Debbie Young's Blog, page 27
May 8, 2019
My Favourite Subject
A post about three recent public appearances – one on the radio and two at litfests
Well, who doesn’t like talking about themselves?
In the first of what I’m hoping will be a weekly round-up of what I’ve been up to in my writing life, here’s a quick summary of three highlights for me from last week (if you count the first day of the week as a Saturday, that is!)
1 The 5th Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival (Saturday 27th April)
[image error] Despite Hurricane Hannah, Brad Borkan and I were still smiling at the end of the very successful day (Photo by Angela Fitch Photography)
I’m pleased to report that this year’s HULF (one of the many things people call it for short – HULit is popular too!) was a roaring success, the biggest and best yet with over 60 authors, poets, illustrators and artists taking part to stage a packed programme of events to suit all ages and interests. To get the full picture, hop over to the Festival’s website, where we’re already counting down to HULF2020 (!), but where we’re going to be keeping the magic going year-round by weekly posts from the guest speakers. We kick off with a post sharing keynote speaker Brad Borkan’s wonderful opening address about the power of books and reading. In the sidebar of that blog you’ll find a “follow” button if you’d like to receive each new post in your inbox, and an email list sign-up button if you’d like to be kept abreast of Festival news.
I purposely kept myself out of the programme this year to allow myself plenty of time to scurry about from venue to venue, checking everything was running smoothly, (which it was, thanks to my amazing team of speakers and volunteers). But I did enjoy welcoming everyone in the opening ceremony, sharing my dream for a free festival accessible to all, and celebrating the huge talent assembled in the village from far and wide for this special day. I also indulged myself by giving a reading from Best Murder in Show to round off the “Around the World in 8ish Books” session which provided a virtual world tour chaired by Caroline Sanderson, Associate Editor of The Bookseller. My book brought us firmly back to life in an English village!
2 Read My Lips Radio Show (Monday 29th April/Tuesday 30th April)
Yes, you read that right – it spanned two days! I had to log on just before midnight on the Monday and was on air till 1.30am!
[image error] Bonnie D Graham, aka Red Radio, was the perfect host at the midnight hour
Agreeing to be a guest on a live radio show which started in North Carolina at 7pm their time might not seem like the smartest decision, as by that time I was exhausted from the Festival and really needed to catch up on sleep, but I’m really glad I did, because it was great fun! Host Bonnie D Graham (aka Radio Red!) is a feisty host, a real pro, segueing easily between disparate topics and making fellow guest Sanjog Aul and me feel very comfortable. Sanjog’s self-help book, The Tricycle Way: How to Stop Racing Through Life and Start Enjoying the Ride, might not sound like the obvious bedfellow for my cosy mystery novels, but we found we had a surprising amount in common and many shared values.
I have Brad Borkan to thank for the introduction to Bonnie – he’s featured on her show several times.
Although the show went out live, it’s available to listen to on demand, so click this link if you’d like to tune in – I don’t chime in till about half way through but I found Sanjog’s interview very interesting too!
3 Wrexham Carnival of Words (Thursday 2nd May)
I rounded off my busy week with a trip to speak about my cosy mystery novels as part of the vibrant Wrexham Carnival of Words, which my author friend David Ebsworth helps organise. He had kindly come to HULF on the Saturday to give his fascinating illustrated talk, “Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know about the Spanish Civil War”, drawing on the research he did for his excellent historical mystery series that kicks off with The Assassin’s Mark, a Christiesque detective story. I highly recommend all three books in the series. by the way.
I was invited to speak in the Carnival’s new lunch-time strand of Meet the Author talks in the spacious, light and airy Wrexham Library, set in the midst of beautifully tended gardens. What a lovely asset for any town and litfest!
The audience may have come to Meet the Author, but I really enjoyed meeting the audience too! I talked about my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series, why I chose to write cosy mystery, and the relationship between the concept and my real life in a small Cotswold community very similar to the fictional one featured in the stories. I gave several readings and shared some anecdotes about life in Hawkesbury Upton that if you put in a novel, one might not believe! I also told them a bit about HULF, and at least one member of the audience put it straight in her diary and has started planning her trip for HULF 2020! I was happy to sign quite a few books for sale afterwards, and I so enjoyed the experience that I donated the first three books in the series to Wrexham Library.
