘this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the age of Aquariuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus’. That’s all I remember, or I could have imagined it all. All I knew at the time was that I was singing about a star sign, growing up as the youngest of 4 sisters and just one brother, I knew about star signs at an absurdly early age.

So, having spent the weekend easily – well not easily, it was bloody hard, I just mean in the end I topped the target of 1000 words on my book – I start as I mean to go on by picking up a new book to read.
I generally don’t like chick lit (maybe pick up one a year) but this seems good so far, The Truth About Melody Brown by Lisa Jewell.
Best of all my Radio 2 boys are back after a holiday, Mark Radcliffe & Stuart Maconie 8-10pm, sadly now only on Monday to Wednesday having been replaced with live music on Thursdays. When I say ‘live’ I mean recorded at some point in the past. If you’re going to replace the best thing on radio, now that Wossy has gone (Ken Bruce & popmaster a close 2nd) replace it with something better. Nope, that’s not possible; there is nothing better than these two.

These are my reading hours even though I get mightily distracted, not always by the music but by their muso chatter in between perfectly chosen records from now, from the past and most importantly from the future. If I am out, as much as I say I’ll pop in for a quick drink after work (strictly speaking it’s not my ‘after-work’, just everyone else’s’), it inevitably gets to at least 9 before I think of trying to make an exit, even though I rarely drink. (allergy reasons)

Cocktails in an island

Back to Birmingham, this leads to Tuesday, the only night I’ve committed to be Out with the Girls and my third attempt to get to the Island Bar. Living in St Pauls, going to the other side of the city is like going to the dark side. For a start it’s a good 25 minute walk but I make it and a lovely time is had by all, with the first time I looked at my watch being 9.28. Bang on cue then.
It’s nice in there although it took me 10 minutes to ask for my mineral water as the solo barman was busy making something green with herbs. I should have asked for some pink colouring just to make it as fancy as the others.

I was meant to pop in for a drink before we went to see Cherry Ghost at the Alex the other week, but somehow it never happened. They offer cocktails at £3.50 all night on a Monday, I guess we’ll be doing that next month, when I may gear myself up for a drop of the hard stuff. It’s a recently developed alcohol allergy although I’m not a big drinker anyway.

Coffee & Live Music

On Friday, seemingly the coffee shop to the stars had some welcome live music from Pandemonium Peoples Front Skiffle Experience; ‘bringing back skiffle to its coffee bar roots’. They can only be described as skiffle meets folk and runs over the punk on the way. As everyone knows, I’m in there most afternoons to write and although Friday is a day off, I felt it a good enough reason to be at Urban. I’ve loved live music in coffee shops in the evenings since my early days of travelling solo to New York. If one is not a drinker this a fabulous way to enjoy life music and on a Friday, a great end to the working week/start to the weekend. If not every week it will be great to have this at least once a month.

It’s a little loud for a coffee shop ambience as we had to SHOUT TO BE HEARD but otherwise, fantastic.

Flower children

Four of us meet at Snow Hill on Saturday morning to catch a train to London. Why Snow Hill and not the brilliantly fast Virgin train from New St? Because Chiltern trains are running an offer, buy 2 tickets, get four so against my better judgement, I’m persuaded by my three companions that it will be fun if we’re all together.

As it turns out, that was the only negative as apparently there was some maintenance work going but the horrendous delays were not mentioned either when purchasing, on the boards or at any time during the very long journey. Nor that we had to change in deepest darkest West London (barely) and jump on a tube. In total we spent over six hours travelling, more time that we went in London. I think I’ve convinced the others to stick with Virgin and book weeks in advance to get the deal in future.

The ‘day’ in London however was perfection; brunch, coffee, show, coffee & cake before heading back. A great last free Saturday for me before Match of the Day returns. Next weekend, I’m staying in Birmingham, probably.

Adventures in Birmingham – introduction

Possibly the first in a series to remind us of what makes Birmingham a great place to be.

