Here in South West France there is little let-up in the rampaging heatwave.
Occasionally, a storm will break the stalemate and the plants breathe a sigh of relief and stop slouching for just a second. But then we’re back on the endless treadmill of feeling hot, hot, hot.
There are clouds in the sky this morning and a slight breeze whipping around my bare feet so I’m using the time in my little office to get on with some project planning.
I’ve done some writing, done some editing and now it’s time to sit back and think about marketing my new novel, which is due out on Kindle later this month and will be launched as a paperback in the autumn.
I’m also working on a narrative non-fiction story which will take me halfway around the world and probably won’t be finished until 2028.
So there’s plenty going on in my head, but the heat makes my brain scramble and opens the door for lethargy to just come on in and wipe its feet all over my creativity.
In other news, the travelling pan has arrived for the village’s Giant Omelette fete on Friday evening.
I’m presuming it was delivered on this trailer although, in a flight of fancy, I imagine it obligingly rolling up the hill and parking itself in its annual spot before thundering on down to another local community event.
It serves a variety of uses round and about, including accommodating another village’s Giant Paella and then someone else’s Moules Evening.
It’s a very helpful and useful little big pan.
I think I’m going for a lie-down, the heat seems to be getting to me.
That’s about it.
Love, Maddie x
PS You’d think the heat would stem my appetite. However, I live with a foodie who loves to cook and also to eat.
I’ve been out of the blogging loop lately, focusing on a writing project which is going to keep me busy for the next couple of years.
However, there is lots going on in the world (earthquake, heatwave, violent death and political farce) but I’m choosing not to obsess about these subjects and am trying (not very successfully) to stop doomscrolling on Facebook and Instagram, which is a complete waste of time and just feeds massive egos and conspiracy theories and lines the pockets of the megarich.
And news websites and a constant diet of updates and cliches are leaving me cold.
The reading is going well, but not in terms of me writing reviews. I’ve had some real duds in recent months, which has been incredibly disappointing.
I had high hopes for The Calamity Club (2026), by Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help (2009), but it wasn’t for me. I gave it two stars out of five.
I didn’t fare much better withUnder Story. I devoured an earlier Chloe Benjamin novel, The Immortalists (2018), but really struggled with this new book, which comes out later in the year.
The very science-based science fiction of Under Story is sweeping in its ambition. Set in the hostile, surreal world of Antarctica, it’s essentially a love story with two central protagonists who take their time to reconnect.
It’s beautifully written but moves forward at too slow a pace for me. I gave it three stars.
Having encountered a reader’s block with new novels other people seem to adore, I had a bit of a book break and then started reading narrative nonfiction, if nothing else but to help with the current writing project, to see how it’s done when done well.
The last bit of nonfiction I read was probably The Salt Path (2018), billed as memoir, nature and travel writing and definitely not fiction. I gave up after two chapters because I liked neither the style nor the whining presence of the author, who irritated me from the start. Well, we all know how that book panned out. Maybe I am more discerning than I think.
I’ve done a bit of research and have started giving nonfiction another go. Mixed results but I completely fell in love with the Bruce Chatwin’s groundbreaking travel writing classic, In Patagonia (1977).
Similarly, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder(2023) by David Grann is unputdownable, telling the true story of what happened when a naval vessel hit rocks off the South American coast in 1740. Piecing together the story through solid historical research and strong primary sources, Grann has produced a knockout of a book. I was hooked by it.
After failing to ‘get’ an award-winning memoir that had been recommended to me (too highbrow and about a wealthy family I didn’t care much about), I was delighted to then plunge into Great Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire (2024) by Michael Palin, a writer who takes a family story and turns it into a search for answers in this compelling biography, travelogue and history book. Palin is such an empathetic and kind sort of a chap and his writing reflects his humanity.
I’m now reading two novels: A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) by Amor Towles (my day book) and the beautiful There Are Rivers In The Skyby Elif Shafak (2024), which I turn to at night because I have a back-lit Kindle so I don’t disturb Mr Grigg when he’s trying to sleep.
So, you can see I haven’t been completely idle in this ennui-inducing heatwave, which is turning us all into gibbering wrecks.
More from me later in the week, I think. In the meantime, if you have any narrative nonfiction recommendations, I’m all ears.
