Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘“Church is not going to die today, or tomorrow—“
“I tried to tell her that—“
“Or the day after that, or probably for years—“
“Honey, we can’t be sure of th—“
“Of course we can!’ she shouted. “We take good care of him, he’s not going to die, no one is going to die around here”’

I know the case this is based on really well and, despite it saying loosely based, even just a couple of pages in a lot has been taken from real life. Not sure how I’ll feel about it but curious if many changes will be made, other than changing the location from the US to the UK.

Last one, the only one I didn’t read as a child (as it wasn’t out then obviously).

“You know sometimes your mum hasn’t been able to come to see you because she’s making a movie somewhere? Well, that’s because she knows how important it is to concentrate on her part. That’s what you’ve got to do now. You’re not Tracy Beaker any more, desperate to see her mum. You’re Scrooge, and you haven’t got a mum or a dad or anyone at all. You’re a mean old misery-guts who hates everyone”

‘As explained by the Warkworth chronicler, the capture of Bamburgh meant that all of England (and Wales) recognised the authority of King Edward. Except, as he went on to add, for a castle in north Wales called Harlech. This was now the only part of the realm that remained under the control of the supporters of Henry VI. Safe in their remote fortress in the wilds of Snowdonia they remained defiant’

‘siege started with the Yorkists and Londoners setting up a blockade of the Tower by both land and water to cut off the supply of provisions and military equipment to the defenders. This action appears to have prompted the garrison to respond by opening fire from the walls at the citizens. It was subsequently alleged by the London chroniclers that the royalists began hostilities even before the Yorkists entered’

‘In August 1451, Courtenay and Cobham were said to have raised a force of between 5,000 and 6,000 men with which to attack Bonville, who had in turn aligned himself with James Butler, earl of Wiltshire and earl of Ormond. They forced Butler to flee from his manor at Lackham before laying siege to Taunton Castle in late September, which was held by Bonville and his forces.’

Still reading books from my childhood while I recover. Quite relaxing actually! Plus want to read the new one, owe it to my younger self.

‘This book tells the untold story of the castle in the Wars of the Roses. It discusses the ways in which these buildings were used during the military campaigns of the period. This includes their role as fortresses, mustering points and as secure headquarters for planning and conducting operations.’

‘“Years ago?” Mum shook her head. It was like she couldn’t get her time scales right. She kept acting like she’d only popped me in the Children’s Home last Tuesday when I’ve actually been in and out of care since I was little. My folder’s this thick.’

“It’s mad - you bunk off school because you hate it and they get narked and threaten you with this huge punishment, No School. At All, which is precisely what you want most in the world!”

To be fair, that logic did always seem a bit backwards.

As much as I like Owen’s jokes and sense of humour, he quickly becomes a jerk.

Continuing reading children’s books and relaxing while I recover from surgery. Nice to get away from the more serious stuff sometimes.

‘I’ve gone past my sell-by date already. It gets hopeless when you get older than five or six. You’ve stopped being a cute little toddler and started to be difficult. And I’m not pretty either so people won’t take one look at my photo and start cooing. And then it’s not like I’m up for adoption so people can’t ever make me their little girl, not properly.’

‘Elaine’s got a whole library of files on me. I’ve had a secret rifle through them and you should just see some of the mean horrid things they say about me. I had a good mind to sue them for libel.’

That was one of the things I liked about these books as a kid, they made me feel like an adult by not shying from tough issues, as well as using words others wouldn’t, like ‘libel’.

I’m not going to be embarrassed about reading a children’s book. I loved Jacqueline Wilson’s books when I was a kid and watched all of the Tracy Beaker series when they came out, so had to watch the new show too. As I am now recovering from surgery, so needed something easy to read and to go back to my childhood.

Audiobook version, not on here.

‘The months after her death felt very quiet without Princess Margaret. She really was an extraordinary woman: if someone was anxious about something, she would always see the problem in an entirely different way, from a new angle, which would often help in finding a solution. Even now, when I’m faced with a problem, I wish she was here to tell me what she would do.’

‘Almost every single couple I could think of was interlaced with other people’s husbands and wives. Rarely, it seemed, were there just the two partners in a marriage. It was an aristocratic curse. Affairs were expected and wives just worked around it. Even married to a princess, Tony wasn’t satisfied, going off with a string of women.’

‘Although Princess Margaret and Tony had been madly in love, their relationship had become strained and the press sought stories in every look, every outing, every move the Princess made. There was no press on Mustique and, since Tony had said he hated the place, he wasn’t likely to follow her there, though he always made a point of telling her that he might come, as though to stop her relaxing.’

‘What resonates most of all is the solemn promise the Queen made that day in giving her life to the nation. It’s an oath she has kept faithfully. She has never put a foot wrong. She has been the most wonderful Queen and she really has given her life to the nation.’

‘I have never been so disappointed in anyone in my life. She is the dowager queen of England, a woman of integrity and grace, a woman of intelligence, yet she cannot govern her own conduct. She has allowed lust to obliterate her common sense. She should have known better. She should have waited. Why does love drive out all sensible thought? I suspect I will never discover the answer to that.’

‘And so it goes on. The slow disintegration of the church I love is masked beneath a gauze of familial well-being. Every time Katherine tries to steer me onto her heretic path, I hold her off, not tempted by the vulgar crudity of the new religion, and as much in love as ever with the gentle grace of the old.’

‘tried on the dress many times, the first time I wore it for any length of time was for the final rehearsal in Westminster Abbey. The Duke of Norfolk told us all to wear them but to cover them up so the design could stay a secret. Unfortunately, at the end of the rehearsal, I walked down the steps and the breeze blew my shawl, revealing my dress. I didn’t realise at the time that photographers were lurking’

‘There is a curious pain in my breast. I drop into a chair and stare down at my short stubby fingers. I will never marry, I realise that now. I will live and die a virgin, always envying the women around me who have husbands ... and children. I would have dearly loved to bear Philip many, many children. I am fated, it seems, to be the unhappiest woman in Christendom.’

‘The problem with being ‘out’ in society in the early 1950s was that there weren’t any likely husbands around as there weren’t many men. My generation had either died in the war or were still away doing National Service. If you weren’t married by twenty-one, you were on the shelf.’

‘When nobody is looking, I take her on my knee to let her tug my hair, pull my nose and dribble on my gown. She is as fat and warm as a tabby cat and in my greatest torment, I find my only comfort. Whenever she sees me, she holds up her fat arms to be held. I think Elizabeth is the only person in the house who likes me.’

“Had she been childless she would probably have obeyed my father and gone quietly into a nunnery, but she had to fight for me; do you see? For my rights; for my inheritance. The throne was my due and she would settle for nothing less. Sone people criticise her for that; some say she should have gone gracefully into a convent as others have before, but my mother was proud.”

‘Since I am not supposed to know of his existence, there is no one I can ask about this so-called son of my father’s but I keep my ears open, my mind attuned to learning more. For the first time I realise I am not the centre of the universe and my parents have secrets that they do not share with me. Sometimes I think everyone is keeping secrets.’

‘It is important to reflect that not everybody made a will in seventeenth-century England. Possessing nothing of any great value, the very poor almost never wrote one. Only the wealthier sort had reason to formally set their affairs in order, including well-to-do yeomen, husbandmen, skilled craftsmen, gentlemen, and aristocrats. Women who predeceased their husbands were not by law entitled to make a will’