[image error]It was a joy to speak to an enthusiastic audience at Wrexham’s very pleasant library
What’s Next?
After such a busy week out and about, i was glad to look forward to a weekend at home to build up my strength for the following week, when it would be my turn to be in the audience, at a talk by the inspirational author Ali Smith as part of the new Tetbury Book Fest, and at the four-day CrimeFest conference in Bristol. More news of those events next week…
April 17, 2019
The End of an Era and the Beginning of a New One
A post about my new life as a full-time novelist
[image error]Celebrating the launch of “Opening Up To Indie Authors”, a book I co-wrote with Dan Holloway (right), at the London Book Fair – with fellow authors Jessica Bell, Hugh Howey and Orna Ross and Kobo’s UK Director Diego Marano
In just two weeks’ time, it’ll be all change for me as I leave the closest thing I have to a day-job to devote all my time to writing and marketing my books.
In some respects there’ll be no change, in that my commute will be exactly the same: from bedroom to study, just six paces. But instead of working for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi, as in “ally”), I’ll be working entirely for myself.
All about ALLi
[image error]In case you’re not familiar with ALLi, let me explain a little about what it is, what it does, and what I did there. ALLi is a global, non-profit organisation for independent authors to share best practice and support, founded by Irish author and poet Orna Ross in 2012.
[image error]Raising awareness of ALLi at the House of Commons, July 2015, at the All Party Writers’ Group Summer Drinks Party
In 2013, Orna invited me to be Commissioning Editor of its daily blog (www.selfpublishingadvice.org), and that role soon expanded. I moderated its members’-only advice forum, co-wrote self-help books for authors in ALLi’s series of guidebooks, wrote ALLi-related guest posts on other blogs, helped man its stand at the London Book Fair, and spoke on ALLi’s behalf at various festivals and writing events around the country. As an offshoot, I also started two writers’ groups, one in Cheltenham and one in Bristol, whose membership I had to restrict to ALLi members only to keep the numbers manageable.
With a new blog post required every day, and to a specific deadline, my ALLi work had to take priority – and for a long time I hugely enjoyed it, not least because I was networking online daily with all manner of authors all over the world, and learning an enormous amount along the way, particularly from Orna herself, who had become a real mentor to me in my writing as well as in my role at ALLi.
And Plenty More Besides
[image error]Orna Ross (left) has been part of the Hawkesbury Upton Lit Fest from the beginning – pictured here with Katie Fforde at the first ever HULF (Photo by http://www.pixelprphotography.co.uk)
I also managed to fit in a reasonable amount of writing (I’ve published five novels in the last two years), public speaking on my own account, and running the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, of which the fifth is about to take place (Saturday 27th April). However, around Christmas time, with my work-in-progress novel beset by a series of delays, I realised that if I was to achieve my long-term writng goals, something would have to give. I was operating on as little sleep and as little housework as I could get away with, and there were still never enough hours in the day. A series of minor illnesses (all now thankfully resolved) underscored the message that I was simply trying to do too much.
For years people had been saying to me “I don’t know how you do it all” – it just took me a while to agree with them.
Onward and Upward
[image error]Coming soon – honest! The first in my new series of novels.
Orna and the team at ALLi have been gracious and generous as we’ve worked on a handover, and I’ve been vastly amused to discover I’m being replaced by not one but three people! (Ok, so they’re all working part-time on what I used to do, but the thought still made Orna and me laugh.) I will continue to be ALLi’s UK Ambassador, and to write and speak on the organisations behalf now and again, but apart from that I will be my own person. If I don’t get as many books written as I plan, I will have no excuse, and no-one to blame but myself! So watch this space – and if you’d like me to alert you as I release new books, please click here to join my Readers’ Club, and I’ll keep you posted of progress.
