The Best things are those we share            by Jane Carling

I know nearly every Grandparent says that their grandchildren are very special and this is certainly true of mine. The youngest, Lilia- Grace aged 8 was very intrigued that I had written a couple of novels and wanted to know how to do this herself. So earlier this year we set about writing a children’s story.

Lilia-Grace has a very vivid imagination, clearly hereditary but vital for any story teller. The tale is of a young girl who, on the night before a summer ball, eats cheese at bedtime and has the weirdest dream. She is transported back in time and encounters some strange folk such as The F’art Fairy and King F’artelot with his dancing Pomeranians and who throws her in jail along with Little Mix.

She also meets Captain Tiger, a rapper who wears a Hull City Football shirt and looks exactly like her brother. Finally she is rescued by the F”art Fairy who sends her home to her family and there is a happy ending when she sees Megan Trainor and Justin Bieber perform at the summer ball.

During this process it became apparent that Lilia- Grace certainly knows what she wants to write about and bring her ideas to the fore. We had such fun and I shed many tears of laughter. Once finished we then produced a small booklet which went on sale at her school’s summer fair where it sold several copies.

Lilia- Grace also loved the promotion process and is certainly not shy about her achievement. Her next project is called The Mystery Door which we hope to complete by Christmas 2016.

I feel very proud of her and pleased to have given Lilia-Grace the inspiration to start writing at such a young age and long may it continue in her life.

For further information visit www.janecarling.co.uk.

I bought this book when I saw it on Amazon.co.uk. I couldn’t not, and I wanted to tell you about it. It is a love story, set in the darkest of times and true.

Jack and Rochelle have written this account of their life during the occupation of Poland, first by the Russians, and then by the German Nazis.  I resented having to put the book down, I inhaled it, absorbed it.

As an historian I know a great deal of the war and its various facets but I still can’t understand the holocaust. I’m not sure that anyone can if they haven’t experienced it. But even if they have, how can they understand it. It is an aberration, a stain that will never fade; the mechanised murder of a race. Yes there were millions of others too. Poles, soviets, gypsies, but it was the anti-semitic determination to exterminate a whole race (in its millions)  that was the driving force.

Jack and Rochelle shows a different facet of this appalling time. It highlights the fact that throughout Europe the Jews fought back, and this is seldom known, or if it is, perhaps not accepted. But indeed they did. Some singly, some in groups, there were the revolts in concentration camps like Treblinka, and what about Warsaw?

During the war Poland was divided between Germany and Russia. Russia took the east, which is where Jack and Rochelle lived. The Soviets had a different official policy, one that  precluded  discrimination on the basis of ethnic or religious groupings. Yes there was anti-semitism, but not an officially orchestrated and managed terror. It was only when the Germans attacked the Soviets that the Jews in the east of Poland were in as great a peril as those already under the Nazis heel.

It was then that Jack and Rochelle made their own ways into the forests to escape their fate, just as the partisan group led by the Bielski brothers had, as recorded in Defiance written by  Nechama Tec.

Jack and Rochelle is a memoir that charts the protagonists’ lives as they gathered together in the forest, disparate runaways who formed a partisan group,  living underground in the harshest of conditions, and through the freezing winters. They were often hunted by their enemies, sometimes discovered, but they fought free, survived, and started again. They existed as part of the resistance, knowing their enemy was not just the Nazis, but anti-semitic Poles and sometimes the Russian partisans. They were safe only for as long as they took this present breath, this next step, after that, who knew.

Jack and Rochelle’s love is a hesitant affair, and it is Jack’s absolute belief that he and Rochelle are destined a) find one another, and b) love one another until the end of their days, that gives such heart to this book. Jack and Rochelle is an understated, intelligent, matter of fact recollection of how people can survive if they live within a group, and are intent on surviving, organising and resisting. It is a triumph of the human spirit in a time which defies description. It is inspirational, and educational.

Beautifully edited by Jack and Rochelle’s son, author Lawrence Sutin.

There you are, you see, Jack and Rochelle survived, had a family and flourished. Bravo.

Read it.