Before I begin, if you are new to me, my blog or to planet earth, this is what I’m about.
Originally from Bedford (c45 miles north of London, don’t mention Luton) I moved to Birmingham a year ago but it’s my 3rd stint of living here. This time, I came via a period in New York, my 2nd home of 2 decades standing where I attended writing school (no, I know, you wouldn’t think it). This time round the US immigrations department have taken it upon themselves to believe that I worked there illegally but of course I didn’t. (I think that’s the reason but I’ve never had anything in writing, they don’t have to give me that, it is America). Still I’m locked out of the USA until they change their mind.

Why would I work if I didn’t have to? In any case I was far too busy going to see Martha Stewart’s TV recording in the morning, bumping into Kevin Bacon in the afternoon, waiting in line at Staples whilst they printed 200 ‘no parking – filming’ signs for the latest Angelina Jolie movie being shot, deliberately walking past the school around the corner every day where John McEnroe sent his kids, just in case and manoeuvring around the red carpeted streets where there was a new SJP film premiere. Not all in one day but that’s how it is and I’m far too exhausted to work after all that.

In any case, 4 years as a freelance consultant (really, it’s not that interesting to talk about here) working 18 hour days, pretty much 7 days a week just to keep going, I had a stash of cash, the UK was going to the dogs (#skyfail, #BTfail) and I left.

I’ve been writing for 2 years now (yes I know, you wouldn’t know it) and whilst I was in New York, started a blog where amongst other things, I posted a weekly journal for my friends back home.
I thought it would be fun to do that now, albeit a lot shorter as I do work, blog, write articles for other websites and oh, I’m in the middle of writing my first memoir-based book.

If writing this helps (local) people realise why when I come back from NYC, I feel Birmingham is the place to live and not a little place called London village.

All roads lead to cake.

First adventures in Birmingham post follows

Gratitude list – July

This month, I’m grateful for:

Birmingham Jazz Festival
Another training project completed (although always continual follow up to do)
50 Things That Make Me Smile in Birmingham – there’s 50 things to be grateful for right there
Spain winning the World Cup (if it’s not to be England (ha) or Italy, Spain are deserved world champions)
My friends coming to stay for the weekend
Thank heavens for Meet Up, saving my ‘life’ for a second time! I’m grateful for making new localised friends.
20,000 words of the book written, or is it books?

Book – The Believers by Zoe Heller

After enjoying Notes on a Scandal, I undertook to read more of Miss Heller. I know for some time she was based in New York and wrote the ‘Letter from New York’ in the Sunday Times and that’s where this book from is based.

Indeed it was reading that column each week that got me into reading the Sunday Times regularly and making a decision on what time of writing I was going to do. I had no idea up until then, just that I wanted to end up (as in retire) writing but then I knew I wanted to write opinion and memoir pieces in the main.

If books are written from one’s personal experiences, I worry for Ms Heller!

The part comical story is centred on the mother, an absolute dragon who admits to not being all together maternal, despite giving birth to two daughters and adopting a young boy.

A well to do family, British mother married 40 years to an American father and living in Greenwich Village, bang up to date in post September 11th New York.

It’s quite a fascinating read about the mother daughter relationships and how those differ in that she is a doting mum to her adopted wayward, junkie, good for nothing son. It’s all wrapped in the parents’ radical ideals and how both daughters rebel from their principles. The title is about their changing lives and therefore opinions; what do they believe in now?

You’ll have the excuse the ‘F’ word – coming from the mother – but the writer goes to some lengths to explore the whole family and a supporting cast of hanger-ons.

So first Ms Zeller makes me realise what sort of writer I will become; can she make a novelist out of me yet?

