Mslexia
Journal roundup
A few reflections from the annual roundup of wisdom and challenges in the writing journal, Mslexia.
Reading about other writers’ experiences and tips, studying the short stories and poems that win competitions, helps me identify my own strengths and weaknesses. And every year confirms my own inability to comprehend the art of short fiction or poetry!
It also reminds me that in order to get full-length novels accepted and promoted and marketed you need the persistence of a terrier, the hide of a rhinocerus, and the confidence (?pedigree) of a thoroughbred horse. At least the goalposts were there for non-fiction which I had relative success with. But when it comes to the world of fiction … goalposts? What goalposts?! Perfection is always another draft away.
It’s an ongoing personal challenge, but I can at least share a few gems that really resonated:
Striving for perfection will trample your happiness as a writer faster than anything else. The pressure we put ourselves under is exhausting. And it’s unsustainable.
Sian Meades-Williams
In assessing the quality of a story there are five elements that must be satisfied:
Characterisation: the ability to bring realistic, consistent, multi-dimensional people to the page.
Shape: the relationship between idea and form and the ability to pace the story, the interplay between background context and forward motion, to end with meaning,
Technical ability: the guts of a sentence well constructed.
Voice: musicality, tone and vocabulary,
Spirit: passion made concrete, gumption, spark. Fiction confidently expressing truth.
Leone Ross
At its heart, feeling successful is about fulfilling a commitment you have made – to yourself, to your creativity, to your project.
Safiya Robinson
Dissatisfaction is a writer’s greatest gift.
Elle Nash
Onwards and upwards!
In celebration of women writers
2024 marked the 100th edition of Mslexia, a magazine for women who write, to which I’ve subscribed for many years. So as we turn into a new year, I thought I’d share a few random snippets from the journal, with thanks to all the contributors who researched and wrote about them.
It’s a truth not always recognised that women writers have many extra hurdles to overcome because of their role as caregivers to children and parents, alongside juggling domestic duties and paid employment and maintaining a writing profile, as a number of surveys have demonstrated. But perhaps Ginger Rogers sums it up most neatly: she did everything that Fred Astaire did but backwards and in high heels!
Martin Amis said his stepmother, novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, would be busy gardening, cooking, staring out of the window, and then suddenly disappear into her study where she would furiously hammer out her stories for an hour: a ‘think, think, think, WRITE’ routine. But she would have written twice as much as his father Kingsley Amis in a whole day.
We tend to look at established and best-selling authors as having everything buttoned up. But it was reassuring to me to read that crime-queen Val McDermid after 39 novels still says that around two thirds of the way through she loses faith in the novel, the writing feels flat, the plot makes no sense and she wonders why anyone would be remotely interested and read it. Happily she’s a consummate professional and wouldn’t dream of missing a deadline so she ploughs on and regains confidence as she goes.
It’s striking how many writers are willing to expose their own vulnerabilities whether its mental illness, infertilty, abuse, being controlled, losing babies, being bereaved, being financially insecure, abandoning security, being in the public eye, stage fright. I’ve benefitted greatly from their revelations and honesty.
Mary Wesley published her first bestseller at the age of 71, and went on to write ten more, only stopping at the age of 84. There’s inspiration for you.
Did you know that the mental effort of serious stints of writing entails deep concentration and requires the same kind of nourishment and rest as a strenuous run? My GP did many years ago; he diagnosed my body’s need for extra thyroxine because of the intensity of my work as a researcher/writer, and prescribed accordingly.
Heidi Thomas (screen writer for the long-running TV series, Call the Midwife, has a wonderful philosophy, gleaned from her seven years as a Quaker. It’s Let us see what love can do, because, she believes, so much more can be accomplished by kindness or patience or compassion … The real depth of the show, set in London in the 50s and 60s, comes from a belief in service to others; the secret of its success is sincerity which pervades all aspects of making the programme, and decency. It shows.
