My World
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You can buy the digital version for 99p. This runs from today July 6th until 31st of August
The sea is as green as if I were on a Greek island. The sun is bouncing off the surface like sparklers down on the point.
I have a deadline and subdued panic surfaces at 4am and various other times of the day when I am struggling with a chapter. Or a character won’t do as they are told.
This is a time when I have to get selfish and say NO to almost everything and everybody or time will run away from me.
The world these last few months has been such a sad, violent and tragic place. Life seems uncertain and fragile. Living in the country I am conscious everyday of how insignificant we are in the circle of life. Nature endures. Seasons change in an everlastingly comforting sequence what ever we do or do not do.
Like most people, when I walk I can find peace and marvel at the beauty that is all around us. It saves me from doubt and turmoil and writer’s block. I try to get up early to walk before my writing day begins. The sound of the sea is a soothing meditation. The hedgerows are full of butterflies and fat bees drunk on thistle pollen. The paths brim with wild flowers so simple and lovely it is impossible not to feel joy.
I can think about my day’s work, write a chapter in my head, before I get to my desk. That early walk stops me feeling deprived that I will be indoors working for the rest of the day. I have had my early ‘fix’ and all feels well.
Whatever is going on in the rest of the world I can watch the farmer plough straight furrows in the rich, red earth with all the skill of an artist. I hold my breath, for the hills are steep and the tractor leans dangerously sideways before it disappears into a cloud of seagulls.
I watch potato and cabbage planted in perfect rows. I watch them spring up like magic into stunning patterns of blue potato flowers framed against the sky. The rows of variegated cabbages are like arty flower displays.
I also hear the gas gun start every morning at 5 am in a desperate bid to keep the rabbits and birds off the crops. The farmer can be seen jumping up and down swearing at all wildlife. Life is not perfect.
I know that summer will end and I will be shut in with fog and winds. The unmade road to my house will fill with rain and my Mini will rumble and grumble that it is not a four- wheel drive. Summer and my life here in this wild and lovely place will have to live behind my eyelids and sustain me for long months. But the memory of it will also remind me that life is good and all seasons change.
I missed the launch at Daunt Books for Jane Johnson’s wonderful new book, COURT of LIONS
I dared not take the time off to go to London and I felt like Cinderella. It has one of the most beautiful covers I have ever seen, and a slim book mark. Here it is… So exciting…I am just about to begin…
Meanwhile, the summer slips by and I have a book to finish…
