Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "kent"
Sandscript Unpacks
We have arrived home from our 24 days away to find the house still standing and unburgled. But I could not access my Command Control Centre (computer in the bedroom); due to my insistence on unplugging everything electrical while we were away lest lightning strike the house. Strange white messages appeared on a black screen, pressing F1 was not enough and long suffering Cyberspouse had to reset the computer’s body clock and re-boot it. But I still stand by my sensible precaution as our local area did have a dramatic storm while we were away. We also have the electrician in this week leading to more switching off and rebooting. But at last I am writing.
September brought a very hot late summer especially in Kent and there was only one rainy hotel afternoon when I actually got out my notepad. The rest of the holiday was spent with family or visiting interesting places and spotting fascinating people.
So I have returned with no progress on my novel, but plenty of ideas for short stories.
Dungeness is the only desert in the United Kingdom and one of the largest areas of shingle in the world; it is now a national nature reserve. But it also has a nuclear power station and for 88 years has been the end of the line for the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, one third size steam trains which travel across the Romney marshes from Hythe.
Not as desolate as when only fishing families lived here this is still a unique and isolated spot, with fascinating shacks and stranded boat wrecks. Sitting in the station café I was just as interested to find the staff having a late lunch break on the tables next to us. It was like being in an episode of ‘Dinner Ladies’, a cosy little world where train drivers sat down with the cooks. I could imagine a jolly sitcom, with a dark edge perhaps. One of the drivers wore a South West Trains jumper, had he been demoted from mainline to miniature railway, his nerves shattered after running over a dog? http://www.rhdr.org.uk/about.html
Completely different was our Sunday out in Canterbury. The cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England, forms part of a World Heritage Site and is one of the most visited places in the country. This was obvious by the crowds thronging the city as pilgrims and visitors have since the middle ages. Cyberspouse says they get in the way of his photography, but I love photographing people, they are a part of the city as mush as the many delightful buildings. The Salvation Army band was playing by a café, several guitarists had taken up spots by the shops and on the River Stour you could relax in a punt and be rowed by young men giving floating commentaries on history.
Entry to the cathedral close is through a stone archway and just inside is the Constables’ Lodge with the sign ‘Close Constables’; on duty 24 hours a day they deal with more than lost property and first aid, monitoring CCTV, crime prevention, sorting out problem visitors and even wearing stab proof vests. This is truly a place both ancient and modern and despite the crowds of visitors, still a world of its own. The public can sit on benches in the sunshine or admire interesting old houses; but these homes are exclusive residences for the lucky people who are part of the cathedral community. There have been several absorbing documentary series about cathedrals and last year BBC television screened a year in the life of Canterbury Cathedral, but it would be more fun for a writer to place strange characters in the Cathedral Close and imagine what havoc they might cause.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vf10f
Visit my Beachwriter's Blog to see our holiday in technicolour.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...
September brought a very hot late summer especially in Kent and there was only one rainy hotel afternoon when I actually got out my notepad. The rest of the holiday was spent with family or visiting interesting places and spotting fascinating people.
So I have returned with no progress on my novel, but plenty of ideas for short stories.
Dungeness is the only desert in the United Kingdom and one of the largest areas of shingle in the world; it is now a national nature reserve. But it also has a nuclear power station and for 88 years has been the end of the line for the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, one third size steam trains which travel across the Romney marshes from Hythe.
Not as desolate as when only fishing families lived here this is still a unique and isolated spot, with fascinating shacks and stranded boat wrecks. Sitting in the station café I was just as interested to find the staff having a late lunch break on the tables next to us. It was like being in an episode of ‘Dinner Ladies’, a cosy little world where train drivers sat down with the cooks. I could imagine a jolly sitcom, with a dark edge perhaps. One of the drivers wore a South West Trains jumper, had he been demoted from mainline to miniature railway, his nerves shattered after running over a dog? http://www.rhdr.org.uk/about.html
Completely different was our Sunday out in Canterbury. The cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England, forms part of a World Heritage Site and is one of the most visited places in the country. This was obvious by the crowds thronging the city as pilgrims and visitors have since the middle ages. Cyberspouse says they get in the way of his photography, but I love photographing people, they are a part of the city as mush as the many delightful buildings. The Salvation Army band was playing by a café, several guitarists had taken up spots by the shops and on the River Stour you could relax in a punt and be rowed by young men giving floating commentaries on history.
Entry to the cathedral close is through a stone archway and just inside is the Constables’ Lodge with the sign ‘Close Constables’; on duty 24 hours a day they deal with more than lost property and first aid, monitoring CCTV, crime prevention, sorting out problem visitors and even wearing stab proof vests. This is truly a place both ancient and modern and despite the crowds of visitors, still a world of its own. The public can sit on benches in the sunshine or admire interesting old houses; but these homes are exclusive residences for the lucky people who are part of the cathedral community. There have been several absorbing documentary series about cathedrals and last year BBC television screened a year in the life of Canterbury Cathedral, but it would be more fun for a writer to place strange characters in the Cathedral Close and imagine what havoc they might cause.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vf10f
Visit my Beachwriter's Blog to see our holiday in technicolour.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...
