After the radio interview …

BBC Surrey Breakfast Show, Saturday 12 October 

Thanks to local councillor @PaulDeach who listened to my interview live and reacted immediately, this interview is put into context as a more permanent podcast on the Surrey Heath Residents' Blog.
And on iTunes  

( http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p01hg328 
no longer available on BBC website)
 

Speaking live on an early morning radio programme can be deceptively challenging. Firstly, you have to be awake! Then, for example, before sun-up and in the rain, negotiating the Pirbright bends, where the road is strewn with branches and massive surprise puddles, you strive to get to the Guildford BBC studios in time for your precise slot.

Also there is the sensitive nature of the topic. Travellers. Gypsies. Planning applications and prejudice. Yes, enough to wake anyone up when presented with a list of alleged crimes and anti-social behaviour that are, apparently, solely attributable to Gypsies and Travellers.

Thankfully such sweeping allegations against the travelling community are becoming fewer in the wider population. I think so, anyway, but there are always a few who refuse to see them as human beings, in most ways just the same as anyone else. The key difference is that some GandTs wish to retain aspects of their culture, with regard to moving around for work and social gatherings, and pursuing traditional ways of earning a living: tree surgery, garden maintenance, fencing etc; laying tarmac (less so now); scrap metal. This type of work would not fit easily on your average residential estate or road, and it is entirely right that they should be accorded somewhere for them to fulfil their role and pitch a trailer. This is really all they ask for; somewhere within reasonable reach of schools, shops, doctors and so on.

These people are descendants of those Romany Gypsies who years ago co-existed quite comfortably within the context of rural England, making things like pegs and baskets, virtually out of fresh-air and the hedgerow, or offering a useful service such as knife-grinding. Travelling and stopping has become nearly impossible, with so many laws that make this and doorstep selling difficult; now, even remaining static in their family groups is almost as impossible!

Local authorities are trying to do their bit, I feel, but as ever, once they do their assessments, find a suitable plot of land, which is not easy to say the least, the big hitch in the process is the general public’s resentment. Whilst acknowledging the need for site provision, there is still a strong element of NIMBYISM.

How about we all try and turn things around? Instead of dwelling on possible negatives, perhaps, for the sake of their children and grandchildren especially, we should do our bit to accentuate the positive.

‘Hey!  I hear some Romany Gypsy or Irish Traveller families are settling in near us! I would so like to know more about them and their fascinating culture first-hand. What you see on TV and read in the papers is probably not a fair representation. I shall make a real effort to make them welcome and help them fit in with our community. I’m dying to find out about what the older members can remember of times gone by!’

You can compose your own version of course.

Do some follow-up comments come along from the listening public? (I am still listening to the programme, so watch this space...!)
POST SCRIPT: No, apparently there was little negative response this time, for whatever reason.

 

In Defence of the ‘Christmas Letter’

Oh dear, the festive ‘round robin’ has taken a real beating from Lynne Truss’s wit and irony this week on BBC Radio 4. You may have heard. In response, I’d better watch my ‘p’s and ‘q’s. Was that correctly punctuated, Lynne?

She made me smile and a small part of me feels some sympathy with her.  Yes, they can be full of accounts of family achievements and no, they do not really take account of the individual recipient’s feelings as much as they should.  If the lucky person receiving a Christmas letter has had a bad year, then of course the last thing they want to hear is how wonderful life is – I mean, truly perfect, children, family, house, health, finances, everything in top-notch order – for someone else.

However, I did send my ‘Christmas letter’ to many people – not all, I must stress – on my Christmas card list. There, I’ve said it. I’ve confessed.  I am that self-satisfied, supercilious, self-important person that apparently all round robin senders are – according to the wonderful (isn’t she just perfect?) Lynne Truss.

So, in defence of my despicable and persistently annual missive I would just like to say:

I was on the brink of going one better, sending out a note to inform all and sundry that this would be our last year for sending Christmas cards, as they do seem very not on-trend amongst trendy people, who would never use the word ‘trendy’ it’s so last century. I did not actually do this; so my point scarcely lends any weight to this debate but, you see, it made me think – always dangerous at this time of year. Some people (mentioning no names) would forget such a note by Christmas 2013 and would assume we had died. Then our children would doubtless get endless phone calls, texts, emails and letters enquiring about our deaths. How could we be such a burden to our children before our actual demise?

There are certainly people whom we have not seen in, possibly, 50 or 60 years, to whom I annually send best wishes and festive goodwill. Perhaps my husband knows who his 3rd cousins twice removed are (What is this? http://chaplinspeaks.hubpages.com/hub/What-Is-a-Second-Cousin-Twice-Removed-Chart-Explains-All  ).  I am exaggerating but I am not entirely sure what faces belong to which names, even though it behoves me, and always has done, to send them a card. Doubtless they would be quite upset if they did not get a card from us after all these decades. I do not send these distant people a letter.

