Good advice

Nella Last in the 1950s

With lots going on towards the end of 2014, my 12 books in 12 months Goodreads challenge has spilled over into 2015. This is the 11th...

It was so wonderful to have another installment of Nella's diaries to devour. Here are some of my favourite passages:

12th June 1950
Nella is admiring the crew and workers aboard a sailing ship that's come into the ship yard for repairs. She's pondering on colour and race and makes the comment: "It makes my theory that some day there will be one race with no warring element of barriers that fear and greed make, and understanding of each other's ways and thought."

19th August 1950
The war in Korea rages on, along with the threat of atom bombs and total destruction. Nella has cultivated "a feeling we are all in some great and intricate "Place", that "it's not life that matters, but the courage we bring to it"."

23rd January 1951
Nella is talking about her one extravagance being the football pools and the 1 shilling she spends on the postal order. This tickled me because I've been working in a Post Office for the last couple of years and still do postal orders for people's football pools - but it's a darn sight more expensive now!

30th May 1951
Arthur, Nella's eldest son comes to visit and he now has children of his own. The two of them are talking about the joy of children and grand children. A wonderful mother and son moment captured here.

15th September 1951
Nella is enjoying her low level gambling with the football pools and dreaming about what she would do if she ever won, how she could help her husband and her boys. She recalls Cliff, her younger son having this to say on the matter: "No, I don't think so. I'm sure any artist is better without security. I sometimes think it would be better if I had not even my (Army) pension." I believe there's truth to this. When your back is against the wall financially and the one thing you have is your talent - whether that be writing, sculpting, painting - to get you out of a hole, it makes you work harder than ever.

11th March 1952
Nella has been listening to the Tommy Handley Story on the wireless with her husband. He was a great comedian of the time. She remembers her days in the canteen during the war, quipping with soldiers who "went gaily off, never to return". The laughter and the nonsense was a shining light in the dark days of World War 2. She says: "I hope Tommy has met them now."

Faithful Smile

FAITHFUL SMILE

Reflecting the smiles
and mirroring the jokes
It doesn't take much
to love all that evokes

This contact between strangers
is spontaneous and warm
but it only takes one
for poison to spawn

It catches you out
The churning begins
and your whole demeanor
no longer sings

Time to get tough
Let battle commence
Channel the emotion
and jump over that fence

It can only be painful
for just a while
You must fight for yourself
and fight for your smile.

New Years Travel Resolution

David Walliam's children's stories

"Mr Stink" has been sitting on my V+ box from Boxing Day 2012 and yesterday I finally decided to watch it. What prompted me was BBC was also showing "The Boy In The Dress" - another of David Walliam's children's stories adapted for television. I'd watched "Gangsta Granny" last Christmas and been impressed, only half realising it was Mr Walliam's creation, and all year I've been hearing lots of good things about his stories from the mum's coming into the post office. There have been comparisons with Roald Dahl and I love the fact he's working with the greatest illustrator Quentin Blake.

What I love and admire about great writers is that they take something very ordinary, find a way to bring it to life, tell a story with it and, most importantly, leave us with a message. They give their writing purpose.

Some people read a book to escape. Some people read for pleasure. Some, to better themselves. I read to find the hidden message - and yes, this is most probably because I'm a dreamer and want peace and love in the world. So, if I can find a little something to make the world a better place, I will search it out and use it.

"Gangsta Granny", "Mr Stink" and "The Boy In The Dress" are fantastic children's stories. I saw their appeal to children - but also I saw the bigger messages - reminders not to judge people by what you see on the surface, don't be scared to be different, make time for people in your life.

I remember reading everything of Roald Dahl's when I was younger and being moved, thrilled and delighted with the stories. I haven't read Walliam's books yet, but the TV adaptations left me with the same feelings of fulfillment.

Read more about "The Boy In The Dress" here.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I'd somehow managed to escape all the hype about this book and the film, but did have the film on my "must watch list". However, I'm glad I didn't watch the film as apparently the ending is completely different to the book and now, having read the book, I would have been conflicted. Yes, a more satisfying end in the film version, but definitely not keeping true to the story or what the author intended.

It's a powerful novel about a family dealing with a child and sibling sick with cancer. Without putting a spoiler in, the ending made me ball my eyes out and throughout the story, I felt myself catching my breath with the depth of emotion portrayed in such brilliant writing.

It deals with the controversial subject of genetic engineering - having a child to save a child - and Picoult writes from the individual perspectives of each family member, plus other central characters to the storyline.

Again, it's an excellently engineered novel with thorough medical research thrown in to give the book credibility. The characters jump off the page as real, living human beings with the same hopes, fears and dreams as any of us. And that's beautiful writing making it a joy to read.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

This book was lying around in my office and being a Postmistress, I was intrigued to read a story portraying my job back in a time when letters really mattered - and a lost letter mattered even more.

A letter not delivered, slipped into the pocket of the Postmistress and, another letter, found by a Reporter, which she vows to deliver - both from the same man - are at the heart of the story. This is a beautifully crafted novel about three women whose fates entwine because of these letters.

I absolutely loved Atonement, so when I read this book had a similar storyline, I knew I was in for something good.

It's a war story with depth. The Americans are not yet a part of World War 2 and they don't see it ever reaching their shores. "How easily the face of the world turns away." (Pg 251). A reporter returning from the Blitz trying to make people aware. A wife wondering why her husband went to London to help when he could have stayed safe at home. A Postmistress neat and orderly in her small town post office, aware of the chaos that could come, but for now, all is calm on the shores of Cape Cod...

Blake has included some additional notes once the story concludes, which are invaluable to a wannabe author if you want to see exactly what must go into writing and researching a novel to make it the very best you can. She spent hours and hours researching to build the story and she asked questions of herself and her characters every step of the way. She then endeavours to answer those questions as the story unfolds. In Blake's own words: "It is the story that lies around the edges of the photographs, or at the end of the newspaper account. It's about the lies we tell others to protect them, and about the lies we tell ourselves in order not to acknowledge what we can't bear: that we are alive, for instance, and eating lunch, while bombs are falling, and refugees are crammed into camps, and the news comes toward us every hour of the day. And what, in the end, do we do?"