Sandscript in a Shoal
Charles Dickens and I have one thing in common, not literary success, but we have both been to Broadstairs, Kent, on holiday. He enjoyed summer holidays in a house now called Bleak House, where you can still stay. My earliest holiday memory is of Broadstairs, two summers blended into one set of memories. There was only me at the time and Mum and Dad did not attempt to stay in a hotel again.
On one occasion I opened the wrong door, to be confronted with a lady wearing black underwear, I had never seen such an outfit. With brilliant insight she said ‘Are you looking for your Mummy and Daddy?’
The hotel boasted child minding, so one evening Mum and Dad left me; probably only for a little cliff top stroll, I’m sure they did not spend all night in the pub, but whatever the supervisory arrangements were, I had enough time to take our clothes out of the suitcase and wash them in the large washbasin in our room – this was in the days before everyone expected en suite facilities.
Apparently I never wanted to leave the beach, drawn to the sea already, and had to be dragged off screaming or bribed with a ride on the ‘Peter Pan Railway’.
Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate are all part of The Isle of Thanet, the easternmost part of Kent; an island formed about five thousand years ago and always a busy place, Stone Age, Bronze Age communities and then The Romans. The last ship sailed through the Wantsum Channel in 1672 and over the decades it narrowed, it is many years since Thanet was an island.
The next time I visited the Isle of Thanet was when we took our toddler, in the days when we wondered how anyone coped with more than one child on outings, on a British Rail Awayaday to Margate. It was a sunny day, but fog descended halfway down the line and never lifted. We sat on the beach, but never actually saw Margate.
When a branch of the family moved to Margate in 2015 we returned in sunshine; a great chance to explore more of the British coast. We were soon sitting in the cafe of Turner Contemporary Gallery, which had opened only four years previously, looking out over the sunny harbour. Margate claims the painter JMW Turner as one of her own, he loved the famous Margate sunsets.
May Bank Holiday Monday brought hot weather and hordes of visitors streaming out of the railway station. The Turner Gallery was gleaming white in the sun and as part of the Margate Bookie there was a book launch. Once again Dickens and I have something in common, we both have short stories in a new anthology. Shoal is a venture by Thanet Writers.
Writing is a solitary occupation; most of us are energised by meeting up with other writers in local groups or on line. To speak in public and read out your work is another skill very different from writing. Gathering people together, setting up a website, publishing and creating a book requires plenty of enthusiasm and yet another set of skills.
The launch of the anthology was very well attended and presented and the book is a delight. A varied selection, from the brief and poignant ‘The Pigeons’ to ‘Life and Times of a Zombie.’ There are flamingos in Pegwell Bay, an unhappy wife a hundred years ago and a fairy tale so much darker than Disney.
See more pictures of Margate at my website.
https://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapte...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoal-Anthol...
On one occasion I opened the wrong door, to be confronted with a lady wearing black underwear, I had never seen such an outfit. With brilliant insight she said ‘Are you looking for your Mummy and Daddy?’
The hotel boasted child minding, so one evening Mum and Dad left me; probably only for a little cliff top stroll, I’m sure they did not spend all night in the pub, but whatever the supervisory arrangements were, I had enough time to take our clothes out of the suitcase and wash them in the large washbasin in our room – this was in the days before everyone expected en suite facilities.
Apparently I never wanted to leave the beach, drawn to the sea already, and had to be dragged off screaming or bribed with a ride on the ‘Peter Pan Railway’.
Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate are all part of The Isle of Thanet, the easternmost part of Kent; an island formed about five thousand years ago and always a busy place, Stone Age, Bronze Age communities and then The Romans. The last ship sailed through the Wantsum Channel in 1672 and over the decades it narrowed, it is many years since Thanet was an island.
The next time I visited the Isle of Thanet was when we took our toddler, in the days when we wondered how anyone coped with more than one child on outings, on a British Rail Awayaday to Margate. It was a sunny day, but fog descended halfway down the line and never lifted. We sat on the beach, but never actually saw Margate.
When a branch of the family moved to Margate in 2015 we returned in sunshine; a great chance to explore more of the British coast. We were soon sitting in the cafe of Turner Contemporary Gallery, which had opened only four years previously, looking out over the sunny harbour. Margate claims the painter JMW Turner as one of her own, he loved the famous Margate sunsets.
May Bank Holiday Monday brought hot weather and hordes of visitors streaming out of the railway station. The Turner Gallery was gleaming white in the sun and as part of the Margate Bookie there was a book launch. Once again Dickens and I have something in common, we both have short stories in a new anthology. Shoal is a venture by Thanet Writers.
Writing is a solitary occupation; most of us are energised by meeting up with other writers in local groups or on line. To speak in public and read out your work is another skill very different from writing. Gathering people together, setting up a website, publishing and creating a book requires plenty of enthusiasm and yet another set of skills.
The launch of the anthology was very well attended and presented and the book is a delight. A varied selection, from the brief and poignant ‘The Pigeons’ to ‘Life and Times of a Zombie.’ There are flamingos in Pegwell Bay, an unhappy wife a hundred years ago and a fairy tale so much darker than Disney.
See more pictures of Margate at my website.
https://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapte...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoal-Anthol...
Sandscript
I like to write first drafts with pen and paper; at home, in busy cafes, in the garden, at our beach hut... even sitting in a sea front car park waiting for the rain to stop I get my note book out. We
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