Poet Degna Stone sums up the true value of reading: The characters and their narratives each changed me in some way, And that’s why we read, isn’t it? To experience new ideas that will help us to see the world differently. Or to experience a familiar feeling told from someone else’s perspective.
Author Chioma Okereke puts it slightly differently:
Reading isn’t just a sanctuary from the real world, but a therapeutic activity that enriches our knowledge and provides us with insights beyond our lived experiences … increases our capacity for empathy, through the process of seeing the world through a relatable character.
A whole lot of wisdom comes in my quarterly packages from Mslexia. Here’s to a wiser and more compassionate and peaceable 2025.
Vulnerability and creativity
Every now and then I give you a round up of snippets from writing journals. Time for the next one, methinks, but on this occasion with a slight twist, because in three Mslexia issues one theme jumped out at me – vulnerability; so my post centres around that theme.
American writer, researcher, storyteller, Brené Brown, who spent twenty years studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy, believes that sharing one’s experiences and intimate fears and feelings is a healthy way to build resilience in the face of adversity. Assorted Mslexia writers have certainly shared their susceptibilities and frailties in these journals, and I commend them all for exposing themselves in this way. Sometimes writing has helped them find a meaning and way through difficulties; sometimes simply sharing their emotions in a safe place has been therapeutic. Whatever their motive, it’s helpful for us readers – and perhaps especially fellow-writers – to learn from their experiences.
I’ll simply catalogue the hurdles these brave women are leaping or facing (no links because most don’t have an online presence).
Spring issue
Angelina Nizzardi – is parenting a child with ‘autism, ADHD, anxiety, developmental delay, cocooned in a blanket of rare chromosomal complexity’ and finding cracks of time to write.
Sarah Jane Potter – is living with chronic severe pain and unable to sit following a stroke in her 40s, but writing is sufficiently important to her that she often writes standing up.
Katherine Rundell – it was the death of her sister when Katherine was ten that started her career of writing children’s fiction featuring characters who suffer hardships in early life, sharing deep seated emotions in a clever way.
Jennie Agg – had four miscarriages and has written about her personal experience, but using her research as a health journalist to illuminate the issues.
Summer issue
Amélie Padfield – found creative writing helped her recover from grief overload when a dear friend and her sister died within 3 months of each other.
Yvonne Reddick – the loss of her father inspired much of her poetry, mapping out a geography of grief for both her father and the planet.
Anna Vaught – concluded her series expressly for vulnerable writers, whether they’re dealing with mental health issues, thwarted expectation, or negativity in some shape. As she says: As a vulnerable author you are not alone! Indeed.
Helen McClements – had to find a way through a terrible accident on a mountain on the other side of the world which left her badly injured and her boyfriend dead. Her moving prose makes the reader wonder how much of the prying journalist is in us too.
Autumn
Lynsey Patterson – suffered brain injury after falling out of a high 4-wheel drive in Australia. She suffered from severe pain, headaches, dizziness and sickness. Writing was part of her life from childhood; now she has to retrain her brain to do what came so naturally before the accident.
Sian Meades Williams – as a freelance writer, she worked absurdly hard, postponed relaxation and rescheduled fun until she burned out. She learned the hard way to prioritise her own wellbeing and bring excitement and confidence and real creativity back into her life.
Academic and cultural commentator Celia Brayfield tells us that it’s well known that writers have more mental health challenges than other artists … hmm, I wasn’t aware of that fact. But reading all these submissions I recognise that authors have a unique opportunity to work at resolving their own traumas as well as comforting and encouraging others dealing with big issues in their live, and I salute all of the above for doing just that.
Against the odds
I am blown away by the courage and fortitude of so many of my fellow authors. Not just battling a harsh system in a difficult and fickle industry, but succeeding against all manner of odds.
Why is this in my mind this week? Because I’ve just re-read an exceptionally good issue of the writing journal Mslexia (Winter 21/22) which captures the indomitable spirit of women who have picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and got right back in the saddle. Inspirational stuff. What are the puny obstacles in my path against these giants?