Jack and Rochelle. Published by Daunt Books. £9.99

The Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature, Film and Music will return to the stunning grounds of Blenheim Palace from Thursday 13^thOctober to Sunday 16^thOctober this year. Events so far confirmed will cover the   fields of literature, music, politics, religion and film, and this year the festival is making a new departure with a fascinating range of food-and-drink themed events, including dinners and cookery demonstrations.

Perfumer and businesswoman Jo Malone and the internationally acclaimed Chef Ken Hom will discuss the significance of smell, taste and food in their lives and how they rose from modest beginnings to international fame, whilst Former Deputy Master of the Royal Household Edward Griffiths will speak about his experiences serving Her Majesty the Queen and his new book of recipes from Buckingham Palace which he has co-authored with Royal Chef 3 Griffiths spent 14 years working for the Royal Household and has been involved in many royal and state occasions including the wedding reception of TRH Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Italian journalist and food writer Eleonora Galasso will invite the audience to experience the culinary delights of Rome by sharing traditional Italian recipes from her cookery book As the Romans Do alongside a cookery demonstration. Alice Lascelles, columnist on spirits and cocktails for The Times and founder of the award-winning magazine Imbibe for bartenders and sommeliers, will recount the more than ten years she has spent endeavouring to find the perfect cocktail. The talk will be accompanied with a tasting.

The festival will also include a series of unique dinners overseen by acclaimed international chefs and food experts. Ken Hom will open the festival with his Chinese-themed Festival Opening Dinner, and restaurant-owners and chefs Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi will present a Sicilian-themed menu for this year’s closing dinner.

The Royal Black Tie Literary Dinner, Dior at Blenheim will be hosted by their Graces The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and Harper’s Bazaar editor Justine Picardie will present a talk about the inspiring influence of Blenheim Palace on the great fashion houses after dinner.

To check availability and book tickets and to keep up to date with speaker and event announcements visit www,blenheimpalaceliteraryfestival.com  or tickets may be booked on 0333 666 3366 or in person at Oxford Visitor Information Centre, Broad Street, Oxford and at The Feathers hotel, Woodstock.

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It isn’t often that one realises that we are standing at a particular time in history, a moment after which things will change forever. Fortunately Kois Miah, a photographer, understood the importance of what was happening to an iconic landmark in a neighbourhood where he had grown up, tucked away in the shadow of Canary Wharf.

‘Evening rain, west building. Contrary to the oft-repeated story that the aerial ‘streets in the sky’ failed as social spaces, most of the residents interviewed spoke of them with enthusiasm; as thresholds between domestic interiors and the intensity of open sky; as places to chat or play...’ Kois Miah

Of course I knew Robin Hood Gardens, I had walked by it regularly when I worked in the East End of London . I had witnessed countless numbers of architecture students asking for directions cameras and notebooks poised and one couldn’t read an article about Brutalism and Brutalist Architecture (think the Barbican) without some reference to Robin Hood Gardens.

In the last two or three years Robin Hood Gardens has been in the news again, only this time there was a fight to save the buildings, the architecture and for some, the community. The fight was eventually lost and a programme of moving people out of their homes was begun.

I now realise that I had fallen into the trap of considering the architecture but not sparing a moment’s thought for the individuals and families that lived there. It took an artist like Kois Miah to open my eyes.

True to the people it represents, this exhibition is off Poplar High Street within walking distance of Robin Hood Gardens. The Poplar Docklands Light Railway is one stop from Canary Wharf and from there it is less than a 5 minute walk.

‘On the walkway of the east building, November 20-15. The mother of this young boy explained that he liked to walk visitors to the lift at the end of the deck, which he was doing here, until something in the view caught his attention.’ Kois Miah

Set amongst the architecture of the restored St Matthias Community Centre each of the 35 pictures tell the story of those on whom commentators have traditionally imposed their narrative.

I went around the exhibition three times each time seeing something new. The little girl peeking through the glass whilst her sister sits wrapped in a blanket on a sofa; the man smoking defiantly beneath the no smoking sign; and the old man who tends the vegetable plot is clutching a small plant in one hand and a stick to make the planting hole in the other.

