The Past is a Foreign Country
They do things differently there.
Hello pocket friends,
That’s the opening line from ‘The Go-Between’ by LP Hartley, but you probably already knew that. My copy dates from 1953, which is the first year that it was published, but it also has a pencilled “£1” on the inside front cover, so I doubt it’s worth ‘owt, because the second-hand (or “pre-loved vintage”) bookshop wouldn’t have missed a first edition. It has though, successfully managed to escape my scalpel to become an upcycled bookbinding project.
I still think that 2019 was last year and it takes me a second to recall what happened on which year these days. I think I should really stop telling young people about the time before the internet (cos it’s like someone’s nana talking about outside toilets and no electricity) and just let them get on with discovering The Smiths for themselves.
We recently went on holiday to East Sussex and stayed in a teeny cottage in an extremely posh village with one of those steam railway stations that you see in films. The itinerary was Brighton, The Royal Pavilion, Standen House (National Trust Arts & Crafts/William Morris interiors), Charleston (Vanessa Bell’s house), Lewes, Rye, Lamb House (Henry James’ house), Hastings, Farley’s House (Lee Miller’s house) and Monk’s House (Virginia Woolf’s house). Then London.
When you visit a house of cultural significance and you briefly get the room to yourself, it has to be filmed. A room of one’s own, if you like. Charleston. September 2023.
Lee Miller, you say. Who’s she? Well, model, muse, photographer, war correspondent for Vogue and the subject of a new film, starring Kate Winslet. See also, friend to the surrealist movement (there are three original Picassos in the kitchen or all places) co-inventor of the photography technique called solarisation and gourmet cook.
Not that I’m a little bit obsessed with mid-20th century history or anything, I’ve just listened to an audiobook that opened my eyes, once again, to some forgotten women’s history. ‘Wifedom’ by Anna Funder is the biography of Elaine Blair, otherwise known as Mrs George Orwell. I had no idea that she had a poem published before she met Eric (aka George) called 1984, or that she worked in a dangerous and significant post during the Spanish civil war.
You know I said that I still think it’s 2019?
In 2019, one of my short stories, ‘Say When’ was published in an anthology called ‘ No Good Deed’ by Retreat West. The book launch was in a gorgeous little bookshop in London and the anthology went on to become nominated for the Sabateur Awards. I’m really proud of that gritty story, with its dual timeline.
The same story, (edited for length) is due to be published in the Leicester Literary Review in November 2023. (Click to buy) I’ll write a post when I’ve got my hands on a copy.
By then I should also know whether the crowdfunder for the eco book, published by ‘Pens of the Earth. (click here to pledge), has reached it's funding goal. My poem about recycling, make do and mend, and playing outside called ‘How we used to live’ is included in that book.
My Hitlist
Atlanta Season 3 is genius. The writing is so good that it angles a mirror of the characters’ experiences and shines it right into your eyes, burning the images onto your retinas. You watch it or you continue to look away. Some moments, such as a country’s tradition that is so obviously offensive, or microagression stereotypes that make you check your own thinking. The episode with one of the Skarsgårds being their usual charming-but-scary self is not for children or vegetarians.
One of the things about getting older is that I can rewatch a film, or re-read a book and see things I missed the first time around. I notice the easter eggs and nuance, the references and subtext. Your homework for this week is to watch a film that you haven’t seen for over a decade and see if you feel differently about it.
Happy hallow’een folks. I like the idea of wearing a disguise so that monsters and demons won’t recognise me.
If you haven’t yet watched ‘Wednesday Addams’, then where have you been? What I want to know is how has she managed to acquire so much knowledge in her short life?
If you’re in the mood for a recent decent horror, then ‘Talk To Me’ fits the bill nicely
Until next time,
Nicola
p.s. Secret Pocket Books is doing really well lately, so thank you so much for everyone who has supported me. I’m grateful that people like what I’ve made and still can’t get over the fact that strangers from all over the world want to buy them. It’s doing so well, that I’m going to have to take a week off work soon to make some of those repurposed antique journals and sketchbooks that are my best sellers. Some are in the shop a matter of hours before they’re sold. Maybe I should have release dates and teaser trailers for new stock or am I getting ahead of myself?