There’s Faye Keegan who overcame poverty and depression and anxiety and lockdown and moving into a boat too small even for her writing desk. She’s still constantly grappling with boat-related crises, but she’s back writing.
Then there’s crime writer Joy Ellis who struggled with ME, the collapse of her upmarket floristry business, being homeless, injury in a motorbike accident, innumerable rejections and disappointments, but now in her 70s, with over 3 million sales under her belt, and publishing three new titles a year.
Jesse Sutanto is really really hard on herself and has had her fair share of rejection. After 11 years of serious writing she’s still only had three of her nine novels published. Does she give in? Certainly not. She overcomes the inner voice that constantly berates her by writing really really fast so she can outrun it! She aims for 2,000 words a day, and writes in bursts of 15 minutes at a time. ‘Nothing is too intimidating if you only have to do it for 15 minutes’, she says.
When Matilda Tristram was diagnosed with bowel cancer during her first pregnancy she used the experience to advantage by writing a comic diary about it! It was both therapeutic and confirming, educating and entertaining, emotionally beneficial and artistically valuable.
All power to the writing hands (and hearts and minds) of any who are struggling against demons within and without.
Writerly round-up
Time for my occasional round-up of the titbits about writing/writers that have appealed to me over the months of trawling through literary journals.
Did you know …
Psychologists have found that access to creative ideas will be enhanced if you have ongoing exposure to the actual smell of what you’re writing about – cigars, lemons, fish etc.
(Creativity Research Journal Vol 31)
Nearly 200,000 new titles are published every year!! No wonder getting your book noticed is such a difficult task for all except major celebrities and world famous writers. But at its heart has to be an online presence, advertising, and good professional advice. Oh, and a high quality product! Making your book the best it can be is the starting point for every marketing campaign. (Mslexia Vol 84)
Well-known authors and creative writing tutors and researchers all acclaim mindfulness and meditation as offering a range of benefits – alleviating depression, lowering blood pressure, managing stress, improving focus and creativity. (Mslexia Vol 88)
Good advice for writing, and indeed for living, is: dwell whole-heartedly and unselfconsciously in that moment of vulnerability. And we’ve all felt rather vulnerable of late. It’s the first step towards recovering our confidence and sense of hopefulness. (The Author Vol 132.1)
Novel-writing easily tips from being absorbing to obsessive, and that takes its toll mentally. (Monica Ali 2021)
A good dose of self-doubt is essential for a writer, but a total loss of confidence is disastrous. (Monica Ali 2021)
Interaction increases engagement. (The Author, vol 132.1)
Probably the weirdest word in the top ten most used in 2020 according to Collins Dictionary is mukbang. It’s a South Korean word meaning ‘a host who broadcasts videos of themselves eating large quantities of food’. (The Author vol 132.1)
If that doesn’t leave you smiling I fear you are having a bad day! Sorry.
Finishing touches
Writing in Mslexia (the magazine for women who write), author Meg Clothier says ‘books finish themselves in their own bittersweet time.‘ Yes, indeed. And to rush the process is to sacrifice security and satisfaction with the end result. I’ve just completed yet another (you may well groan!) revision of my current novel Killing me Gently, and I believe/think/hope it’s almost complete. But even once it’s prepared for publication, I’ll be checking it one more time – for anomalies that may be introduced by the person formatting it, as well as infelicities that show up at this point in the process.
Even at this stage, though, once the actual text of the story has been submitted, my work is far from over. There’s the small matter of strap line/pithy saying for the front cover, blurb for the back cover, relevant information for the cover designer, questions for bookclubs, acknowledgements, reviews/endorsements … each piece of the jigsaw has to be slotted in seamlessly.