I’ll close now with Orna’s version of this news, over on the ALLi blog. She is very kind!
New Horizons for Our Blog Editor and Self-Publishing Advice Center Manager Debbie Young
April 10, 2019
I’m on the Train…
(My column for the April issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News)
Travelling by train to London yesterday for the first time in ages, I was pleasantly surprised by the changes in the rail service. So often corporate rebranding goes only skin-deep, but the changes at GWR are much more than a new logo, colour scheme and smart uniforms. Immaculate new rolling stock with thoughtful extras such as a recharging point for every seat, an efficient trolley service, and scrolling electronic displays with journey information all made the journey more relaxing. Not forgetting the high-tech new engines, of course!
But what really took my breath away was the toilet cubicle – and I mean that in a good way. It was big enough to hold a party. (I resisted that temptation.) The high-tech controls suggested I was about to be teleported, Star Trek style.
I wasn’t the only one enjoying the journey. The pleasant young man serving refreshments volunteered what a great company GWR is to work for. He confided that he’d applied for engine driver training. Engine driver – once the ambition of every small boy. I hope his application is successful.
In this anxious age of political uncertainty and turmoil, the whole experience soothed and reassured me. Britain can still be great, when it gets its act together, as GWR has done.
Meanwhile, I just wish we could persuade GWR to reverse the Beeching Cuts and even to add new lines.
Next stop, Hawkesbury Upton Station? In my dreams!
April 3, 2019
Train of Thought
In my Young by Name column for the April edition of the award-winning Tetbury Advertiser , I’m getting all nostalgic about train travel
[image error] Click the image to read the whole magazine for free online
Growing up in a London suburb half an hour by train from Charing Cross, I became a seasoned railway traveller at an early age. The slam of compartment doors and the rattle of trains on the line are part of the soundtrack to my childhood.
When I went up north to university, I enjoyed the longer train rides because I always met interesting people. From my current perspective as a parent, the thought of a teenage girl seeking out strangers on trains makes me shudder, but for the teenage me it was all an adventure.
On boarding, I’d choose my compartment carefully, walking through the corridor to find the most interesting looking passengers. Before the first stop we’d be sharing the sweets and biscuits bought for the journey while discussing the meaning of life. We felt we were striking up life-long friendships, but of course they never lasted beyond our destination. This is probably just as well, particularly with the middle-aged lady who invited me to bring my swimming costume and sunbathe in her garden any time I liked.
I wasn’t the only one to treat train travel like a social occasion. Once, as I followed a group of girl students into a compartment, its only prior occupant, a middle-aged lady, gave a deep sigh. “So we’re all girls together.” She sounded disappointed. Was the sole purpose of her trip to search for Mr Right in the form of a random fellow passenger? I wondered whether she had a season ticket.
If you didn’t want to chat, too bad. The Quiet Coach had yet to be invented. For a bit of peace, you went out to stand in the corridor.
Then and Now
These days when travelling by train, I always book a seat in the Quiet Coach to avoid irritating mobile phone conversations. This week, too weary to trek to my reservation at the far end of the train, I settled down in a normal carriage, bracing myself for the noise. To my astonishment, it was as silent as the Quiet Coach. Every occupant was staring at an electronic device, most of them further isolated by earbuds or headphones. The train might just as well have had no windows, because none of them once looked out to enjoy the view.
The ever-changing view: another great benefit of railway travel. I still can’t board a train without Robert Louis Stephenson’s poem “From a Railway Carriage” popping into my head at some point along the way:
“…And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.”
[image error] Earlier columns from the Tetbury Advertiser, available in paperback and ebook – click image for more details
So I was pleased to learn recently of a care home that has mocked up a railway carriage for the benefit of elderly residents too frail for real trips. (Click here to see the BBC News report, complete with picture.) Complete with scrolling scenery behind fake windows, and with an excellent refreshment service, it offers them all the pleasures of train travel without them having to leave the building.
I bet they’d be great conversationalists too.
