Abigail 2001

(The link above has something to do with Bees and a swollen ear)

Soundtrack - Kaleidoscope World - Swing Out Sister - Yes again and what are you going to do about it?

My daughter is now convinced that she is Royalty. The book she chose for bedtime reading yesterday was a ladybird-book-sized history of Mary Queen Of Scots and now she has discovered that my wife's surname was Stewart, she thinks she is related. Of course it is a standing joke in the family about being thousandth in line for the throne. Great merriment was also got from the fact that I was NOT related to Mary Queen of Scots. Explaining patronymics to a four year old is always a difficult thing. Well I suppose it feels nice to have Royalty in the house as long as the 'hospitalised copper' brigade don't get to know. Luckily the book didn't go into any detail of how "The fair Devil of Scotland" actually died which saved some nightmares I hope (mine probably - The description at the end of Antonia Fraser's biography of MQOS is horrific - three blows with the axe though the last one was simply a sawing motion - you are not going to be spared if I have to think about it.)

Book Review time again

Where Did It All Go Right? - Andrew Collins

This man read all the books I read, went on holiday to the same area of North Wales at the same time. There is a 50/50 chance that I walked passed him in Porthmadog. The premise of this book is that the author had a safe, happy and enjoyable childhood and though I had sad and bad things happen to me at the same time as this man was living his 'brill' life in Northampton, so much of this rings very true. Even if your life has extremes then the normal day-to-day stuff is just like in this book. Safety of Intifada indeed. How did they let him stay working at NME? He's just not dark enough. He mentions that his book is teh antithesis of Paul Morely's Book - Nothing which more closely matches my own condition though to get the full picture you should replace Paul Morely's Father with my Mother. The objects of his obsessions are male suicides and early deaths mine are of course all related to SP. But I didn't grow up like Morely - probably not clever enough - and my life is not and never will be nothing.