Maddie Grigg

The arrival of Spring

There are rooks flapping overhead, twigs in their beaks and heading for nest-building central.

A pair of male blackbirds are sparring vigorously, spiralling in an upward and downward dance which goes unnoticed by drivers on their way to work and children who are late for school.

The daffodils and narcissi proclaim ‘we are here‘ and the tulips emerge from the soil, ready for their chance to shine further down the line.

In Lush Places, someone has mended the church clock. It’s been stuck at the same time for ages and its chiming of the hour has been a thing of the past.

But then, on Sunday morning, I passed by just as it struck nine o’clock. It was if I’d suddenly been hurled into the present, the bell an aural reminder of the arrival of Spring.

After a sunny day here yesterday, with garden clearing a priority before the waste bin is collected this morning, the weather has turned grey and dismal. A meh sort of day.

But still the blackbird sings his joyful and mellow song, ostensibly to impress potential lady friends but, in our world, causing us to stop, close our eyes and soak up the sounds of nature.

In the garden, the hellebores are doing their thing, which is truly wondrous.

Books: which are your favourites?

World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23 April 1995 to celebrated books and reading.

It’s marked by more than a hundred countries.

In the UK and Ireland, the charity celebrates World Book Day on 7 March – today!

‘Our mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.’
World Book Day

It’s great to get children into books from an early age. Books take the young – and the old – to new worlds. The printed word and writers’ imagination allow us to go backwards or forward in time, and meet fictional and real-life characters from history.

There’s nothing quite like curling up with a good book.

As a child to my early twenties, I was an avid reader. And then life got in the way, until, about ten years ago, I reignited my love affair with books, and novels in particular.

Back in the day, I read Enid Blyton’s Tales of Long Ago, which filled me with a longing for stories from Greek mythology. And then it was magical things like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Princess and the Goblin and The Hobbit.

At school, I loved Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Still do.

In my early twenties, it was anything by Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck or F. Scott Fitzgerald.

My two favourite novels are Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. And I love the Steinbeck collection of linked short stories, The Pastures of Heaven.

These days, I’m into witty and thoughtful reinterpretations of the Greek myths, such as Natalie Haynes’s Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story and Madeline Miller’s Circe, historical fiction like The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams and Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield.

I’m very keen on Elizabeth Strout, Stephen King, Rachel Joyce and Barbara Kingsolver and literary fiction by John McGregor and Max Porter.

I love a good thriller, I’m not at all keen on chick lit or romance, and, most of all, I adore a quiet, coming-of-age novel set in small-town settings, such as Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal, Go As A River by Shelley Read and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Although I hated Where The Crawdads Sing. I think it was the melodrama I didn’t like.

At the moment, I’m reading an advance reader copy of Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment. So far, it’s a good ‘un.

What’s on your reading list?

The rain it do raineth

It’s a dismal day here yet again, with grey skies and intermittent rain.

The water gathers in big puddles at the side of the road. If you’re walking along the pavements, you have to be aware of the traffic, otherwise you’ll end up soaked.

There is a particular spot where the road narrows at a pinch point, which is intended to slow down the traffic. If you don’t walk past it pretty sharpish, you can be guaranteed a car will come zooming by and splash you to smithereens.

In the mornings and evenings, many of the motorists on their way to and from work – and also, surprisingly, school – tend to ignore the 20mph speed limit and belt by at 30 and 4omph.

It’s a terrible advert for some of the builders, plumbers and electricians who shoot by in their liveried vans. Still, they obviously have plenty of work on and don’t need business from village folk.

Anyway, enough complaining. It’s World Book Day on Thursday, 7 March and I’m looking forward to my morning walk coinciding with the children all dressed up as book characters and making their way to school.

A few years ago I encountered Roald Dahl’s Mr Twit followed closely down the road by Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat.

I wonder what lies in store for us this coming Thursday?

I’ll get my coat…

It’s a rare day today, the 29th of February.

