Tag: writing

May book reviews

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.

So here goes. And it is a good ‘un.

Whistler by Ann Patchett *****

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.

Stepping out

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?

Have a great weekend.

Love, Maddie x

In memory of Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty the Queen during a visit to HMS Ocean in Devonport in 2015.
Picture: Wikimedia Commons

It’s the late Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday today. She would have been one hundred years old.

There is a series of events in the UK marking this milestone, including an exhibition of hundreds of garments and related items belonging to Her Majesty.

I don’t think many of us think of the late Queen as a style icon, not in the way, say, of Princess Diana, whose leggy frame and passion for fashion sparked real trends.

Who can forget Di’s Emanuel ‘meringue’ wedding dress and its extra long train, which could indeed have had its own long train (like The Flying Scotsman) to transport it end-to-end?

Or the dazzling, figure-huggingly flattering and chic dresses she wore much later on?

When I picture the late Queen, I think of the block colour coats and matching hats from the 1960s and 70s, which on special occasions were de rigeur for women of my mother and mother-in-law’s generation. This is not surprising because they were both the same age as the Queen.

I’m guilty as the rest at underestimating the influence and effect the Queen’s choice of clothing had on generations of women.

5 June 1961 Buckingham Palace: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip host Queen’s Dinner for President and Mrs. Kennedy. U. S. Department of State photograph in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

HRH worked closely with favourite designers such as Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies. There’s a fascinating article on The Independent’s website about our longest reigning monarch’s relationship with fashion and how the look she created was not at all accidental.

You can read it here. Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is at the King’s Gallery. Buckingham Palace, until 18 October.

The Queen died in September 2022 aged 96. She was the country’s longest-reigning monarch, chalking up an incredible 70 years.

As well as the exhibition, there are other things taking place to commemorate her life.

According to the BBC, today The King and Queen Camilla will visit the British Museum to view plans for the Queen Elizabeth II national memorial in St James Park in London designed by architect Sir Norman Foster.

Later in the day, they will host a reception at Buckingham Palace where guests will be presented with birthday cards by the King.

The Princess Royal will honour her mother by officially opening the Queen Elizabeth II Garden in Regent’s Park, London.

Buckingham Palace has also announced that award-winning historian Dr Anna Keay will write the the late monarch’s official authorised biography.

It’s fitting that these things are happening in honour of a woman who – whatever your views on the monarchy – had a great sense of duty and was devoted to her role.

A lasting legacy – and to my mind, the best way of celebrating this remarkable woman – is the creation of a new charity, The Queen Elizabeth Trust, which will focus on restoring shared spaces in communities.

The charity aims to develop and transform underused buildings and green spaces, as well as ensure that communities have the skills and training needed to organise local events, says the BBC.

Three cheers for that.

Here’s a very informative video produced to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It draws on a rich selection of records held at The National Archives, including photographs, letters, and speeches, this film looks back at Elizabeth II’s extraordinary life and reign.

Today is World Poetry Day

Years ago, I was shortlisted for a poem in the internationally-acclaimed Bridport Prize competition.

To be honest, it wasn’t very good but it was a pleasing accomplishment because poems aren’t really my thing. This is probably because, despite studying them quite closely, I find them tricky to analyse, decipher and I always get a bit flustered with the rules.

It’s silly really, because I love the poetry in many song lyrics – I’m thinking Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Ian Dury. I adore those lines in National Express by the Divine Comedy about the jolly hostess and her large behind…

Here’s one of my favourite Joni Mitchell numbers.

If that isn’t poetry, I don’t know what is.

I think perhaps it’s because I’ve studied poetry closely for a creative writing degree that it’s reinforced my natural – and lazy -resistance to anything that requires me to think rather than just imbibe through natural osmosis.

So I need to cast off the hang-ups and fear of getting it wrong and just enjoy poetry for its lyricism, rhythm, cadence and imagery. I should just go with the flow and embrace the sheer joy and beauty in hearing or reading a great poem.

So, on World Poetry Day, tell me – what are your favourite poems?

I like the Spike Milligan one about the worm:

Today I saw a little worm, wriggling on his belly. Perhaps he’d like to come inside and see what’s on the telly.

I like The Voice by Thomas Hardy. I like anything written by Christina Rossetti. I like this one by William Butler Yates:

He wishes for the cloths of heaven

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

But come to think of it, my favourite poem is Ithaka by Greek poet C P Cavafy. I saw somewhere that it was read at Jackie Kennedy’s funeral in May 1994.

Here it is read by the wonderful Sean Connery with music by Greece’s own Vangelis. Cheesy but profound.

That’s about it.

Love, Maddie x

How did you use that extra hour?

It’s the day after the clocks went back and it’s one of those Sundays that seems to have gone on and on.

I was up early and did all the ironing, fed the dogs, order a dog harness, water bowl, poo bags and three motion sensor lights for the landing, made a pot of tea, scored eight on my daily popquiz – Popquizza.com – and finished an episode of The Rest Is Politics US before the clock showed seven-fifteen.

By eight o’clock, I’d walked the dogs and was ready for breakfast.

I’ve managed to tick loads of things off my to-do list, although by three o’clock this afternoon I was flagging and the dogs were doing circles because they were so hungry.

Mr Grigg has dug up four lots of leggy lavender for me to replace, and there is more planting to come.

I’ve also gone mad with the bulbs again, ordering with gay abandon from Farmer Gracy and then bricking it when a massive box the size of Matabeleland arrived on the doorstep with a smug look on its face.

It’s half term in Dorset this coming week but no doubt the weather will be dreadful, so the chance of me finding room for 90 narcissi bulbs is pretty remote.

Two years ago, I ordered so many tulips I had to enlist the support of Number One Son and the tiny grandson who waddled around in dear little wellies and was armed with a lethal dibber.

We managed to plant them all but, of course, I was away when they flowered, so I missed the lot.

With just five days of October left, it’s been a busy month.

And now the nights are darker, it’s time for slowly simmered stews, log fires and a ridiculous binge on all four series of Stranger Things to remind myself of the plot and premise before the new one drops at the end of November.

I’m going to try to pull my socks up and blog at least twice a week, but as my late mother used to say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

That’s about it.

Maddie x