Happy Christmas 2011!

A Child of the Snows
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,
And never before or again,
When the nights are strong with a darkness long,
And the dark is alive with rain.

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,
The place where the great fires are,
That in the midst of the earth is a raging mirth
And the heart of the earth is a star.

And at night we win to the ancient inn
Where the child in the frost is furled,
We follow the feet where all souls meet
At the inn at the end of the world.

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red
For the flame of the sun is flown;
The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,
And a Child comes forth alone.

I hope everyone has had a very
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Seizing the Day!

Never let it be said that I am not a woman of my word: I said I would seize the day and I have - or at least I'm trying to! 

The bones continue to mend (though not quite as quickly as I would like) and I have been getting out and about as much as possible.  There is no doubt that, from the fringe to the National, I have seen more theatre over the last few months than I had in the last few years and it has been utterly glorious!

The next couple of months, however, will see me becoming a little more proactive again.  Instead of (or at least 'as well as') watching other people's plays, I will be staging a couple myself - Lucille Fletcher's one-act suspense thrillers Sorry, Wrong Number  and The Hitch-Hiker which I am directing at The Old Sorting Office in June.  I have also signed up for the Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass - at the Early Bird price it was an opportunity that I literally couldn't afford to miss! - and I hope that I will soon be able to return to film-making armed both with new knowledge and new collaborators.

Meanwhile, on the writing front, I have finally begun to streamline my vast stable of Works in Progress!  Two very different projects have recently been completed and the end is finally in sight for another two.  (Admittedly the aforementioned 'ends' are still several hundred miles away, up hill, down dale, through mist, mire and misbegotten bog but they are finally coming over the far-distant horizon and that is what counts!)  I have also branched out a little and committed to teaching a couple of writing workshops - one for adults who want to write for children, the other for children who want to write! 

All of the above, together with a few other things that I have in the pipeline, will be keeping me extremely busy for the next several weeks and it is my not-as-new-as-I-wish-it-was year's resolution both to post here and to tweet more often so as to document my progress in some small way. 

Only time will tell if I am a woman of my resolution as well as my word... ;-)

Carpe Diem

2010 has been something of a mixed year for me. In January I developed an unexplained pain in my right elbow. By mid-July I could barely walk. After undergoing a number of tests, I was eventually diagnosed with a bone disorder and started treatment, a bad reaction to which resulted in my being bundled off to hospital in an ambulance!

Thankfully, the necessary adjustments were swiftly made and, despite falling and badly spraining my ankle when first venturing out to celebrate my returning mobility (eye-rollingly ironic, I know, but sadly grace and poise have never been among my strongest suits!), I am now on the road to recovery. It has, however, been a period of time that I am in no hurry to repeat, being mainly painful, depressing, exhausting and, whilst waiting for a diagnosis, at times rather frightening.

The one good thing about an illness like this is the new - or at least renewed - perspective that it can bring you. Certainly, as my health has returned I have found myself filled with a new resolve and a huge sense of gratitude. I have learned and remembered much, both about myself and about life in general. There are so many things that I still want to do, places that I want to visit and dreams that I want to follow.

Life is at turns beautiful and bloody, kind and cruel, delightful and disappointing. Most of all, however, it is short, precious and not to be wasted.

Time for me to set about seizing the day again, I think. So watch this space... ;-)

Happy Easter 2010!

Wow, this is really getting ridiculous now - if this blog were an animal, I'd be prosecuted by the RSPCA for rampant neglect. I can only console myself with the fact that I did warn people - thoroughly and often - that I have always been terrible at keeping diaries, journals and anything that in any way even vaguely resembles either of those!

SPRING
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring -
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. - Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

Happy Easter!

Happy Christmas 2009!

A Christmas Carol
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

The shepherds went their hasty way,
And found the lowly cattle shed
Where the virgin mother lay:
And now they checked their eager tread,
For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,
A mother's song the virgin mother sung.

They told her how a glorious light,
Streaming from a heavenly throng,
Around them shone, suspending night!
While sweeter than a mother's song,
Blest Angels heralded the Saviour's birth:
“Glory to God on high! and peace on earth!”