March 27, 2019
Countdown to the 5th Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival!
Little did I know what I was getting into when five years ago I decided to mark World Book Night in my village by running a mini literature festival…
Humble Beginnings
[image error]Enjoying the first ever Hawkesbury Upton Lit Fest five years ago with author friends Orna Ross (left) and Katie Fforde (seated). (Photo by http://www.pixelprphotography.co.uk)
The idea was to bring together a few author friends for an evening of talks and readings in one of our local pubs. What started out as a sedate two-hour schedule quickly overflowed into five hours, to allow time for all who wanted to take part. These included illustrious guests such as the bestselling romantic novelist Katie Fforde, who kindly accepted my invitation to declare it open, and Orna Ross, bestselling historical novelist and poet and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, for which I’m UK Ambassador.
Before the evening was over, people were already saying to me:
“This is going to be an annual event, right, Debbie?”
“Can you make it a whole day next time?”
“Let’s have it on Saturday next year so the kids can join in.”
Five Years On…
Always eager to please, I fell in with all of those suggestions. Five years on, here we are a month away from the most ambitious Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival yet, on Saturday 27th April.
That modest evening in the pub has morphed into a village takeover, with events now scheduled simultaneously in six venues, with different things starting on the hour every hour from 10am through 5pm.
[image error]Now we have so many venues in the Festival that we’ve had to provide a map, beautifully drawn by Thomas Shepherd (image © T E Shepherd)
A Vast Array of Talent & Goodwill
Over seventy authors and artists will be taking part in talks, discussions, readings, a poetry slam, an art exhibition, children’s events and a series of workshops.
We’ve gained huge local support, including sponsorship from local individuals and organisations – the Hawkesbury Parish News, Head Start Studio, Hawkesbury Writers, Sid Crighton of Orange Dog Studio – and also from the globetrotting travel writer Jay Artale, who is managing our Twitter account from wherever she is in the world! (See our list of sponsors here.) Their generous support and encouragement has enabled us to keep the Festival free to attend, while increasing its reach and appeal.
[image error]Teamwork! The team of authors, poets, artists and volunteers take a bow at the 2018 HULF. (Photo by Angela Fitch Photography)
How to Attend the 2019 Festival
[image error]Just a month to go! Save the date and come and join the fun – it’s all free!
If you’d like to attend, no prior booking is necessary – just come along on the day. Head for the Village School, the hub of the Festival, to grab your programme and venue map.
Even better, download them now from our website to plan your day in advance, so you don’t miss any of the events that especially appeal to you. You can also keep up with Festival news on Twitter at @HULitFest.
More Reasons to Attend!
And if you’re not yet convinced that a day at a small provincial lit fest is worth your while, read my guest post on the Oakwood Literature Festival website about what makes these events so special: What Do Small Lit Fests Offer that Big Ones Don’t? I’ll be speaking at the second Oakwood Festival on Saturday 18th May, and in the meantime at the Wrexham Carnival of Words on Thursday 2nd May.
And maybe in June I might find time for a little lie-down in a darkened room…
March 22, 2019
Fanfare for my New Series of Novels
About my imminent new series of novels set in a girls’ boarding school
[image error]
For some time I’ve been planning to write a series of novels set in a traditional girls’ boarding school, and today’s cover reveal is a hint that I’m going to be launching the first of these, Flat Chance, very soon.
As a child, like many of my generation, I loved books set in schools. Mavourite was Anthony Buckeridge’s Jennings – what was yours?
But my series will be for adults, and the focal point will be the staffroom rather than the classroom or dormitory.
Led by a charismatic maverick headmistress, each of the eccentric staff is hiding a different secret, including new recruit Gemma Lamb. Gemma’s other potential career choices included lighthouse keeper and nun – any job, in fact, that provided a roof over her head.
About the Staffroom at St Bride’s
The Staffroom at St Bride’s series will be lighthearted and gentle, with a touch of romance and a lot of comedy. But I’m not planning any murders, not only on the grounds of good taste but also for credibility.
