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5th May 2008

Did you hear me on Radio 4? ('Making History' at 3pm on 29th April) – I forgot to listen, but thanks to the website 'listen again' facility I managed to pick it up later. Due to their good editing I thought I even sounded mildly intelligent!

Heard my first cuckoo on 23rd April this year, and now the swallows are back we must be heading for summer! I thought of things natural over the weekend as I was near to the place in Wiltshire where they are filming the second BBC TV series of 'Lark Rise to Candleford'. You can see the sites across fields but can't get to them (at least, not legally!). They seem to have a crop of yellow rape next to 'Lark Rise' – I wonder how they're going to edit that out of the filming? I don't think rape seed was the crop of choice in the 1890s!

28th April 2008

"For there is none of you so mean and base
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'"

It was St George's Day on 23rd April – did any of you remember?

I can't say I'm one who gets too het up about celebrating the days of patron saints and so forth, but it did seem a little ludicrous that we should hold a Burns Night every year in our English village and do nothing to celebrate our Englishness. So this year we organised a Bard's Night to celebrate William Shakespeare, his death and (supposedly) birth days being conveniently the same as St George's Day.

We set out the Village Hall with long runs of tables adorned in hessian to give them a more medieval look, and served an Elizabethan banquet to the customers while entertaining them with madrigals and extracts from Shakespeare – a scene each from Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew to be precise.

We're told it went well, and so we'll hope to repeat the event next year, and every year thereafter. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…"

21st April 2008

Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn,
Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun…

Joanna Jackson died last week. Not everyone in the village knew she was Betjeman's muse. I met her only once, when I sold her a book of mine. Always wanted to record her story for our local archives, but never got round to it – and now, sadly, never will.

We've started on a set of walks to complete my latest project – a book of walks from and between railway stations on the Guildford to Portsmouth line. This Sunday it took us to the village of Blackheath near Guildford. None of us had been there before and it was a gem of a discovery. After lunch at The Villagers Inn, we walked down to the Tillingbourne valley to visit the old gunpowder works. Amazing to think how that peaceful place could once have been a hive of industry, and such a dangerous industry. I took this picture of the information board (wish I'd taken it head-on rather than on the squiff!).

Next day I was interviewed by Richard Daniel of Radio 4. He normally heads up the Home Planet programme, but this time was working for the Making History programme. The subject was Whitaker Wright, one of the wealthiest men in the world in 1900, and we talked 'on location' outside the walls of Witley Park where he lived, and by his grave in Witley Churchyard where he was buried after he committed suicide in the High Court after being convicted of fraud. On the left is Richard, setting up to interview me there. Quite a story is Whitaker Wright's, and one which I had always intended to dramatise some day. He did figure in one scene of my Balance of Trust, but deserves a whole play to himself. Maybe a project for next year??

14th April 2008

So it was down to Bournemouth mid-week to see the unveiling of yet another blue plaque to Flora Thompson on one of the houses she lived in – this time 2 Edgehill Road in Winton. Another attraction was that Olivia Hallinan who plays Laura in the BBC TV series of 'Lark Rise to Candleford' was going to be there to help do the unveiling – and a very nice lady she turned out to be. I gave her a copy of Heatherley so that she knew where her character would be going next!

In this group, standing under the plaque, we have (L to R): Gillian Lindsay whose biography on Flora Thompson I publish, Tony Webster of the Old Gaol Musuem in Buckingham where they have a room dedicated to Flora Thompson, Olivia Hallinan, myself, and Carol Knight who is the granddaughter of John Thompson's brother George.

After the event, Dil, Mel, her kids and I went down to the seaside for the afternoon – had fish and chips at Harry Ramsden's and rode up the cliff railway. The weather was kind, and a good time was had by all.

Walking along one road there, I was intrigued to see that they had put a seal of what looked like blue sealing wax on every iron cover in the street. Was this supposed to prevent them getting stolen? Can't imagine it would be much of a discouragement to a determined thief! Anyone else have an alternative idea?