Maybe.
7½/10 Inspiration factor 9½/10

Gratitude List – May 10

• First on the list; I’ve now been in my lovely new job for 3 months
• I’m grateful for the successful roll-out of the Believe programme including having novices experience event organising at our own Fundraiser. I’m grateful it all went pretty smoothly and hopefull we’ll find some jobs for the long-term unemployed (the point of the programme)
• The book I’m writing is now up to 13,817 words
• I’ve been to Glasgow for the first time (see book writing)
• I’m grateful for the encouragement of writers, ones I don’t even know especially @marshawrites
• My crush tally has gone up to three. I feel I’ll be back in the dating game soon

Book – Summer Crossing by Truman Capote

Truman Capote was introduced to me by my writing teacher, not, surprisingly, through my style icon Audrey Hepburn in the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

I had to read out a passage from In Cold Blood which was so good that I had to read it twice and there began the hunt for Capote classics.

Summer Crossing was discovered some 16 years after the author’s death in 1984 and was written before Breakfast at Tiffany’s so they say it’s the prequel.

It has an interesting reference to being able to fly to the moon, some years before the reported moon landings and I can see why the free spirited heroine Grady McNeil could be a forerunner for Holly Golightly. Miss McNeil is from a New York society family whose parents made the mistake of leaving her alone in New York whilst they sailed for a summer in Europe.

As is still customary if they can afford it, New Yorkers do not stay in the city during the unbearable hot summer months but this year, our heroine decided to hang around and see where her relationship with Clyde, a Jewish parking attendant from Brooklyn takes her. As you can imagine, everywhere her family wouldn’t want it to. Throw in a married sister and a childhood friend who is a more likely suitor and there are some happenings worth reading about.

As Capote’s first novel, it is not as polished as he would have liked but as inspiration for the writing style that makes you feel like you are there, he is the master.

It is nice and short and therefore an easy read.

7/10        Inspiration 8½/10

Book – Naked in Knightsbridge, by Nicky Schmidt

Not one for ‘Chicklit’ (gosh – I’m actually using the word!) I have, in the past, read two sets of novels of this genre. The first book I read is the one you all know – the one that got made into those not-too-bad films with the American playing a Brit and possibly spawned this genre. The second, the hilarious Shopaholic series, although I couldn’t bring myself to see that film. Both books were recommended to me by highly respected friends and after some protestation I gave in and read them all. Similarly Naked in Knightsbridge was recommended to me by a writer on Twitter.

My immediate reaction took a little while to shake off; like Shopaholic, each chapter starts of with a letter from a bank manager or other creditor. Yes the heroine is broke and atrocious with money not to mention her penchant for shopping and a dangerous addiction to food but worst of all, Jools is work-shy. So will I have some empathy with her?

Then there were some odd moments like why wouldn’t Jools have a camera when every mobile in recent years has a one in the era of advertising on e-bay? And where in London did she find toilets at a tube station?! (Do tell!).The letters seemed quaintly old fashioned in 2009 when even the banks are happy to email messages. But these are just little observations….

Like I said, it took a little while to shake of the comparison to the Shopaholic series but halfway through I made the decision to brush that aside and soon found myself racing through the handily short chapters. I like short chapters. Ms Schmidt has that wonderful talent of putting twists in the plot and adding to traits to her characters to keep you reading to the end.

The fact that this is the fastest book I have read in recent years – well the fastest one that wasn’t biographical and therefore semi-filled with photographs – says something. Even better than an enjoyable read, I’ve finally admitted to myself that what I write is going to appeal to almost this very audience. (Not quite the same – goodness knows what Chicklit readers will say about my views on why women should pay their own way and life isn’t just about finding a man and getting the latest bag). I was surprised to see Chicklit has its own section in my library.

Unlike the Chicklit reviews, I didn’t find this book hilarious and indeed some parts were downright disheartening – I didn’t enjoy reading about a grown woman rummage for food in skips and not in a hip, green way and even though I can barely get through a day without cake, I felt positively nauseous at the amount of food Jools got through in a single sitting. Eventually, I did warm to her for some of the time and I assure you there are enough laugh out loud moments to keep the page turning.

I would have liked the ending to have seen Jools become level headed and standing on her own two feet but I see why Ms Schmidt took us to where she did. The last quarter will certainly have you gripped. Maybe Hollywood will come calling again? I see Kate Winslet in the Jools role.

Right, time to get back to the writing.

7½/10 Inspiration factor 9/10

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