At the other end of the spectrum there are friends whom we quite possibly saw last week, or a few times during the year. They do not need a letter to update them on the progress of our family.

There is a mass of folk in between though, who do not use Facebook, Twitter or even email that much.  They would scoff at the word ‘blog’. Yes, such people (perfectly nice and normal) exist and I do send them a letter because it is a good way to keep in touch. It is within the bounds of possibility that we may one day meet, call them or visit them when up north or they may drop in to see us if they are down south. Thanks to our yearly exchange of news we would not have to start from scratch with birth of children or grandchildren.

I confess I would not do well if quizzed on the content of Christmas letters past, received from others. You see, we all adopt the manner of skimming – we are quick to spot words like ‘heart attack’, ‘wedding’ , ‘divorce’ or ‘grandchild’. Other things like, ‘holidays … blah … blah … blah …’ we may read but would probably not commit to memory unless we could relate to it or it provided useful information for our next planned trip.

Do our adult children exchange Christmas cards? Probably not. They keep in touch with friends much more efficiently than we ever did at their age, with the wonder of electronics. But we old die-hards like to cling on to the old ways, I suppose. There is a childish delight in hearing the slap of envelopes is they plop onto the hall floor. My husband and I still try to be first to pick them up and have the pleasure of opening them. If there is a letter inside, we are usually pleased – unless it really is one of those that go on and on and on … then I am with Lynne Truss all the way. Too much information gives round robins a bad name.

I tend not to mention too many negatives in my Christmas letter – because, quite frankly, who wants to hear about problems and failures at Christmas? If that means it comes across as smug or just too unbearably cheerful, then I make no apologies.

Merry Christmas – I shall now shut up until next year – but please, do let me have your thoughts. Do you, or don’t you?

Small package of big news from Appley Green land

Tomorrow I am on BBC Surrey Radio talking to Joe Talbot as his Tea 4 Two guest. You can catch this around 2.10 pm. Maybe I shall talk about how I came to write novels and when it all began. I don’t know yet! I have been to  the Guildford studios three times now, I think, as well as doing telephone interviews, but before it was on the Breakfast Show, usually talking about nitty-gritty Gypsy issues. This time I have a full 20 minute slot to talk about Shades of Appley Green. Wow!


Since the launch of Shades of Appley Green back in March, I have had a wonderful holiday in Japan and managed to squeeze in book signings in Woking, Godalming, back to Camberley and Farnham. This Saturday, 10 May, I am in Festival Place, Basingstoke., Hampshire On Thursday, 31 May I shall be in Sutton for the first time, a bit further away, but still in Surrey. There is a 'dear old chap' with Parkinson's in Shades of Appley Green, indeed he is a key character, and I used to work for what was the Parkinson’s Disease Society (now Parkinson's UK) in Basingstoke and Farnborough areas – I actually retired the day before the launch of  Gypsies Stop tHere in 2008. Off to Dorking on 29 June and will be at the Tilford Rural Life Museum for Romany Day on 30 June.


Tilford? That reminds me, did you know the book cover photo was taken in Tilford, Surrey? And the missing arm of the park bench was allegedly pulled off by a Gypsy horse tethered there!! You heard it first here - or maybe at The Barley Mow in Tilford! 


Also on 16 June I will be at the Love a Happy Ending event Summer Audience in my old school, Sir William Romney’s, Tetbury – you know? Down the road from Highgrove. See the programme, if you are a reader of books, a writer or an aspiring writer and fancy a trip to the delightful Cotswolds. Tetbury is a truly beautiful place and I was blessed to be brought up there.

Shades of Appley Green on Kindle

Amazon.co.uk  


Amazon.com

Strictly Pics

This may be the saddest thing we (husband and I) have ever done. We actually took photos of the TV screen! - It Takes Two BBC2 6.30 pm, last night. Here are the very seats upon which we sat - practically on the dance-floor, you will agree. This of course relates to my last blog post Strictly Fun The following pics depict Sir Bruce Forsyth leaning over to speak to me and friends and family section, including Nancy Dell'Olio, looking across bemused. What I thought was my bright pink sequinned scarf is actually some imposter's elbow - we think. I was optically deluded.
The last photo shows the reality of queueing.

Please do not be too concerned about our mental state - it is a phase and will soon pass!

Strictly Fun - yes, we got tickets, hurray!

I kept thinking of things that could go wrong: we would be so queue weary that by evening we (husband and I) would be slumped in a corner fast asleep; our car would be parked miles away; it would surely rain and there would be a line of 100 people before we even arrived!