Which brings me to a matter that’s been exercising my mind rather a lot this week. I’ve been reading surveys and articles and opinion columns about women writers, and it’s clear the odds are stacked against us. We are under-represented at most levels and in most areas. It’s notoriously difficult for us to find the time and emotional energy to write, and to prioritise our writing, when our lives are already split between day job and caring responsibilities. It took me years to accept that my writing was important enough to be allocated dedicated uninterrupted time, to respect it as a real job, not something that would always play second fiddle to the demands of others.
Thankfully I’m at an age and stage now when it’s much more do-able. The older generation within our family have died; the younger ones are standing on their own two feet; my responsibilities for other people are more circumscribed. I’m also fortunate enough to have a partner who shoulders his share of the domestic tasks and supports me in my career (well, most of the time anyway!). But my heart goes out to all those talented people who’re weighed down by the burdens of life, and who feel they have no choice but to let their talents and dreams fall off the edge of their days. If you know any, please do your best to cherish and support and encourage them.
Oh, and by the way, while we’re talking home truths, writing as a career is not the dream job, the leisurely activity, the doddle, many people seem to think it is. The potential health hazards lying in weight for the serious writer are legion: stress, depression, weight gain, anxiety, sleep problems, eye strain, back strain, repetitive strain injury, digestive problems, back troubles, headaches, loneliness, insecurity, disappointment, despair, self-doubt … to name but a few. So how come I’m still obsessed with doing it long after normal retirement age? Because I feel bereft when I’m not writing, that’s why!
Creating a bestseller
I think I’m pretty realistic about my own potential as a novelist but it doesn’t stop me exploring the reasons for other writers’ phenomenal success. So I was intrigued by an article by Debbie Taylor, founder and editorial director of the women writers’ journal Mslexia, in the June/July/August edition. What is it about certain books that appeals to so many people that they become runaway bestsellers, she wanted to know? Ears pricked. Eyes wide open. Brain in gear. Is there any hope …?
Well, apparently researchers have textually analysed 20,000 published novels using a bank of 1000 computers (mind spins into boggle-mode) and come up with some answers. And such is the accuracy of their findings that editors and agents all over the world are apparently sitting up and taking notice. Well, you would, wouldn’t you, when ‘of the 55,000 new novels published in the US each year … just 200 reach the New York Times bestseller lists (0.3 percent) and only four will stay there long enough to sell a million copies (0.007 per cent)‘. An algorithm to improve on the odds? What’s not to like?
Ahhh, well … of course, there’s bound to be a strong cohort of discerning professionals in the real book world who’re understandably sniffy about an inanimate piece of kit being a better judge of literary merit than their finely honed, expertly trained, clever human brains. But Debbie T has stirred the pot and tipped in findings from a number of research teams and spread out a number of conclusions for us to taste and test.
OK, so what does make a runaway success? Four main characteristics to start with it transpires:
- One signature topic per author
- One of the additional topics should be in conflict with the central theme
- A recognisably realistic setting/characters
- Emotional closeness between the main protagonists.
Hmmm. Nothing revolutionary there, I’d say. Moving on … What about the plot? A variety of aspects can be compelling, it seems:
- Emotional roller-coasters for the characters and readers
- Plenty of peaks and troughs to maintain suspense
- A protagonist with conflicting impulses
- Larger than life characters
- A central dramatic quest
- High life-and-death stakes
- Several intimate viewpoints
- An interesting setting
- A high-concept what-if premise
In short, authors need ‘to think about what readers want‘.
- Stimulation.
- Entertainment.
- Emotional engagement.
- Hooks and cliff-hangers. The kind of breathless ups and downs that films and TV series are made of.
And if that isn’t all too depressingly obvious, you don’t even need to be able to string a sentence together elegantly. Staccato sentences, limited vocabulary, predictable plots, can make it to the mega-bestseller list because … and here’s the nub … if it’s to sell in its millions a book has to be read by people who don’t read much as well as by confirmed bookworms. Intellectual readers might sniff at the poor structure and lack of literary brio but as long as they’re addicted they’ll all want more of the same.
It’s a cruel unjust world out there, guys!!