Would you send your child to a school in which the school roll keeps reducing due to assassinations? I certainly wouldn’t.
Besides which, I don’t really like killing people – which will reassure my family and friends!
But there will be crimes and misdemeanours in which the culprit will live to tell the tale…
Another Rachel Lawston Design
I’ve commissioned the wonderful Rachel Lawston of www.lawstondesign.com for the series’ cover designs, because I am so pleased with her treatment for my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series.
She has cleverly come up with something that echoes the branding of the Sophie books, making it clear that these come from the same stable, while establishing a new and different setting – just a bike ride away from Wendlebury Barrow, home to Sophie. And yes, Gemma and Sophie will have the chance to meet!
On the Flat Chance cover, you’ll spot the details of the black cat and the bicycle. These are pivotal features in the plot. We’ll be playing with different details against a similar backdrop in each of the future books in the series, which currently have the working titles of Past Master and Near Miss. (I almost always know the title before I start writing a book, which helps me believe in it as a project and set myself deadlines!)
And speaking of deadlines, I’d better get back to inputting my edits to the final manuscript!
More news on Gemma Lamb and friends soon…
March 13, 2019
The Red Van and the White
My column from the March 2019 issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News considers the courier vs the postman
Having lived in the village for nearly 30 years, I tend to forget how bewildering city-dwellers find it that so many houses round here don’t have door numbers. Urban courier drivers’ hearts must sink when Hawkesbury Upton crops up on their route for the day.
Knowing a house’s postcode isn’t as helpful as one might think, as each code covers an average of 15 properties. When you’re a delivery driver working against the clock, 15 is a lot of houses to check to find the right one. No wonder our parcels so often end up being left at the wrong place.
Word seems to have got out amongst couriers that I work from home, because lately I’ve had a spate of puzzled delivery drivers knocking on my door during the day to ask for directions to a house of one name or another. Although even I may not know every house name, if they tell me the person’s name I can usually point them in the right direction.
But sometimes even that’s not enough to satisfy them. One poor courier was almost in tears of disappointment and disbelief when I refused to accept the gas boiler he’d been trying to deliver to a number of houses, none of them correct.
This is why these days when ordering something on line, I choose standard Post Office delivery, because I know we can trust our village posties to get it right. Although they might have trouble fitting a gas boiler through my letterbox.
Postscript After reading this post in his copy of the Hawkesbury Parish News, heroic villager Terry Truebody emailed me to say he has created a Hawkesbury Upton A-Z, which he’s recently updated to include the newest houses in the village. Very generously, he’s willing to share it with anyone who might find it helpful. so I’m including . Thank you, Terry – couriers and villagers will all be very grateful to you.
Like to read more of my columns from the Hawkesbury Parish News?
Here’s a collection from 2010-2015, available in paperback and as an ebook.
The second volume will be out at the end of 2020.
March 6, 2019
Life Lessons Learned from School
In my Young By Name column in the March issue of the award-winning Tetbury Advertiser, I’m musing about the most valuable and lasting lessons from my schooldays.
As my daughter muscles down to revision on the home strait of her GCSEs, I can’t help wondering which of the many facts and concepts she’s memorising will be of greatest value to her in later life. When I ran an informal survey some years ago, asking the alumni of Westonbirt School the most useful thing they’d learned at school, my favourite answer was “Not to sign anything I hadn’t read – and at my prep school, how to steam open an envelope”. While I can’t promise to better those examples, here are the most lasting takeaways from my own schooldays.
How to Write a Three-Point Essay
Our English teacher, Mr Campbell, spent many lessons hammering home this simple but clear strategy for essay-writing. First, pick three points on your chosen topic, outline each one in a separate paragraph. Top and tail the trio with an interesting introduction and conclusion, and you’re done. Why three? Perhaps because it’s the magic number in rhetoric, or because of the limited staying power of a class of fourteen-year-olds – or because that’s all he could face marking. I must have written hundreds of three-point essays during my working life, and I wish he was still alive so I could thank him.
