Have a tomato

It’s taken me all this time to nearly catch up after the OM’s accident. This is partly as a result of spending three days travelling to and from hospitals, but also because in the week following our visit to my cousin’s, I had social events on a further three days. So the things that usually fall behind – i.e. washing, ironing and the pile of papers on my desk, fell behind.

Tuesday and Thursday were devoted to chat – Tuesday, a lunch outing with friend, V. to a café that used to be called Sally’s, which may or may not have changed its name, having changed hands, by the Watts Gallery in Compton. We had a good chat and nice food, not surprising, seeing it’s run by the daughter of Leone, who runs The Beano Restaurant at the Guildford Institute. Then tea and no cake at V’s house in Guildford. I am trying to be restrained after my winter of indulgence in chocolate and cake. Alas, despite my iron will power and eating clementines and tomatoes instead of other treats this week and in addition going for a half hour walk each day, I have not lost an ounce.

Thursday, Irene came over here for lunch, and, prior to that on Wednesday, I went to London to meet my old school friend, Pam. Our destination was the Quilts exhibition at the V&A. I made the mistake of suggesting we went by bus from Charing Cross, which delayed us, so that it was nearly lunch time when we arrived. Then we made a second mistake in having lunch before joining the queue for tickets. The lunch was the most disorganised affair ever – an unruly queue, and queue jumpers trying to gain access through another door. When eventually we got in, I couldn’t even get a wholemeal sandwich. However, the exhibition was very interesting - beautifully crafted patchwork quilts both from the UK and other parts of the world – created from the 17^th century onward. Some most interesting ones from the 20^th century were produced by male prisoners from Wandsworth prison and female inmates of the war time Changi camp – in both cases trying to do something productive while in a prison situation, to calm and soothe themselves, and also in the case of Changi as a record of a terrible time. Similarly, there was a quilt made by women convicts being transported to Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) in 1841. There were some modern ones, which seemed lame after the careful craftsmanship of the older ones. But two well known modern artists had also added their contribution – Tracey Emin had provided another bed, complete with quilt – and also Grayson Perry, Turner Prizewinner 2003, had created a traditionally beautiful quilt, but unconventionally designed with foetuses to highlight USA legislation on abortion, see below – shown with Grayson Perry’s unusual mode of dress, or : http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/2003.shtm and for more about the quilts,http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/Quilts/index.html and scroll down.

The fine weather has helped with the washing, and the pile of papers - since they were in danger of towering above window level - have been reduced (some bits by filing in the paper recycling bin.) Now that I’m catching up a bit, I have sent off an autobiographical article to Mslexia – describing how the OM (when he was a Young M) and I lived in our home for six months without gas or electricity (as described in The Fruit of the Tree). I’m also preparing a short story for the post.

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a good review of Tainted Tree on the Amazon site, together with a four star grade, as follows:

‘This is a very enjoyable book, with a good mixture of light and shade.

It is essentially the story of American Addie's search for her English roots.
Along the way it explores changing attitudes to pre-marital sex and illegitimacy, without ever becoming a polemic. Some of the things Addie discovers about her family are quite horrific and made me burn with anger at the injustice suffered by women in the past. This is revealed by Addie gradually uncovering the story from documents, letters and witnesses, so you share her modern reaction to it in a completely empathic way.
Jacquelynn Luben has obviously done her research into genealogical records and where information can be found. Addie is lucky to find quite so many people who knew her mother and grandmother, but this is still believable and helps bring a human touch to what could have been rather dry research.
It includes a nice bit of romance, but is much more than a standard boy meets girl. It is overall a very good read.’

Very nice to receive that unsolicited testimonial from someone I don’t know, although in fact I’ve edited out a line which gave too much information. Amazon now have it in stock and of course, if you happen to live in Surrey, it’s available from the library.