But no! The most unexpected highlight (arguably) comes later, but now the smug bit starts, and I am safe in saying that, since no demons struck us at the midnight hour; we are home and dry.

The sun struggled through mist; absurdly warm for November; my husband dropped me off and I found myself 5^th in the queue at 8.25 am, clad in a black-sequinned evening dress barely concealed by a winter coat. Emma and her daughter Gracie from Leicester had been there from 7.15; it was Emma’s birthday and they had splashed out on a London hotel. Nos 3 and 4, Katy and Tania from Peterborough, had nipped off to fetch coffees and soon rejoined our little group. Husband was soon back, having parked easily in a residential road, introducing himself as another ‘sad person’ and thus, we were 6! If justice prevailed in the Strictly world, we would have good seats.

Another irrational fear I had was lack of facilities. We took a bagful of food just in case there was none available within walking distance of Wood Lane. I might have guessed the BBC had done this thing a trillion times before, so it would all work out. Access to loos was easy in BBC Television Centre reception. No, there were no nearby mobile food or drink vendors, but Westfield massive shopping complex is five minutes walk away, certainly not too far for taking a welcome walk and fetching back some coffee.

Friendly Rory Bremner dropped by to say hello to people in the line. Various dark-windowed vehicles rolled up, containing we knew not who. Husband spent some time settled on our picnic rug with The Telegraph, or chatting to fellow queuees, then we watched a parallel queue build up for Children in Need Strictly recording. This disappeared and by 12.30 we were ‘validated’ and our tickets allocated with a number. Yay!! Now we could go away until about 3.30, giving us enough time to pop back to the car, eat, adjust clothing, make-up and have lunch.

After a browse in Westfield, we returned to a long queue but, of course we were numbered so it didn’t matter. As we were among the first 14, our place was assured.

To save handing in our mobiles we left them in the car; so I just had to hand in my coat and a shoe-bag. Then we had time to while away with our new friends and a big screen showing endless clips from previous shows. We were now well into the zone, Strictly land, excitement mounting. I imagined the nerves that the celebrities must be feeling at this time, so close to appearing live before millions of viewers. We even managed to buy a glass of wine; a bonus, as we had been led to believe alcohol was forbidden! (certainly not allowed in the studio) We sat down on the floor and chatted to Nos 7 and 8, sisters probably younger than our own children, one a dentist, the other a lawyer …

Anyway, we filed in and were told we (the first 14) had the best seats in the house: the front row facing the dance-floor, opposite the orchestra. We were also told we could be in shot throughout as cameras swoop round; but were obviously not in the highly visible crowd that sit behind where Bruce and Tess stand, or the judges. It was a perfect position; so close to the dancers we would almost be touching them.

The audience over to our right were friends and family of the performers and rumour has it that the people most on camera over on the left side, are in fact connected to the production of the show. If anybody reading this knows something different, put me right!

By now, it all became rather dreamlike. The warm up man was making us relaxed and happy. Everything seemed to me smaller and more intimate than I imagined – the dance-floor, the judges’ desk area, and all the professionals and most of the performers are incredibly fit, lean, neat, taut and lovely. OK – Russell is a hoot, very likeable and actually, a good dancer, given his ‘stocky’ frame. How much slimmer he is than he once was, too.

We sometimes had to peer between and round cameras, but on the whole our vantage point was brilliant.

We spotted Nancy dell'Olio – easy as she was standing up and looking around quite a lot! How tiny is she?  Brian May was there and a lady who is, apparently, one very proud parent of Harry. I caught sight of Chris Evans over on the left side, just by the staircase up to Tess’s Tower.

Sir Bruce did a bit of a warm-up himself; this is what he loves to do, he told us – contact with a real, live audience. He greeted Nancy, who stood up for hugs. And later …

… then it did become a bit surreal. He was walking down towards our section and our eyes met! He swooped on me – yes me! His face was very close! Suddenly he was shaking my hand, saying something like, “Oh hello, dear! (mmm, oh well) How are you? so you did get here then. How nice to see you … etc” somehow giving the impression that he knew me, I’m not sure how he did that. I am fairly sure he then invited me round to tea at his place, but please if anyone there can remember exactly what he said, do let me know – via Twitter. Amidst general laughter, he wandered off …

To say more would be to give too much away to those who have yet to experience it. It was great and I would do it again.

On BBCSurrey breakfast show

This is just a copy and paste link http://bit.ly/aVxYgr through to Surrey Breakfast show on Monday 12 April with Nick Wallis. He interviewed me about ten minutes from the end of the three hour show. On iPlayer that amounts to just over a centimetre from the end!