Books and Life

I was without my internet connection for fourteen frustrating days. During that period I spent a lot of time on the phone to my service provider. They kept giving me little jobs to do - but I suspect that was only to keep me happy with activity - rather as one does with a toddler. In fact it made me anything but happy, as I paid most of the telephone bills. I was convinced there was something wrong with my outside line, as the connection ceased in a thunderstorm. In fact, it turned out to be the router. I did exactly what I was told. I disconnected it several times. I reset the passwords, etc., as suggested by my service provider, but it was all ineffective. However, the engineer who I eventually brought in on Irene’s recommendation got it working in about half an hour. It just shows, it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it. Even so, I did think that my service provider might have telephoned me a few times and not apparently abandoned me to my fate.

During my time away from you, I’ve read two books for the Reading Circle. The first, it was agreed, was an almost perfect book. That was To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a book that has a very important message about the way black people were treated at the time that is depicted - the thirties, but probably relates almost equally to the time of writing - 1960. Nevertheless, it is a message that it not hammered home, but delivered with great subtlety as part of the story. And that way that the story is told, through the eyes of a child is almost like an Anne of Green Gables with its folksy anecdotes. In spite of the dramatic events, it also extremely funny in parts and the dialogue is great. It is possible that in today’s climate the use of some words would be regarded as racist - and the children are beaten too - and that’s regarded as perfectly acceptable. But times change, and it should be read in that context.

The philosophy of Atticus Finch - the hero of the book is that we should always be able to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else. The world would be a better place if we all did that, particularly if we added the principle of doing unto others as we would be done by. If only the young men (mainly) who are involved of crimes of violence at the moment would stop and ask how they would feel if they were being attacked with a knife, or what their mothers would say if they were told their son had just been killed in a fight, perhaps some of the violence on our streets would disappear. There are some ugly crimes committed by young people, deliberately, but there are also, particularly in the case of knife crimes, actions taken that were probably not meant to happen. Young men piling into a fight, and suddenly someone is killed. Someone compared this, on the radio this morning, with Romeo and Juliet. Coincidentally, I had already intended to write that I had been thinking of how in West Side Story, when Tony goes to break up a fight, he ends up killing Maria’s brother without this being his intention. Many of the young men convicted of knife crimes today may wish they had not taken that step, or allowed a situation to escalate into violence.

The new Reading Circle book, which I polished off in an afternoon (without the Internet, what else could I do?) was On Chesil Beach. Hmm. It’s the sort of book, where I’m inclined to say, ‘So what.’ The wedding night that went wrong stretched out into a novella. And even fewer words than my novella, A Bottle of Plonk. Goodness knows if I can scrape up anything to say about it for the next meeting.

So what else has been happening during the past fortnight?

I had a very successful shopping trip, and bought an outfit at Debenhams on their Blue Cross Day (or whatever). This is for the wedding we’re going to in August, and it was reduced to half price. What’s more, I bought a fascinator - i.e. a bit of nothing with a feather - that goes on the head and substitutes for a hat. (It was in millinery terms, just like On Chesil Beach, including the inflated price.). It was priced (would you believe?) at £79.00. However, because of a fault - a lost feather, or similar, it had been reduced to £19 and then £5. This was right up my street. Even if I never use it, I don’t mind wasting £5 , but it may well be used at said wedding. I also bought a Monopoly set for GD2, celebrating a 7th birthday, and other odd things which had been nagging at me.

Other highlights were a Chinese meal with my two sisters-in-law and brother-in-law and all the partners; a book signing session at Waterstone’s, Guildford, a trip to London to meet my friend, Pam, and see the BP sponsored exhibition of portraits at the National Portrait Gallery and an outing with Irene, her other half and Joe to see Evita at the Victoria Theatre in Woking. Very good, but very noisy. So it has been a very enjoyable couple of weeks, and no doubt if I hadn't been having such a good time, I would have done something about the computer earlier.

Today, we have been to a birthday party, and surprisingly, the sun managed to stay out, so it was a lovely day. Comments from the birthday girl caused another guest to ask for a copy of Tainted Tree, and fortunately, I had a couple of copies in the car.

Tainted Tree has continued to sell and receive appreciation. There was an unsolicited order on the phone last week from someone who’d read A Bottle of Plonk. Unsolicited orders are always the best ones of all. And when in frustration, I spent an evening at my neighbour’s reading my emails on line, I was delighted to receive this one from a friend, Diane, who said: ‘I so enjoyed reading the rest of your book Jackie - it was wonderful and a real credit to you. I have lent it to a couple of my friends who have also enjoyed it very much.’

And even better, this one from my neighbour, Sally:

‘Mum and I both loved your book. Mum would like to buy a copy for a friend if
you have more available.’ Great. Needless to say, I rushed to her house with a copy on the following day.

Also while off line, Surrey Advertiser sent me a copy of the photo taken in my garden for the Woking free paper article. Nice photo, so I’ve added it in here.