JUne 25

I’m back with a new body! Was it really 11 May that I posted? So long - but now I'm back with a pristine new body, all silver glitz and bright front - but the inside needs getting used to. Of course I'm talking about my new computer - after trying internal wireless, three new wireless adaptors, carrying my laptop upstairs and trying cables, I came up with the tentative suggestion to the computer expert(?) that it might just be my laptop that was not working - it did get very hot where the wireless equipment was situated and it worked Ok first think in the morning when it was cold but then, as it hotted up, I lost my internet connection. Does anyone else realise how much we rely on this window on the world; I wrote a poem to my laptop some years ago, when it was working properly. Here it is:


ODE TO MY LAPTOP



Oh, how I love you, laptop
not only for your shape
and your light weight
but for all that is in you.

There is so much that you give me:
your connection to the outside world;
the words you let me play with;
the pictures and photographs you keep safely.
You even help me with my banking and household accounts.
You keep me in touch with my far-flung relatives, with friends;
instantly we exchange messages through you.

Oh, my computer, my precious, my love.
I’ll never forsake you

unless I have to upgrade you!

Well that’s what I’ve done but now it’s a learning curve. Good old bill gates (he doesn’t deserve capitals until he helps me out!) improves but deletes important tools like the filepath I used to put into my documents in the footer – anyone out there know where it is in Vista, the most up to date (and most frustrating) word package?

So if this is not posted it’s because I haven’t worked out how to get it into the blog, if it is and you’re reading it, well, I feel as if I’ve made one giant step and I know I’ll beat the system in this laptop eventually.

So apart from having nervous breakdowns, screaming at computerpeople, him indoors (not his fault but he got in the way), and generally feeling very grumpy what the hell have I been doing for the last six weeks? The most exciting was going to Freiburg – twinned with my home town of Guildford – to market Goldenford books to the Germans, who turned out to be extremely accommodating and friendly despite what my father used to say about them. (He worked in the docks in the East End of London throughout the war and used to watch the bombs dropping – he described the vivid red and black of the sky and the loud bangs and whining noises (doodlebugs landed and caused devastation when the noise stopped) So perhaps he was prejudiced. Anyway, we had a great time with the Anglo German group and sold some books as well, including a few Gawains. And Freiburg is a charming town, the entrance to the Munster is a must.

I’ve also been working on the cover of my next book Luther’s Ambassadors which should be published in the autumn, and one of the joys of being in charge of your own books is to choose your own covers. I have very defined views on this, wanting to have something that is different and will stand out – it is along the lines of Gawain’s cover and is based on a ceramic made by Iris Davies which I’ve now had framed as it is beautiful – if I had the knowledge of the technology in this laptop I’d reproduce it but sadly I need time to learn that bit.

The edits of the text have been flowing back and forth between me and my colleagues – we try to maintain the highest standard in the editing but it is not easy. Even when the books are published someone will find a typo or mistake – keep the comments coming as we can always amend these because we use POD and it is easy (although it costs a bit) to amend any errors with the next print run.

Apart from that I have attended two wonderful weekend courses, one on Gawain and the Green Knight, on which The Gawain Quest is based, and the other on Christopher Marlowe. These courses were based at Madingley at Cambridge which is a dream of a place to attend but like all heavenly places, is threatened by government cuts. I’m writing to my MP but unfortunately she is on the other side so I doubt if it will do any good. This government has a sinister plot; it is cutting back on access to justice by lowering the legal aid rates so much that nobody will be able to use a lawyer in the future, you might be able to be locked up for 42 days without being charged,(and if you think this won’t apply to you think about local governments using anti-terrorist laws to fine people for overfilling their dustbins) our education system is being eroded, and any ability to attain an education in adulthood is being cut back – what does this read to you? I would suggest it will make a compliant, uneducated population that can become the slaves of a government which will brook no argument. The labour party realise that only educated people challenge the system. One day there will be no more elections and we will only wake up to the fact when it is too late. Remember 1984 was 22 years ago....

So if you know about Madingley can you write to your MP about it? Indeed write anyway about the cutbacks in adult and extra mural education because everyone needs some mental stimulus and if this comes from lifetime learning and benefits society it should be funded by the government mainly. Here endeth my political fury.

Going back to the Marlowe course, this too was wonderful, run by two tutors no less, with interesting facts about Marlowe which I can incorporate into the complete, but unedited, story which is the third of my trilogy, called The nine lives of Kit Marlowe. Out in the spring I hope – and with a cover based on a ceramic by Iris Davies who is working on it at this very moment.

And finally, we also had the launch of Jacquelynn’s book, Tainted Tree in the wonderful village hall at Pirbright. This is a mid-thirties hall with a touch of the Lutyens; it was a glorious summer day (the only one I remember this year but perhaps I’ve been too preoccupied trying to goad my computer into working) and the assembled company was great. A buffet lunch for the attendees persuaded them to buy and we had a great sales day.

And another finally, well almost, I am working on going to America in early November for a book-signing, presentation, visit and on Guildford Book festival events. So keep looking....

In the meantime, and not really finally, I still visit my brother in the Acute Brain Injury Unit – every time I go there are issues but the main ones are:-

At Whitsun he threatened to punch a member of staff. Oh dear – I then find out that while he was watching the grand prix the television was turned off by that nurse – and I think to myself, well, if someone did that to me, I might well threaten to punch them (it wouldn’t be the grand prix but possibly Wimbledon, but you get the principle). I’m given three different reasons for the incident and I’m beginning to feel uncomfortable – is this a matter of the staff being impatient with David?

The latest incident, only yesterday, was that I was notified that he’d gone out at 3 and was still not back at 7.30 –then he returned at 9.30. I’m not worried. He might have ‘executive dysfunction’ but he knows his way around, will do what he wants to do but will always return to his nest for feeding eventually; but I know I’ll have to discuss strategy with the unit – or the next place he is moved to. It’s a strange thing when a person can’t make a decision about what food to eat or decide to have a shower but can recite any piece of information about London – facts, travel information, free concerts or a free drink! He also has a Beano sense of humour – for instance, when his arm is playing up, he will explain, ‘just tell them that David is ’armless.’ Or when someone asks him if he is allright he will answer, ‘No, I’m half left,’ which is a very old joke from our childhood. So he’s quite good natured.

But he finds the unit quite difficult because some of the other patients are aggressive or noisy. At the moment they have a tiny Indian lady whose memory has been wiped out by a brain haemorrhage and sometimes she moans and wails very loudly – the staff are nowhere to be seen but I speak softly to her, say hello, and she stops and looks at me, smiles sweetly and glides away in her elegant sari. Then there is the Pole who was only over here for a few weeks when something happens and he ends up here – speaking only Polish but he responds to a ‘hello’ as well. Rob, who’s been in there as long as my brother was obviously a hard nut before he went in – he’s tattooed down each arm and had a motorbike accident. The first time I spoke to him he told me to ‘F-off’ in a nicely rounded way, but now he smiles and walks on....weekends are the worst, sometimes when I walk in there’s an air about the place, and people are walking around, clearly agitated – it was like that the day my brother flipped and threatened to punch the nurse. All this makes it difficult for me to go there but I do because it must be infinitely worse for David whose locked up there. So when he escapes for a few hours, I am not worried.

Enuf.....