7th April 2008

On the first Sunday of each month, I lead a 'Walk to Health'. It's a spin-off from the weekly weekday walks which only go a couple of miles, and is for those wanting something a bit more taxing. Last year in May, I chose a route through a well-known bluebell wood – only to find that all the bluebells were over. This year I thought I'd take the walk in April instead – and woke up to 2½ inches of snow! Not only that, but the bluebells had only just started to come out, so the picture to the right was about as good a view of them as we got.

Perhaps next year I'll have to organise a 'halfway-through-April' walk. We did see various snowmen on our walk though, and lots of new-born lambs looking dirty already in the snow.

31st March 2008

Over the weekend we moved Deb into her new flat – or, actually, we half-moved her because arrangements to shift the heavy stuff from our house fell through – so we're still treating a pile of boxes in our lounge as a roundabout until next weekend when, hopefully, they'll finally go.

It's in Surbiton, an area which was new to me. I'd always associated the word in my mind with 'surburbia' and its worst connotations, but just at the bottom of her road is the Thames and a fine river-side walk to the centre of Kingston, just a quarter of an hour away – or ten minutes if you 'yomp'.

Naturally we found ourselves shopping – not my favourite occupation – but I think I know the centre of Kingston quite well now. And if I need to refresh it, we're up there again next weekend!

24th March 2008

You win some, you lose some.

We were to catch the fast ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, but they cancelled it due to weather conditions at sea – so we trolled down the coast to Poole to catch the 'proper' overnight ferry, with the prospect of spending the night perched on a pitching seat, since all the cabins were taken. Imagine our joy to be told when we got on board that as our seats were in the middle of a party of French schoolchildren they had taken pity on us and found us a cabin after all – for free! The weather in and around Cherbourg was bracing over the weekend – and it was probably appropriate that we went to visit an old working windmill and saw how it coped with the gusty conditions. We also learnt about the different types of wheat, in French. I think I sort of understood most of it.

Coming home, today we went out to lunch with friends at a local hostelry – I won't tell you which one, or you'll all want to go – or you will if you're gentlemen – or perhaps I mean not gentlemen. The picture here was taken of the wall in the gents' loo. Some of you may know the place, well – the rest will have to guess! It may or may not help (or be appropriate) to know that it is associated with David Lloyd George who, famously, "knew my father".

17th March 2008

The power of television! Not only have sales of my Flora Thompson books rocketed since their current series of Lark Rise to Candleford began, but also ITV gave an unexpected (to me) 10-minute airing to the Hilltop Writers of Hindhead – so now I'm getting sudden and urgent requests for that too. No complaints, of course, other than that if I'd had warning I could have got some stock in – as it is, I'm down to my last copy with orders still coming in, and no stock likely to show up for another week or more.

10th March 2008

So we stayed in a railway carriage for the best part of a week (see pic) and it was good. It was at the old Coalport Station by the River Severn, sitting on a railway line but going nowhere (the Severn Valley Railway doesn't get that far north. The weather was kind rather than bountiful. We got our 12-month 'passport' to visit the Ironbridge museums and managed, I think, three of them. The Victorian Town at Blists Hill is really very good – even in mid-week in March there was plenty going on and knowledgeable people to tell you how things were done in the old days. For example, did you know the origin of the expression 'out of sorts'? Nor did I – but apparently it was when a printer ran out of letters (sorts) in a particular font and had to start using a different one – which was why old posters used so many fonts!
We did some walking too, including one which went up a never-ending flight of rustic steps for a view over the Ironbridge gorge (and the Iron Bridge of course). There was supposed to be a geocache here, but as my GPS gadget told me it was 5 meters away in thin air down a sheer cliff face, we decided not to pursue it.
We also drove out to Ludlow, one of our favourite towns, and to Bridgenorth, which was new to us and a pleasant surprise. In Bridgenorth, we parked in the lower town and took the cliff railway up to the upper town – then had fun trying to find our way back again by foot. There are at least seven sets of steps, but we had to try a steep path down through woods which ended up nowhere, and then struggle all the way back up again before taking a more traditional route.

