Rediscovering my blogging voice, or, hello, it’s me!

Somewhere along the way, I put down my blogging pen and didn’t pick it up again. I wrote here in this space for six years, rarely missing a week. A fact which, now, is quite remarkable to me, given that I was writing through big life phases: starting university, going through the anticipatory grief of (almost) losing my mother at the age of 19, caring for her while she recovered, dealing with the trauma and anxiety that this experience provoked, and beginning my first graduate job at a research consultancy (fun fact: my blog helped me get that job).

Through all of that, I somehow kept writing. Two of my posts were ‘Freshly Pressed’ – chosen by the WordPress editors to feature on their front page. And I made blog connections along the way, several of whom are friends to this day and have become off-WordPress friends, with real-life meetings, WhatsApp messages, emails, letters and Zoom calls.

Popping up to say hello (photo from an intrepid hiking trip in Greece, summer 2023)

It’s seven years since I paused writing here, and those years can change a person. I’m in my 30s now, more confident of myself but still questioning – I don’t think that big life questions ever really stop. In the past seven years, I’ve travelled, achieved an English teaching qualification and a master’s degree, been promoted in my job, and found the love of my life.

I’ve kept my toe in the WordPress world, reading the posts from my blog network and occasionally thinking about starting up a new blog. A fresh space. A different look.

But there’s nothing like home comforts, and you know me here, so I’ve decided to do a little spring cleaning, dust it off and get back to writing.

I write for a living, but in a very different context to this blog. This is a creative space, and the only editor is me!

My interests are still much the same as they were when I was last writing: travel, books, nature, films, art, food, culture… So, this space still fits. You can expect to see posts on all of those topics and a few others. I hope you’ll join me.

Books I Read in August

I love the style of classic Penguin covers (photo by Karim Ghantous on Unsplash)

It was a slow summer for reading. As I mentioned before, I filled a lot of the time I’d usually spend reading with my first viewing of Mad Men. Seven seasons, 92 episodes, and now it’s over I’m still suffering withdrawal symptoms! 😀

But I did find the time to read Elena Ferrante’s ‘Neapolitan Novels’ between July and August and I blogged about the series in my July reading round-up:

Books I Read in July

Naples, Italy. Photo credit: Montse Monmo

In July I started reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels. Set primarily in Naples, the four-part series follows two friends — Elena Greco and Raffaella (known as Lila) Cerullo — from childhood through to their sixties.

These books are bestsellers and have drawn global acclaim, but one of the great mysteries behind them is the true identity of the author. Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym, and there has been a lot of speculation about the person behind the nom de plume.

Last year, the New York Review of Books published a piece by an Italian journalist who claimed to have outed Ferrante’s identity. Given that she published her books with the repeated desire to remain anonymous, I feel that the media frenzy over uncovering her identity is in poor taste. It’s certainly unusual for bestselling authors to avoid publicity, but Ferrante clearly has reasons for wishing to write under a pseudonym.

Books I Read in June

Photo credit: Nicola Jones

June was one of those months when I hardly read anything. I can blame some of my reading slump on the fact that I signed up to Netflix and started watching Mad Men. I’d heard a lot about it but I hadn’t seen a single episode…until now. I’m mid-way through season three (out of seven seasons).

While it’s easy, relaxing viewing, I’m also enjoying watching how the characters develop as society changes. For me, Peggy is the most interesting character as she evolves from a timid young secretary to a confident working woman. I’m intrigued to see where all the characters will end up in season seven. No spoilers please! Are there any Mad Men fans among my readers?

When I wasn’t watching Mad Men, I read a couple of books in June: Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien and The Durrells of Corfu by Michael Haag.

Books I Read in May

May was a more varied literary month than April, with a couple of fiction books and one non-fiction title.

I started off the month’s reading with one of Alexander McCall Smith’s books, Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers. McCall Smith is an Edinburgh-based author who is a prolific fiction writer, well known for his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series set in Botswana.

Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers is part of the 44 Scotland Street series, which follows various characters living and working in Edinburgh. At the heart of the series is Bertie, a young boy who is forced to cope with his pretentious mother’s overbearing approach to child rearing. Earlier in the series, she enrols him in a variety of classes, including yoga and Italian lessons, and sends him to psychotherapy.

Books I Read in April

I started reading several books in April but I didn’t finish any of them. Usually, when I have a compelling book on the go, I look forward to getting the time to read a few chapters in the evening. But my well of reading matter has run dry and I need to stock up on good books.

The first book I started reading last month was The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing. I received a free digital copy from the publisher (Canongate Books in the UK) via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of the book centres around a time in Olivia Laing’s life when she finds herself alone in New York after a bad break-up, having moved from the UK to be with her American boyfriend. Despite being surrounded by millions of people, loneliness in the city can be at its most acute.