And what’s it like out there, on that day that comes round only once every four years?

It’s a day full of rain, that’s what.

Yet still teenage boys run to the school bus without coats, getting soaked before they even reach their classes. What is it with kids and coats? At what age do they decide that wearing a coat to keep them warm and dry is for idiots? And why?

I’ve never understood it.

Turning up waistbands to make your school skirt appear shorter or smuggling platforms to change into on the bus, to replace the trusty Clarks specials your mum insisted you have when you were thirteen, well, I totally get that.

But coats? What ever did a coat do to upset a teenager?

I’ve always loved outerwear – hats, jackets, coats and shoes – far more than any other type of clothing.

My current favourite is a hot pink, fake fur coat that I madly bought after seeing it in a shop window in the rather swanky Dorset town of Sherborne. I justified the price tag after receiving an unexpected pay bonus for a job well done.

There’s something about bright colours that warm the soul, especially on dark winter days. Although the hot pink coat has to stay in the wardrobe in this weather, which sounds like a cue for my bright blue raincoat to emerge or the spotty one I got from Vinted for a fiver.

So happy 29th of February to you all. And, to paraphrase the poet Brian Bilston, here’s to making the most of this and each and every day.

What we’re reading and watching

Books

With all the rain we’ve had, the door on the village telephone box library is jammed shut.

Luckily, I have a number of great books on my Kindle still to read, thanks to NetGalley, which provides advance reader copies of digital books in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve just finished reading The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It’s not out yet – I had a review copy – but it’s such a compelling novel.

I’m generally a low scorer (something has to be pretty amazing for me to award it five out of five) but I gave the book four stars on Goodreads.

Here’s my review :

This is an astonishing debut. Time travel, romance, comedy and thriller, all beautifully constructed and written with literary flair.
In the near future, the unnamed protagonist works as a civil servant for The Ministry of Time in London as a ‘bridge’ between her world and her charge, a naval officer from the 19th century who history says disappeared in the frozen north, with the rest of the ill-fated crew. The plot follows the twists and turns of their relationship with each other, with authority, their pasts, presents and future and the wider world.
This was a compelling, easy read with much humour and pathos. Can see it making a great film or television series.
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an advance review copy of this novel.

Lo and behold, the novel is being made into a television serial.

Imagine what it must feel like to have your work adapted for the small and big screens. It’s happening to someone I know who worked at the Dorset Echo the same time as I did, albeit in different offices. It must be incredible, if a little scary, to see someone else nurturing your ‘baby’ for a different medium and audience.

Joanna Quinn’s The Whalebone Theatre, a family epic, coming-of-age novel and wartime thriller set in Dorset and France, is to get the television treatment. I loved the novel and gave it five stars.

I’m about to start reading Andrew McMillan’s Pity and The Women by Kristin Hannah.

Television

We’re still plodding through Blue Bloods (CBS), the multi-season police drama with Tom Selleck heading a family of New York cops embroiled in crime and political intrigue. It’s an easy series to watch, with self-contained episodes and likeable, hardworking characters, and nothing too taxing for an addled brain to take in late in the evening.

We’ve just started True Detective (Amazon Prime), a crime and mystery drama which is providing to be uncomfortable and brutal viewing. The jury is still out on this one. Maybe I need to get past season one. I’m done with stories that feature hideous crimes with women as victims.

There are times when our preferred viewing is just not compatible. Mr Grigg is currently watching Masters of the Air (Apple TV), an American war drama mini-series, and I’m watching Daisy Jones and the Six (Amazon Prime), which charts the rise and fall of a fictional 1970s rock band not dissimilar to Fleetwood Mac.

I wasn’t keen on the book but I’m enjoying the show, particularly the gorgeous Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She’s mesmerising.

Films lined up to watch include Saltburn (Amazon Prime), which I’m plucking up the courage to see after hearing someone talk about it in the pub, and One Love, the biopic of Bob Marley, in cinemas now, which looks amazing.