Letters
I have always enjoyed reading letters and other forms of correspondence. Reading another person’s letter is like eavesdropping on one of their personal conversations. I think it is this which attracts me to letters over narrative. Narrative tells the reader something, letters speak the same something in the writer’s voice.
Fifty-six Birthdays
Today I celebrated my fifty-sixth birthday and have embarked on my fifty seventh year here on earth. It got me thinking of the many things which have happened since I was born. In the 1960’s Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. Construction began on the Berlin Wall. The
One is the loneliest number
I am an only child. No matter how many wishes I wished in my childhood, this didn’t change. It was only later in life my father told me I was a mistake, which answered many questions for me. After his death I found a letter written to him by my
Sticks and Stones
My mother often quoted “sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you” to me as I was growing up, usually after I had suffered some form of torment at school. After the first couple of incidents, the saying no longer comforted me. My father would
My 3 R’s – Reading, Writing and Research
Three of my favourite things – reading, writing and research are also the most time consuming, frustrating and difficult of all my pursuits. Why you ask should reading be frustrating or difficult? Try reading in a foreign language! It is most exasperating when the only way you can read an
Recent Posts
- The Grand Duchess wrote about my grandparents in her diary
- An Upheaval leads to a memoir which made me wonder why…
- In their footsteps: a journey to find the places my maternal grandparents once lived
- Holiday reading – the similarites and differences between family history and detective fiction
- Eight addresses in as many years – tracing my grandparents’ footsteps