“The city reveals itself as a set of cells, a hundred thousand windows, some darkened and some flooded with green or white or golden light. Inside, strangers swim to and fro, attending to the business of their private hours. You can see them, but you can’t reach them, and so this commonplace urban phenomenon, available in any city of the world on any night, conveys to even the most social a tremor of loneliness, its uneasy combination of separation and exposure” (Quote source: Goodreads)

The Patriots by Sana Krasikov

Sana Krasikov’s debut novel, The Patriots, is a compelling account of one woman’s experience in Soviet Russia under Stalin’s regime.

Florence Fein is a young, idealistic woman growing up in 1930s Brooklyn, but the capitalist ‘American Dream’ does not inspire her. With all the fervency of her youthful convictions, Florence believes that America has nothing to offer her. Instead, she emigrates to Russia to pursue her utopian ideals, and also “one particular dark-eyed Soviet man”.

As she sets sail from New York, waving her family goodbye, she is blithely unaware of the magnitude of the events that will follow her decision to emigrate. Reading The Patriots, I was impressed by her grit and tenacity, leaving her family and her native New York behind to journey thousands of miles to an industrial city, Magnitogorsk, in the Ural mountains of Russia. For a moment, as a reader, I became swept up in Florence’s girlish enthusiasm. But the knowledge of things to come soon overshadows any naive optimism you have at the beginning.

“Florence could feel a constriction in her chest…She had been foolish enough to hope that whatever she was walking into would affect no one but herself. Now the truth was catching up with her at the speed of her galloping heartbeat…Now they had summoned her. And they knew everything”

Image: Triumfalnaya Square, Moscow (1934)

Decades later, her son Julian travels to Moscow to find out the truth about his mother when her KGB file is released. For years, he struggled to understand Florence and her refusal to criticize the political regime that destroyed their family. Now, he hopes, the truth will come to light.

The book jumps between years and decades, beginning in 1934 as Florence starts her voyage, then rewinding to 1932, 1934 to 2008, 1940 to 1948… Sometimes I find that changes in chronology disrupt the flow of a narrative, but that isn’t the case with The Patriots. Once Krasikov has set up the back story for each character, the links between the plot lines become clear.

Krasikov’s characters are so vivid that you almost think you are watching events unfold on a movie screen, as one of the reviews praises on the back cover. Although the characters are fictional, the book is based on true events and Florence’s story could be viewed as a representative for one of the many Americans who were trapped in Russia during the Stalinist era, their passports confiscated and unable to leave the country.

The Patriots is a novel which encompasses many themes — identity, family, love, loyalty, self-deception and the dangers of political ideology. It’s a beautifully written epic novel, and it will certainly be one of my stand-out reads of the year.

The Patriots (2017) is published by Granta Books. I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Books I Read in March

It’s the start of another month and time for another literary round-up of the books I’ve read recently. In March, I read one non-fiction title and three novels. Let’s start with the non-fiction book: a biography of Jane Austen by historian Lucy Worsley.

2017 marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. At just forty-one, she died tragically young. The cause of her death is unknown, but some scholars have suggested Addison’s or Hodgkin’s disease. However, some new research recently came to light — it’s possible that Jane was unintentionally poisoned by arsenic, a popular ingredient in Georgian medicine.

Worsley’s book, Jane Austen at Home, is one of the publications timed to commemorate her death. I’m an Austen fan and I’ve read several well-researched biographies (Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin is one of the best), so I was already familiar with the facts of Austen’s life. However, Worsley has taken these facts, along with historical context, letters and info from other sources, and woven them into a highly enjoyable book.

Books I Read in February

Like last month, I only read two full books in February, although I’m a good portion of the way through two other books which I’m reading at the moment. The pace of my reading has slowed, and I usually only fit a few chapters in during an evening. We’ll see if this ‘two books a month’ average continues through the year. I hope not, as there is so much that I want to read and I’ll fall behind!

Where My Heart Used to Beat by Sebastian Faulks was my first February read. It’s a slim novel which looks at the past of a retired doctor, Robert Hendricks. The book moves between his present-day life as a retired doctor in the 1980s, his experiences in the trenches of World War II and, later, his work as a psychiatrist in the 1960s.

The plot is hinged on a letter that our protagonist receives from a mysterious stranger, retired neurosurgeon Alexander Pereira, who invites him to a small island on the south coast of France. There, Hendricks confronts aspects of his past, and his father’s suffering in the First World War. The traumas of the twentieth century are never far from the surface.

I Want to Spend All My Money on Books

The Leeds Library, UK. Photo by Michael D. Beckwith. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

I won’t, of course, seeing as it wouldn’t be very practical. But, you know, a girl can dream! My idea of luxury is having a house with a dedicated reading room: somewhere with wall-to-wall books, a cosy woollen armchair, a dog to curl up by my feet and, best of all, unlimited time to read and think. An old English country estate, with a large house and extensive grounds, would suit my requirements perfectly.

But, alas, I don’t have millions in the bank, and I don’t actually spend much money on books anyway. Most of the books I read are galley copies, also known as advance reader copies (ARC), and I usually get them through publishers or NetGalley.  They are uncorrected proof copies which publishers distribute to generate some publicity and get people talking ahead of the official publication of a book.