Elsewhere in the same journal, novelist and short-story judge, Deborah Levy gives her personal take on why one writer’s work is more compelling than another: ‘In the end, it is about the mystery of that thing called Voice … it’s about the particularity of the writer’s attention: how she is looking and listening.‘ Yes, indeedy. A slippery something but we like to think we’ll know it when we see it.
Oh, and I must remember to drop a few hints in appropriate quarters … according to this same edition of my literary magazine, Kate Summerscale‘s publisher sent her ‘an extraordinary profusion of flowers‘ to congratulate her on a new book deal! Hello? VelvetEthics Press are you listening?
Chance would be a fine thing!!
Encouraging facts for struggling writers
‘Tis the day before Christmas, when all through the house … hmm, yes, creatures are stirring, but hopefully not a mouse … all presents are safely delivered or under the tree, wine is mulling, carols playing, lights twinkling, larder and fridge full … Pause for thought …
Top of the list those who are grieving or weighed down with life’s troubles. I surround you with huge sympathy and concern. May you find courage and strength to go on; may you in time find peace. For now please forgive my moving on to matters of far less moment, but this is a blog about writers and writing.
Next on my list then, all those of you who have ever doubted yourselves, or known deep despair. Those who have struggled to get published, who have felt hopeless and diminished. Those who have burned/shredded/drowned a manuscript following a rejection slip or an ominous silence from a prospective agent. Those whose hearts are failing them for fear of another year of knock-backs. Yes, you, my fellow writers. I’d like to send you a seasonal gift: some heartening statistics culled from the latest Mslexia magazine. In short, hope.
Man Booker Prize winner, Marlon James, was rejected 78 times before his first novel was accepted for publication. I bet you haven’t amassed 78 yet.
Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before having even one accepted. OK, you don’t write or even like poetry. I get it.
It took Malorie Blackman two years, submitting eight/nine different books, and 82 rejection letters before she was published. Now that’s what I call determination and awe-inspiring self belief.
Kathryn Stockett‘s bestseller The Help was rejected by 60 agents. What does that tell you about agents? Flick your nose at that one you selected – who’s heard of her anyway?
Elmear McBride‘s multi-award winning A Girl is a Half-formed Thing made the rounds to agents and publishers for nine years before someone recognised its potential. OK, it has had poor reviews from the public but at least it’s risen above the radar.
Zen and the Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the most rejected bestseller. It was rejected 121 times before going on to sell five million copies. 121! And you thought you were in the wrong job?
Bestselling We Need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver was rejected by her own agent (who rated it so poorly she made Shriver pay the bill for photocopying) and 30 publishers. NB. Shriver went on to marry said agent’s husband! Phew. Some revenge, huh?! Hey, I never said those were the kind of tactics to adopt.
Author of twenty novels Anne Tyler has disavowed her first four because she now shudders at the lack of redrafting and character development. If you’re still within your own first four … or eight … or more … come on! What are you – a mouse?
A recent survey of 2254 women writers by Mslexia revealed that one in three submit less than a fifth of their finished work. Why? Because they fear rejection. Hmmm. Chin up folks! Re-read the above facts … And again … Perseverance and sheer cussed determination – that’s the name of the game. So, enough of doubt and timidity! Gird your loins and get that manuscript out there in 2016. It certainly won’t get noticed languishing in the drawer marked Failures.
And all blessings of the season whatever it means to you to all readers of my blog, struggling or not, writers or not. Thank you for your support.
Fact and fiction
Did you know that some 184,000 books are published in the UK every year, the vast majority appearing without fanfare and sinking without trace? And yet writing a book involves a massive investment of time, energy, emotion, heartache and money.
We low-ranking authors can easily feel overlooked and undervalued, but news in the publishing world put things into a healthier perspective for me at a time when I needed a boost of confidence (courtesy of my writerly journals: Mslexia and The Author.
