Author diaries

Nearly Autumn

Or is it nearly winter? The rain seems positively apocalyptic this year. I spent a very wet three weeks on a campsite in Cornwall and made numerous trips to charity shops to buy jeans and fleeces because I had taken light summer frocks which never got worn.

However, being away from work and computers was good. We played scrabble and writing consequences under the awning that at times sheltered four teenagers, six adults and two dogs. We bought copious amounts of tarpaulins to cover muddy ground. It was good British Holiday making. It was gratifying to know it was no better in Newcastle. And we still agreed to do it all again next year!

I spent saturday lying on my bed reading Fiesta, the sun also rises by Ernest Hemingway - the best way to spend a grey deluge of a day (especially as I was nursing a hangover) although it was a bit hard going as the characters all spent a whole lot of time drinking - rioja, martinis, brandy, I couldn’t escape it.

I went down to my shared allotment today and half of it was underwater, because we are in the Ouseburn overflow basin. I was talking to an older member of the allotments who's had one for 36 years and he says this happens regularly - so it’s not just weird global warming conditions. I managed to pick some courgettes and huge blackberries which are just going mouldy on the brambles.

I was watching local tv and pitying the Morpeth residents who are flooded out of their homes - that’s nothing like a wet holiday. How miserable.

I went to see the rehearsed reading of Home Fires by Sean O’Brien at Live on Thursday 4th September and appropriately one of the theatre lamps caught fire two thirds of the way through. We moved downstairs and it carried on. Very dramatic and pacey.

Life is starting to pick up again after the hiatus of holidays - I’m reading at the Lit and Phil on Wednesday for the Cruse Poetry Competition, and planning a trip to the Bath Children’s literature festival to see what goes on.

And we’re doing a family outing to see Stevie Wonder at the O2 arena in Greenwich in October - a lifelong wish for all of us - in celebration of Freddie’s 21st birthday. Stevie Wonder was the best choice for listening on long car journeys, no-one argued about his music.

Teaching starts again, and I’m planning my next big piece of writing. I’ll reveal more when I know what it is.

Posted by Ellen on 7 September 2008 at 09:31 PM GMT [Link]