Never Give More Than One Excuse
I can’t remember which two excuses I gave to Mr Crane, the school’s pantomime director, when I wanted to bunk off an after-school rehearsal, but neither of them was genuine. (The real reason was that I wanted to get to the local bookshop before it closed.) Whatever they were, he saw straight through them, kindly letting me off the hook with the advice that, for future reference, giving more than one excuse is unconvincing. I never missed another rehearsal. He was a wise man.
The Masses Are Asses
This blunt statement was frequently shared by Mr Judis, our A Level history teacher, when trying to explain to a classful of teenage idealists why so many bad decisions had been made in the name of democracy. The topics of our study were the causes and effects of the First and Second World War, twentieth-century East-West relations, and the fall of colonialism, but as I listen to twenty-first-century news stories, his words frequently echo in my head.
So if, Desert Island Discs style, I had to pick just one of these school-life lessons as the most important, which would it be? It would have to be the three point-essay. Just cast your eye back up the page. Do you see what I did there?
[image error]
If you’d like to read my archive of columns written for the Tetbury Advertiser, you can buy the first collection as an ebook or in paperback – click here for more details.
February 28, 2019
On Providing Cover Quotes on Other Authors’ Books
While I’m often a little sceptical about some of the quotes on book covers by famous authors, critics and other celebrities, particularly where the same names appear over and over again, I’m always pleased to be asked to read other writers’ books prior to publication, especially if they or their publishers are after an endorsement quote from me.
Double Standard?
I hope not, because I do genuinely read the whole of each book myself, and whatever is attributed to me on their cover has been composed by me rather than any PR. ( I spent a large part of my former career working in PR, so am familiar with the territory!)
[image error]A trio of Wasps
Usually any such requests come directly from authors, and usually they are friends of mine from the independent sector, publishing their own books. But recently publishing house Endeavour Quill approached me to read and review the latest book from an author new to me, Amy Myers. Amy has written many books, including a series of historical detective stories set in Victorian London – the Tom Wasp Mysteries, in which the eponymous detective is a chimney sweep.
Swept Off My Feet by a Chimney Sweep
[image error]Book 3 in Amy Myers’ series
Despite my to-read list being huge, I have had a soft spot for London chimney sweeps ever since I fell in love with Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins at the age of 7. I am also addicted to historical mysteries, such as Lucienne Boyce’s Dan Foster and Susan Grossey‘s Sam Plank series). And I’m a Londoner by birth, though have lived in the Cotswolds for nearly 30 years now. So I couldn’t resist this offer, and rapidly tore through Tom Wasp and the Seven Deadly Sins. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Tom and his young sidekick, whom he’d rescued from climbing chimneys; the colourful scene-setting in the city reminiscent of the movie sets of Oliver! (yes, I have read the Dickens novel too, and seen the stage show, but Myers’ books was very filmic); and the plot based around the London bookselling scene (a topic also addressed beautifully, albeit at a slightly earlier era, in Lucienne Boyce’s novel To The Fair Land).
Behind the Scenes with “Little Darlings”
[image error]Get a sneak preview at Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival
Whether or not I’m asked to provide a cover endorsement, it’s still gratifying to be offered advance review copies (ARCS, as they’re known in the trade), as it allows you a sneak preview of a book before it hits the shops. Thus last night I stayed up late to finish the most recent ARC I’ve been sent, the wonderful Little Darlings, debut novel of Melanie Golding, due for publication in May by HQ (a Harper Collins imprint).
It’s an eerie thriller about the mother of twins who becomes convinced her babies are changelings. I’d describe it as the love child of Rosemary’s Baby and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and I’m sure it’s going to be as big a hit as both of those. (The film rights have been sold already, even though the book’s not out till May.)
I first came across Melanie Golding when one of her short stories was picked at Stroud Short Stories, a regional competition of which I’m co-judge. When she read it to the audience, I knew I was hearing an exceptionally gifted and accomplished writer, and I’m thrilled that she has taken her writing to novel length. Her contract for this book was one of the biggest and most shouted-about last year, and you’re all going to be hearing great things about the book once it hits the shops.