1. ‘Publishers are tending more and more to concentrate on safe choices and celebrity brands, sometimes at the expense of supporting backlist and midlist authors who sell steadily but more slowly,’ says the CEO of the Society of Authors. And many pretty big names have demonstrated that even they feel disenchanted. A whole raft of them have recently switched to new publishing houses in a search for fresh enthusiasm and better sales figures: Kate Mosse, Harlan Coben, Paulo Coelho, Patricia Cornwell, Michelle Paver, Val McDermid to name but a few.
Take-home message: Great success is no passport to contentment.
2. Nor is rejection reserved for the few. It’s well known that even world famous authors have received crushing letters from publishers and agents. Latest offerings to add to the list: Louisa M Alcott was advised to ‘stick to teaching.’ Anne Frank’s Diary got ‘The girl doesn’t have a special perception which would lift the book above the curiosity level.‘ CS Lewis was turned down 800 times before he published anything! Egg on faces comes to mind.
Take-home message: Don’t be cast down by rejection.
3. According to ALCS research, the median sum earned by professional authors in 2013 was a beggarly £4,000. £4,000!! (Aspiration point: The top 5% earn in excess of £100,000; the top 1% more than £450,000 a year.) No wonder then that the number of full-time authors relying solely on earnings from writing has gone down from 40% in 2007 to 11.5%. Ouch! But in actual fact, there are many writers who feel they write best when they keep their feet firmly in the real, everyday world of work. Tick!
Take-home message: Real life activities can help keep you grounded.
4. I’m sure all authors adopt several methods for capturing ideas and brainwaves before they slip away – from having a simple pencil and notebook beside the bath tub to fancy electronic apps and fads in every pocket. Remembering is crucial … or is it? Novelist cum musician cum Latin teacher William Sutton argues that slavish notes can result in slavish writing. Sometimes ‘the capricious alchemy of the unreliable memory’ and healthy distance can transmute leaden prose into something much more volatile, airy and appealing. Phew! That’s all right then!
Take-home message: No need to get paranoid about recording every idea.
5. I guess we all worry about the structure of our books. Is it balanced? Does it sag in the middle or fizzle lamely at the end? Will it grip a reader? Well, an established literary consultant, Helen Bryant, maintains that a novel’s structure should sit within a classic three act graph: Act 1 centres on the inciting incident and core problem; Act 2 should include at least three rising tension peaks; Act 3 brings the main plot lines to a climax and resolves them. So, with some trepidation I plotted my latest novel, Inside of Me, on a similar graph, and what d’you know, it complies with this framework! Tick!
Take-home message: Keep reading the literary journals!
6. More than 50% of both primary school children and over-65s read every day! Wahey. Time to tap into that market in a more deliberate way. Let’s start with the U3A …
Take-home message: Target the right audiences.
7. In June this year The Reading Agency published a review on The Impact of Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment. Its key findings included the following: reading is closely linked to understanding of our own identity; it can impact on our relationships with others; it increases empathy; helps with relaxation; helps develop knowledge; helps mental health. Yes!
Take-home message: Never undervalue the wide ranging benefits of reading.
There we go; spirits lifted immeasurably. Onwards and upwards.
Literary pearls
This week’s dramatic announcement that Harper Lee’s second novel is about to be published more than 50 years after her runaway success,
To Kill a Mockingbird, has given me renewed hope. It really really doesn’t matter that my own timetable has been derailed by illness. I should simply relax and enjoy this ‘sabbatical’ (four months so far and counting).
One notable bonus is that it has given me space to read a more than usually wide range of books – when the physical body is reduced to sleeping/resting for a considerable portion of the day, it helps psychologically to let the mind soar free. And I’ve been struck by the sheer magnificence of other writers’ writing. I mean, who wouldn’t stand in awe of Harper Lee’s delicious child’s-eye view of the eccentric and prejudiced Deep South of the 60s? And listen to her description of the heat in the tired old town of Maycomb:
‘… bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.’