3rd March 2008

I had a choice over the weekend – go shopping in Guildford with Dil and Deb, or do a 9-mile walk. Guess which I chose?

It's research for one of the walks in my new book, Walks from Railway Stations between Guildford and Portsmouth. I did it in three and a half hours (including a scramble up the hill to St Martha's Church) – and when I arrived back in Guildford they were still shopping!

This week we're having a few days away in a railway carriage near Ironbridge. I'll let you know next week how it went.

25th February 2008

Everyone's asking me, so I suppose I'd better answer. What do I think of the BBC TV version of Lark Rise to Candleford?

Some people are rather surprised when I say that I like it. I think they're expecting me to take a purist's view – that it isn't the same as the book. "Just as well," say I – because if it were we'd all be asleep by now.

What they've done, and rather cleverly I think, is to take the characters out of the book and woven stories around them. I always say to people in my writing classes that, when they create characters for their novels, they should know those characters so well that they could drop them into any situation and know what they would do.

I think the BBC has done just that – taken the characters which Flora gave them, put them into the initial situations which she also gave them, and then let them evolve naturally into other situations.

I'm enjoying it. Let me know what you think.

18th February 2008

Is it really February? We're going about in shirtsleeves – well, if you're in the sun – I grant you it's a bit chilly in the shade! I'd always thought of February as a miserable month but perhaps I'll have to change my mind if this goes on.

Back to an old hobby-horse of mine. I see in the Sunday Times that they're getting all excited sbout the coming of the e-book. My readers may already know my feelings on this (see 17 Jul 2006) – it will come, but I don't think it's here yet. Not while the thing is a solid, unfoldable lump and costs upwards of £200. Make it foldable and free, and then we'll be talking! Anyway, I've added my twopenn'orth to the Times website.

11th February 2008

I expect the houses of most couples of a certain age are storage depots for the left-overs of their children. These are the things which are so precious to them at the time they flew the nest and yet which they could find no room for in their one-room garret. Years pass, and nobody has the heart to decimate the heap in the loft and so there it sits, a pile of unknown contents.

Then one day something happens to make you look at it and take some action. In this case, Deb has bought a house of her own and so she and Dil spent a happy few hours over the weekend sifting through old memories. We now have a pile beside the recycling bin, too large to fit in it!

We are also to lose our piano. You see it's really Deb's piano, and now she has a house… To be truthful, we don't use it much – in fact hardly at all, though we like to kid ourselves we will knuckle down one day and learn how to play it. If it only took one day we probably would! So we've kidded ourselves that we'd be far more likely to use an electronic keyboard – all the effects you can get on it! – and went out to see if we could find one that might fill the gap left by the piano when it goes.

You know how it happens – you go out to look at something with an eye to getting it in the future, and then suddenly you've found you've bought it today. So the piano is still here, and so is the keyboard, and we no longer have room for the dining table in the dining area – we're perching where we can to eat at the moment. And to add insult to injury, because we've had to stand the keyboard next to a radiator, one of the cats has taken up permanent residence on it!

I'm always assured that one day we will have a house with all rooms fully operational, but –

My 'laugh out loud' of the week, thanks to the late Miles Kington and his famous Franglais – the French Navy's slogan is "To the water! It is the hour!" (translate)

4th February 2008

I'm Skyped! I knew about it before, but never really thought I had a use for it – no close family abroad now, etc – but then it struck me that a) it's free and b) I could usefully chat over details of current work on The Peverel Papers with Ruth in Chicago who's working on the project with me.

I already had a microphone which I'd got for using with voice-recognition software, so what's to lose? Well – nothing yet. It worked like a dream to Chicago – we could almost have been in the same room it was so clear.