[image error]Sneak Preview of Little Darlings at the Hawkesbury Upton Lit Fest (Saturday 27th April)
So I’m particularly thrilled that Melanie has agreed to read an extract at the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, the free local liffest that I run in my village, prior to her book’s publication. So if you’d like to be ahead of the general reading public, and are in striking distance of the Cotswolds, do come along on the day – admission’s free, no advance booking is required. Click here to download the full festival programme and see what else you won’t want to miss during our action-packed day.
And Finally, A 99p Challenge…
[image error]Just 99c/99c till 7th March
If you’re at a loose end for something to read tonight, and like reading ebooks, you might like to take advantage of the special offer running at present on Best Murder in Show, the first in my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series – just 99p/99c or the equivalent in your local currency, from Amazon stores around the world. (Also available as a paperback to order from all good bookshops.) But hurry, the offer ends on 7th March, and after that it reverts to full price. Here’s the link which should take you to the local Amazon store wherever you live. Oh, and it would be remiss of me not to mention that this book carries a lovely endorsement quote from the ever-generous Katie Fforde!
February 20, 2019
A Penguin’s View of Tetbury
This post first appeared in the Tetbury Advertiser’s February 2019 edition.
I make no secret of the fact that I hate February, with its dull, short days, and no redeeming feature besides brevity. At least January includes my birthday (the day I’m writing this). But by February, I am usually pining for blue skies, bright flowers, and green leaves, instead of grey, grey, grey, and I’m longing to flip the calendar to March.
But this year my attitude has changed after reading some books about early polar explorers, including Michael Palin’s Erebus: the Story of a Ship. These books have given me a new perspective not only on the frozen north and south but also on my home turf.
Armchair Travellers All
Although few of us have come close to the North or South Pole, these days we all feel we know what the Arctic and Antarctic landscapes looks like, thanks to television documentaries. Not so for the early explorers. Obviously there was no television, but even photography was in its very infancy. The daguerrotypes taken of officers before the Erebus set off in search of the North West passage were the very latest in 19th century technology. Only in the 20th century did we start to see photographic evidence such as the remarkable work of Frank Hurley, whose accompanied Shackleton and others. The only visual records of the Erebus’s journeys north and south are the crew’s drawings and paintings.
According to Michael Palin, one of the crew in the Erebus’s early 19th century polar voyages was startled at his first sight of icebergs, expecting them to be clear, like ice cubes in a glass of Scotch. They’d never seen Antarctic penguins, either, although they might have spotted variants native to South America, South Africa and Tasmania on their way south.
Picking Up On Penguins
But how much more remarkable would a penguin find the Cotswolds? There’s so much here that is completely absent from the Antarctic: trees, grass, and other terrestrial plants and flowers; stone walls dividing fields; rolling green hills instead of stark mountains; roads and automobiles; four-legged animals; and, for the most part, people.
Set a penguin down in the middle of Tetbury, or anywhere in the Cotswold countryside, and its mind would surely be blown by the extraordinary display of colour, texture, shapes and sizes, even in the middle of winter, compared to the whites, blues and greys down south. If you wanted to break your penguin in gently, you could show a bit of camaraderie by wearing a dinner suit, and find it a field carpeted with snowdrops.
So this year I have a new strategy to stop me succumbing to the February blues. Instead of bemoaning the grey winter days, I will try to view the local landscape through the eyes of a visiting Antarctic penguin. The transformation is remarkable, like the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy opens the door of her black-and-white house to reveal the glorious Technicolor Munchkinland.
Even so, I’ll still be craving the spring.
[image error] And in the spring, Sophie Sayers’ fancy lightly turn to thoughts of… murder!
If you’d like a bit of spring reading to cheer you up, Springtime for Murder, Sophie Sayers’ fifth village mystery, could just hit the spot. Available in paperback online and to order from all good bookshops, and also as an ebook for Kindle. For more information, and to read the first chapter on my website, please click here.