Or the narrator’s formidable aunt:
‘To all parties present and participating in the life of the country, Aunt Alexandra was one of the last of her kind: she had river-boat, boarding-school manners; let any moral come along and she would uphold it; she was born in the objective case; she was an incurable gossip. When Aunt Alexandra went to school, self-doubt could not be found in any textbook, so she knew not its meaning. She was never bored, and given the slightest chance she would exercise her royal prerogative: she would arrange, advise, caution, and warn. She would never let a chance escape her to point out the shortcomings of other tribal groups to the greater glory of her own …’
So this week I thought I’d share some other pearls discovered in my mental travels. In no particular order …
A pithy but graphic summary of an illness:
‘Thinness remains the god of glamour, the god of control, popularity and success. Thinness trips along on her finest stilettos with her bone hips exposed through layers of fabric, waving her stick arms and calling like the Pied Piper for new children to follow. Sadly they do. But this is a false god. This is a god that draws to the grave. Thinness laughs as her new charges refuse their food, spit out, vomit in secret and spin in front of mirrors to look at backs where a bony spine chatters, still exclaiming that they are so fat.’ (Ruth Joseph in Remembering Judith)
A vivid metaphor:
‘Mamie’s old people’s home is something else. I wonder how much it costs a month, a luxury home like this? Mamie’s room is big and light, with lovely furniture and lovely curtains, a little adjoining living room and a bathroom with a marble bathtub, as if Mamie could care less that her tub is marble when her fingers are concrete … Besides, marble is ugly.’ (Muriel Barbery in The Elegance of the Hedgehog)
A useful perspective for a writer:
‘To relax my mind I remember the following:
First, I am not the centre of the universe. What a load that takes off!
Two, I do not need to write the piece that ends all pieces. It does not exist.
Three, life is meant to be enjoyed.’
(Dahlia Fraser in ‘How I Keep Going’ for Mslexia Winter 2014/15)
A wonderfully evocative report of a real life event:
‘It is now five and a quarter years since Sir John Chilcot began his inquiry into the Iraq war. Yesterday I spent what felt like five and a quarter years listening to him talk about it. On and on his answers – for want of a better word – drifted. You could practically hear the seasons changing outside …
Into the committee room he shuffled, wearing the patient, slow-blinking frown of an elderly tortoise …
I don’t wish to suggest that Sir John is inarticulate. He is, if anything, too articulate. Ask him a question that demands a simple yes or no and you will receive, in their stead, a grand unfurling of impeccably constructed verbiage. He speaks funnily enough, in the language of an official report: clauses as long as sentences, sentences as long as paragraphs, paragraphs as long as pages, now and then slipping seamlessly into a footnote and then seamlessly out again.’ (Michael Duncan writing in ‘Seven minutes to say hello’ for the Telegraph, 5 February 2015 )
A wise but humorous observation:
‘Unpunctuality is the impoliteness of policemen.’ (Ruth Rendell in Not in the Flesh)
An unusual description:
‘… one of those houses – or its living room was – which are furnished with most of the necessaries of life, things to sit on and sit at, things to look at and listen to, to supply warmth or keep out cold, insulate the walls and cover the floors, but with nothing to refresh the spirit or gladden the heart, compel the eye or turn the soul’s eye towards the light. The predominant colour was beige. There was a calendar (Industry in Twenty-First Century UK) but no pictures on the walls, no books, not even a magazine, a small pale blue cactus in a beige pot but no flowers or other plants, no cushions on the bleak wooden-armed chairs and settee, a beige carpet but no rugs. The only clock was the digital kind with large, very bright green, quivering figures.’ (Ruth Rendell in Not in the Flesh)
What a fabulous thing the human mind is that it can conjure such eloquence out of a mere 26 letters. And how fortunate am I to have a roomful of books stacked floor to ceiling to keep me engrossed no matter how long I have to spend indisposed. Who knows, maybe by the time my heart is functioning normally again my bookshelves will be empty! Although I must confess I struggle to send books I’ve loved and admired to the charity shop.