It’s now a week since I got back from France and to my surprise I am still adjusting. It has been quite a culture shock to move from a place where writing was everything to a world full of home and people and another life altogether. Of course some of this has been wonderful: arriving back to my home and family – to a house full of colour with carpets underfoot and my garden full of green. How green is England! (The tones here are so blue compared with those yellow tones in the Languedoc). I know it’s what returning travellers always say; England is so green. Well it’s true -it is a lush and beautiful garden full of honeyed scents and damp earth, with cows in the fields, long grasses, pale roses, Wimbeldon and strawberries (in my opinion better than french strawberries) – and here there are no seagulls only the occassional owl at night. It is also the place where I belong and where my friends are:Val and Jackie and Marnie – and it feels good to be back on touch with them as well as with family. (And others too, soon I hope)
I saw London on the way here, staying overnight last Saturday and meeting up with Katie my daughter in Covent Garden – in the middle of the heatwave! My sleep deprived, aeroplane fuelled, head had difficulty in coping. I don’t think I’d ever seen London so crowded or so hot. We had to dive for cover into the air con interior of a restaurant the name of which I don’t remember and stay put drinking rose and eating pasta.
Finding my way back to Stoke Newington I somehow missed the great thunderous downpour. I got out of the tube at the Arsenal and found a lovely Nigerian mini cab driver to take me the rest of the way who waxed lyrical about London and how tolerant it was, how it was the only place to live. On our short journey, as if to prove a point, he took me past a church where a transvesite/sexual ? wedding appeared to have taken place and all the guests were stood around at the church gate – men in dresses and veils looking very Lou Reed and very wild!
Meanwhile my novel sits waiting on my desk upstairs. I can’t begin to contemplate work on it just yet but that’s not such a bad thing. Most novelists, and poets too, say let it rest – leave your work to stand for a while – as long as possible – so that when you come back to it you can see it with fresh eyes. I won’t be leaving it for too long but I have several poems jostling in my head, a number of books I want to read, and workshops* to prepare with Wendy, people to see – so plenty to do and of course I need to start checking out Danny Beck’s (the protaganist in my new novel) Newcastle
*Yesterday we did our first workshop on Life Writing – a bit of a shock – but it was great – see next blog for more details and photo
Hi Avril
Once you dive back into that Newcastle research Danny Beck will stroll back to centrre stage. It was truly a treat ti write in unchallenged retreat and now the challenge is to write with all of life flowing around us. Taking a breather is part of the process. It will be good for the novel. I believe that..
Love the picture of your roses. So fragile
wx
Hi Avril
Once you dive back into that Newcastle research Danny Beck will stroll back to centrre stage. It was truly a treat to write in unchallenged retreat and now the challenge is to write with all of life flowing around us. Taking a breather is part of the process. It will be good for the novel. I believe that..
Love the picture of your roses. So fragile
wx
Thanks Wendy – I think you may be right and our trip to Newcastle on Thursday for your signing might be a good place to begin.
Fenwicks 12.30 Wendy will be signing copies of Sandie Shaw and The Millionth Marvel Cooker – join us for a glass of wine and some good company – you could always buy a treat from the wonderful deli while your there and a book or two of course!
Ax
It was lovely meeting up in Covent Garden amongst the hustle and bustle of London Town. The pictures of your writing room and the garden make me homesick, its so beautiful this time of year. The roses remind me of a book I borrowed from you called The Anatomy of a Rose: The Secret Life of Plants. In which the reader is invited to see flowers through the eyes of insects, an interesting concept …. I wonder how they would see your peach roses x
A rose through the eyes of a honey bee – I wonder how it looks? Unfortunately the roses have been almost washed away by the rain – petals and rose heads brown and decaying – just your kind of thing Katie! Maybe when you come home you will find some inspiration for next years designs in the garden – look forward to it
A x