I'm just a little concerned not to let it get out of hand though. When e-mails started, one of the great boons was in being able to leave a message with someone in a different time zone without waking them up – and vice-versa. Now, if there's a temptation to jump to Skype as a first resort, it could all get very bleary-eyed – plus the fact that nothing is written down. That can be an advantage at times perhaps, but usually I'm scrabbling around weeks later trying to find the information I'd agreed with someone, only to remember it came as a phone call and any record I may have scrawled down is lost.

Dil was called by a BBC researcher last week and asked to take part in a House Sale programme on behalf of our Am Dram company – they wanted her to go and buy a chest for charity! This she duly did yesterday – so we are now the proud owners of a red chest that needs a little repair work done on it but will have a part in our next play and then be used to store our archives. All for £21 and in a good cause (though I'm not quite sure what the cause was!).

28th January 2008

Are you one of those people who makes lists? – or even worse, lists of lists! I once got to three levels down – that's a list of lists of lists – but I hope I'm over it now. Or maybe it's just that I have fewer but larger jobs on at the moment.

Anyway, the list at my side now (and I won't bore you with details) is nine items long – ten if you include writing this log. You'd think that would give me enough to be getting on with, but don't you always find that there's a blockage in the pipe-line with nearly all the items?

So you go for the ones which you can shift, but they're the ones with a really low priority. And then there are the jobs which arrive and aren't on the list at all – by that I mean, generally, phone calls and e-mails. I should by rights leave e-mails to be dealt with later, but I'm beginning to treat them like phone calls, to be answered straight away. Nice for the recipients, and saves me adding to the list (or, heaven help us, making a new list), but bad for my scheduling.

Then there are the 'avoidance' jobs which you invent when you don't really want to do (or convince yourself you can't do) any of the others. I won't include the dreaded Spider Solitaire in this (oh, alright, I will then – don't ever get hooked on the most difficult level!) but I'd certaily include tidying up computer file directories. Has to be done sometime, I suppose – or does it?

And I suppose writing this log is another – so …

21st January 2008

14th January 2008

So the BBC TV version of Lark Rise to Candleford finally hit the airwaves yesterday, and the wires have been buzzing ever since.

Generally the reaction was favourable, even from dyed-in-the-wool sceptics who thought it couldn't be done. Well, actually it wasn't done, if by that you mean a faithful recreation of the book – but what was done used the medium of television well in my opinion. For one thing, they're running the stories of all three of the books in the trilogy in parallel, so from the start we get life in the town compared with life in the hamlet. There are some minor things which intrigue me, such as why they decided to call the family Timmins rather than Timms, and why they gave Flora's father the fictional name of Robert (he was Albert) while they gave her mother the real name of Emma. But all in all, I think the series is a winner that I will enjoy watching.

As a result of the programme, I've already sold a boxful of books, been invited to speak to three organisations, been interviewed as an 'authority' by both radio and the press, and been asked to lead a walk round the real Lark Rise. I imagine the interest will wane now, but with nine more episodes to go, who knows?

Right now, I have to plough on with preparing The Peverel Papers for publication – I already have orders for it and it isn't even at proof stage yet!

7th January 2008

A Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you got through the Festive Season without catching too many of the bugs which have been going around. Nearly everyone I know seemed to go down with something. For me, I was 'loose' for a while – for others it was 24-hours of talking to the big white telephone. But enough of that, I hear you cry… I've been indoctrinated into the dark arts of Geochaching! Dil bought me a GPS thingy for Christmas, and David (alias Mullet's Dad) showed me how to use it to search out hidden plastic boxes containing soggy little knick-knacks. So here I am, on New Year's Day, looking glamorous, thingy in hand, having just discovered my first geocache. If I look cold, I was! I had to choose an alias of my own to log in to the geocache site. For reasons that some of you will know, and others will have to guess, I chose 'Tidy Bill'.

Continued …

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