What’s the Story in Dalamory

Haircut and highlights today. That is when one sits in the hairdressers being wrapped in foil like a turkey for the oven. Well…..not really, it is little bits of foil which help to “cook” the colour. The trouble is, I cannot decide if it is a big drag or will give me a lift. Some people say that a trip to the hairdresser is like a tonic. I am not so sure. One of the best bits from a hair stylist in London, was when he asked me how I wanted my hair done and I responded (without thinking) – Not like yours…..

Five years ago – on what the world now calls 9/11 – I was on one of my regular visits to Colonsay. Today, I think of the Americans who were on the island and of their need to call home for reassurance of the safety of loved ones. Somehow, the world does not seem such a safe place anymore.

Peace…..blessed peace…….on us all.

One day people will touch and talk perhaps easily,
And loving be natural as breathing and warm as sunlight,
And people will untie themselves, as string is unkotted,
unfold and yawn and stretch and spread their fingers……
And people will smile without reason, even in winter
even in the rain.

ASJ Tessimond

Is wanting to write the same as writing?
No – of course not. But it appeals to me that the world of fiction can be much pleasanter than our world of reality. Though I suppose that depends on the author. Then again, maybe fairy tales don’t sell well any more.

Back in real time as it were, following a few weeks of travel. One of the highlights was a visit to the Castle Of Mey – and this has led to starting to read the Hugo Vickers biography of the Queen Mum. An excellent read.

My but there is a lot of mail to open and much grass to cut. Busy busy!

Kurt Vonnegut, in support of the novel….

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is proposterous. They are like a person who has put on a full suit of armour and attacked a hot fudge sundae.

Both reading and writing can have a therapeutic affect on stress.

Peta Bee, The Times

Hear hear……I think.

Integrity has been much on my mind in the context of writing and the media. How many times has a much loved book been barbarised by an unsympathetic screenplay for instance? Captain Correlli’s Mandolin comes to mind immediately. Here was a book which became a hint, by word of mouth, and after a long slog, the characters and events were ultimately mind-shattering. The film was a sanitised, mealy-mouthed and poor substitute for the real thing.

Biographies are addictive reading for me; I have recently finished the autobiography of Richard Chamberlain and always enjoy something about the Royal family or ordinary individuals like Alison Lapper who have overcome terrible difficulties. Thus I was interested to read that writing and researching them could be totally addictive too. Hazel Rowley, an Australian writer, compared the whole process to a love affair.

Entering competitions for short stories is something I enjoy doing. One of the most taxing is the one that gives you the first or the last line of the story. It was Philip Hensher, columnist with the Independent newspaper, who said that a novel could recover from a terrible first line, but that the last line is what it leaves the reader with. Worth thinking about in the context of a life or a meeting or a friendship. Today could be the last day.