She listened to the tale divine,
And closer still the babe she pressed:
And while she cried, “The Babe is mine!”
The milk rushed faster to her breast:
Joy rose within her like a summer morn:
Peace, peace on earth! The Prince of Peace is born!

Thou mother of the Prince of Peace,
Poor, simple, and of low estate!
That strife should vanish, battle cease,
O why should this thy soul elate?
Sweet music's loudest note, the poet's story,
Didst thou ne'er love to hear of fame and glory?

And is not War a youthful king,
A stately hero clad in mail?
Beneath his footsteps laurels spring;
Him earth's majestic monarchs hail
Their friend, their playmate! And his bold, bright eye
Compels the maiden's love-confessing sigh.

Tell this in some more courtly scene,
To maids and youths in robes of state!
I am a woman poor and mean,
And therefore is my soul elate.
War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled,
That from the aged father's tears his child!

A murderous fiend, by fiends adored,
He kills the sire and starves the son;
The husband kills, and from her board
Steals all his widow's toil had won;
Plunders God's world of beauty; rends away
All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.

Then wisely is my soul elate,
That strife should vanish, battle cease:
I'm poor and of a low estate,
The mother of the Prince of Peace.
Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn:
Peace, peace on Earth! The Prince of Peace is born!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

So What's Been Happening?

Five unexpected events that have occurred since last I blogged:

1) A Barba Do Tio Alonso arrived in the post - Uncle Alonzo is a fully-fledged Brazilian at last! Now all I need is someone who speaks Portuguese to translate for me...

2) Following a generous gift of fresh-from-the-tree damsons from a lovely neighbour, I have successfully cooked two different damson-related desserts from scratch! Recipes to come in later posts.

3) I have started driving lessons again. No fiddling about with manual cars for me this time, though; it's automatic all the way! I have decided that I possess neither the patience nor the robust mental disposition necessary to cope with a manual car. Yes, I've heard all the arguments - 'What if you have to drive someone else to hospital in their car?' being one of the most popular. Frankly, if my control of a manually operated automobile is all that stands between the critically ill individual in question and certain death, then they might as well start picking out hymns... ;-)

4) A random evening google resulted in the discovery that Windows Vista has inbuilt speech recognition software - very handy! I have already begun training it. Listen to my voice. You are feeling very sleepy...

5) I have had a new passport photo taken which - for the first time in living memory - did not result in my looking like a newly-caught criminal, digits still wet with fingerprinting ink. My occasional visits abroad will no longer begin and end in shame as I hand over the little red book and try to neutralise the passport official's incredulous stare with a nonchalant shrug and a Yeah, the photo's hideous but what can I do about it? eye-roll. It is nothing less than an honest-to-God miracle!

Emma vs Technology

Like Alien vs Predator (though with slightly less gore and rather more swearing), the saga of Emma vs Technology continues.

I may have mentioned this before but, in the present circumstances, I feel it bears repeating: Technology Hates Me. It truly does. From the computer I still think of as 'new' that now insists on blue-screening with increasing regularity, to the mobile broadband that only lives up to half of its name (Mobile? Well, yes. Broadband? Not so much), the technological trappings of the modern world seem to be conspiring against me.

I have, however, managed to stay online with a non-blue screen and working broadband long enough in the last couple of days to get a few things done, including this very update that you see before you. I have turned my Twitter profile picture green in common with 20,000+ others, updated the Athlone Trust website in time for their next fundraising run on July 12th, paid an extremely rare visit to Facebook, exchanged a number of e-mails at a significantly-speedier-than-snail's pace (what joy!) and been able to receive a brilliant e-card featuring a wooden spoon with more talent at cookery than Delia and Jamie combined!


If things continue going my way, I shall soon be back to give you my impressions of Peter Pan, which I am going to see tonight in Kensington Gardens. A belated birthday treat, I have been looking forward to it for ages - fingers crossed that it lives up to the hype!

All the Fun of the Fair?

I am going to The London Book Fair for the first time tomorrow.

I'm not quite sure what to expect - I've heard both good and bad reports from people in the know - but this year they are offering an interesting program of seminars on various aspects of writing, publishing and marketing children's books, not to mention a shiny new Author Lounge to hang out in, so it seems to be as good a time as any to dip my toe in the water!

I shall let you know how I get on...