Write-Place

When embarking on writing your own autobiography, no doubt one of the most important questions you will ask yourself is "What shall I call it ?" There are a multitude of ways of deciding on a title, for an autobiography, from picking a catchphrase from your working life to a phrase relating to a particular talent - or lack of it - which relates to you. It was suggested to me by tutors while at University that the title should be left till last, but I have found that in practice, having something in mind keeps you focused and gives the reader an idea of whether they want to read the writing or not.  The list of 'famous' authors of biographies is endless.  A quick 'Google' gives us Prime Ministers (current and past) Ghandi, Mandela, most politicians present and past as well as writers as diverse as Agatha Christie, Anne Frank and Alan Bennett and so called 'celebrities' of the day,  some of whom I have heard of and many more that I haven't. The first...

  I have never met the Duke of Edinburgh or even glimpsed him in person, though, as many are saying since his recent death, he has been there for all of my life and his name cropped up in conversation many times. My father met him, one day in 1963, working as a draughtsman in Sunderland at J L Thompsons and the Prince visited  Doxfords , the largest shipyard in the area.  The Duke of Edinburgh (as my family always gave him his full title) had walked down the line of office workers who were waiting to meet him and stopped beside my father, put out his hand to shake his and asked him his name and if he was going on holiday this year and where.  My Dad, being a shy, reticent person, immediately had a memory block and couldn't remember where he was going. This was strange as my parents and we three children almost always went  to Keswick in the Lake District for one week's holiday, during the annual "Shipyard Fortnight".  However, my Dad recovered himself enoug...

  Secondary school pupils in England must keep wearing face masks in class after the Easter holidays, says Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. They will remain a "precautionary measure," until the situation is " reviewed".   The wearing of masks, has been required since schools reopened fully last month though many Headteachers say that  masks disrupt learning and should not be used any longer than is "absolutely necessary" . (  BBC News  6th April 2021) Of course a face mask/muzzle disrupts learning; most secondary students I know mumble anyway and it is difficult enough to communicate with them as it is, without the addition of a piece of cloth or impregnated tissue wrapped around the mouth and nose.  The latest DfE guidance states: "It is expected that face coverings will no longer be required to be worn in classrooms, or by students in other communal areas, at step three of the roadmap, which will be no earlier than 17 May."  DfE  updated 6...

Due to age, health or just too much information in my head, my memory gets poorer by the day.  Reading back through this blog written over the last 12/13 years, I am quite surprised myself that I barely remember writing some of posts. So I thought I might as well re-post some of them for my own benefit, and for anyone who hasn't come across them in the past and may find them of interest.  This seemed like a good one to start with - from February 10th 2014. Is your memory bad ?  Well, it's actually worse than you think, it seems.  A study by researchers at  Northwestern University, Chicago shows that o ur memory is a poor way of recording events. Maybe  a better way is to film and photograph every detail of every experience that we have over a lifetime so that we can check back that what we think happened, really did.  Some of us are well on the way to that scenario already. There's hardly a holiday, birthday, day out with friends or visit to the superm...

Since the "pandemic" started or rather since "lockdown/safety measures" have been in place, from March 2020, there has been little else on my mind but Covid19 and the restrictions that have been forced onto the nation. Perhaps if I had not watched TV or listened to the radio, refrained from all social media and newspapers media, spoken to no one or listened to any one, or even spent the last year on an uninhabited island miles from home, then I may not have been impacted as much as I feel I have.  Granted there have been thousands/ millions/ billions who have been in a much worse position than me and have been immensely more than inconvenienced, as no doubt it could be argued, has been my position. The thing is that this issue is a personal feeling of how we have been affected and the effect or lack of it that has been experienced by each of us and those close to us, whether physically, mentally or in the abstract.  I do not intend to debate the possible rights and ...

 In a couple of hours I, along with my 20 year old grandson, will be standing in line to receive our "vaccination" for Covid 19. He, because he had Non Hodgkinsons T Cell Lymophoma aged 2, and me because I am over 60 years old. Over the past year I , as well as millions of others have been thinking about one thing and  one thing only - Covid 19.  It has been very difficult not to think about it as news and developments of this Corona Virus gradually increased from snippets of news and anecdotal stories to full blown panic and what seemed to me to be hysteria and culminating on March 23rd 2020 as full blown "Lockdown - a term which I had previously associated with riots in US prisons. The media participation became almost manic along with the "Daily Briefings" from Government and the 3 word slogans which soon became  an essential part of our lives.  Weekly decrees announced the next round of restrictive "measures" which soon became "laws" to ...

                                                                            Preface   If there is but one thing that you take from me, one piece of advice that I can give, that you will receive without question let it be this – don’t go back. Whether in your mind or in your physical being, for whatever you remember is not there. Perhaps it never was. Perhaps memories do not exist and those thoughts we keep preserved behind a protective film of the past are but wild imaginings of an ageing mind  For I know that your mind will cruelly twist your carefully kept images. It will turn the roads you knew to dead ends, cul de sacs to your truths. It will obliterate the landmarks you knew so well and rebuild them in a way that is un-recognisable to you. You may have been torn down and rebuilt, ...