Just to let you know, the blog is taking a back seat for a while.
I’ve had lots of things going on and I’m currently knee-deep in work around the publication of new novel by an indie press. It’s due out in the autumn – more news to follow.
Have a lovely summer, and maybe catch up with you through posts on my Instagram and Facebook pages, although these will also be a bit sporadic over the coming months.
I’m ploughing my way through another long book, which I’m enjoying but haven’t finished yet.
It’s The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett, who wrote The Help. It turns out her latest novel, which has just been published, is longer than I first thought.
I’m also in the final copy edit stage of my own novel, which is being published in the autumn. Can’t say too much about it yet but I will reveal all in due course.
At the same time, I’m doing some in-depth research for a narrative non-fiction story where the ancestor I share with Ernest Hemingway will take centre stage. This is a project involving a half-circumnavigation of the world so will take a few years.
I’ve read three books this month but only one of them is worth telling you about. The other two were thrillers but not very thrilling.
Contemporary fiction (304 pages).Publication date expected 2 June 2026
A chance meeting in a New York art gallery leads the fifty-something protagonist into a myriad of memories in this quietly reflective novel about family, relationships and love.
English teacher Daphne and her husband realise the elderly man who appears to be stalking them is, in fact, her ex-stepfather, book editor Eddie Triplett, who she hasn’t seen since she was nine. The encounter sends Daphne down unexpected paths, sifting through a painful period in her childhood and a dramatic incident she’s never really talked about with anyone else since.
Her conversations and interactions with Eddie – a lovely, kind man – enable Daphne to think about her past and make sense of everything that happened all those years ago and the complex layers – and people in her life – that underpin it.
It’s an astonishing novel and Patchett is an astonishing writer, who takes something so relatively simple and transforms it into a deep and meaningful story about what it is to be loved and respected. I coldn’t put it down.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance review copy of Whistler.
I’m determined to up my steps each day so I hit the magic 10,000, a figure dreamed up by a marketing campaign but not a bad one to aim for.
It’s the equivalent of 3.9 to 4.9 miles, depending on your stride length, speed and height.
I walk a couple of miles every day with the dogs but it’s not quite far enough, so I need to add a section at the beginning and end of the day to cover it.
Or otherwise achieve 7,000 steps every day, which the experts say is enough, especially when combined with some real bursts of energy.
I like what the British Heart Foundation has to say about walking: To boost the health benefits, aim to walk at a brisk pace, meaning you can talk comfortably but would be too out of breath to sing.
As someone who had a surprise heart attack ten years ago when I was fifty-four, that hits home.
Having had a bit of a slothful week of editing, where I mostly exercise my fingers while sitting at a laptop, I know I need to keep my body moving to improve my general fitness.
There’s more I can do but this is a good start. I’m not one for the gym or joining a class, preferring my own company and that of the dogs. I’m not an introvert exactly, and certainly not an extrovert but more of an omnivert, apparently.
Maybe I should lift a few weights next, or schedule my own personal dance class in the confines of my own home. Perhaps I should ask my old friend, over-50s fashion and lifestyle blogger Gail, at Is This Mutton?
All suggestions gratefully received.
In any case, eating more healthily and not drinking so much alcohol should help me achieve my goals.
I have a ‘health’ app on my phone but I don’t think it’s very accurate. I walked 3,790 steps this morning and several hours later it’s not showing any increase, even though I’ve got the phone in my pocket so steps around the house and up the stairs ought to count.
So I’ve ordered a ‘non-smart’ pedometer watch to help me in my quest.
It’s non-smart because I don’t want a watch to pay bills or receive calls and messages. For me, it’s better to be away from all that constant interruption, hence the need (I think) for a simple pedometer which also tells the time.
Along with that, I want to eat more healthily, cut down my alcohol intake and engage in constructive pursuits when I’m not reading and writing, rather than doom scrolling on my phone or laptop and getting depressed by a word gone mad.
I want to learn and see new things, whether it’s visiting an art exhibition or getting a close-up view of a golden beetle. I want to hear and identify birdsong and possibly learn the ukelele, although I don’t think I’m quite ready for that just yet.
Maybe just soak up the beauty of nature, as and when it happens. Live in the moment.
So there you go, those are my May resolutions – what are yours?
Maddie Grigg 