‘Pat and her husband John have lived in the east block since 1977 in a two bedroom maisonette which, like any other up and down the country, they have made their own…  ‘We were living in Tottenham with John’s sister’, Pat recalled on how she was housed by the council. ‘I didn’t like it when we moved in but it gradually got better. I am a Catholic and my neighbours are Muslim and they are lovely…’ Kois Miah

The exhibition is a collaboration between Kois Miah and and Nick Thoburn, Senior Sociology Lecturer at Manchester University and local campaigning groups SPLASH (South Poplar & Limehouse Action for Secure Housing) and Docklands Outreach is open until the 21st of October.

Reverend Theatre’s new double bill of two one act plays, Nerve and Jekyll & Hyde, both written by Charlie Howitt, are two distinct but interwoven plays set within the same apartment block. Pertinently, they both explore morality in contemporary Britain. This double bill embarks on an exciting UK tour in Autumn.

Nerve follows a disparate group of people as they work to find their own authenticity. Sam edges closer to her magnetic new housemate Danny, inspired by his bold, decisive approach to life. But, after a violent dispute with their neighbour, she is left struggling to locate her moral centre.

Her best friend, Tess, is overwhelmed by anxiety as she approaches the 24th week of her pregnancy. While, local policeman Greg is too lost trying to rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife to notice that their neighbour from Flat B is missing.

Inspired by the Gothic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, Reverend Theatre’s Jekyll & Hyde blurs the lines between good and evil, insane imaginings and real life monsters. Brilliant surgeon Ellie Jekyll is feeling the strain of caring for her terminally ill brother. Luckily, a newfound friendship with her neighbour proves to be just what the doctor ordered. But, when a young girl dies unexpectedly during surgery, Jekyll’s world begins to unravel around her.

Tickets are available from individual theatre box office See http://www.reverendproductions.com/

@ReverendTheatre

https://www.facebook.com/ReverendTheatre

10th – 11th October       Greenwich Theatre
Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ES

13th October                  Fisher Theatre
10 Broad Street, Bungay NR35 1EE

21st October                  The Old Fire Station
40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AQ

Duke of Edinburgh (Bronze) Expedition         

I am Meg Cannell and decided a few months ago that I would do the DofE Bronze. For this I have to have a skill. Well, I play the flute. I also have to have a sport, and I have chosen Pilates, which seemed the best option because I have scoliosis. Scoliosis is curvature of the spine and that means a limit to the sort of physical sports I can play.

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards are designed to give millions of 14 to 24 year olds the opportunity to be the very best that they can be. One of the requirements of the Bronze category is to take part in an expedition.

There is a concessionary backpack weight for those with scoliosis. I have a partial fusion, which means I have rods holding some of my vertebrae in line, and soon will have a full fusion.

We sorted out our kit at Ashridge Estate Visitors’ Centre, before setting off on 1^st October in the pouring rain. We had to share out the tent, small gas cookers called trangias, and sleeping bags. Thoroughly cold and wet we set off to walk 17 kilometres that day.

We met marshalls at points along the route, just in case anything was wrong, but nothing was. On we trudged and squelched over fields, and along roads until finally we reached our over-night spot. Then we had to erect our two tents, and cook some supper on our trangias. Then we tried to sleep, going to bed really early because we were so tired. And we did sleep, though we were so cold and wet.

Breakfast the next morning was still not a picnic in the sun. As the rain fell we cooked up some breakfast on the trangias, and then set off on the last 13 kilometres heading for Wendover Woods. Again it was a hike across fields. Once there was a bull, and we didn’t dawdle across that one. In another were alapacas which we all loved.

Finally we arrived at the finish, exhausted, wet, but really excited to have actually achieved our aim.

The expedition taught us the value of teamwork, and sometimes we didn’t get this right, but that’s how you learn. I think it’s a lesson that will be valuable when we do the Dof E Silver expedition (after my final operation). And actually, it will be valuable for the rest of our lives because we know that we have to endure if we want to achieve our goals.

Halloween is coming soon, bringing with it trick or treat time. So treat yourself to Living Death which is another in the Katie Maguire crime series. It’ll scare you, see if it doesn’t. Of if not scare, perhaps intrigue you, and get your pulses racing.

I do like Masterton’s writing. It is crisp, confident, and zaps along with satisfying clarity. His plotting is meticulous and exciting from the moment a girl with green hair stumbles out of a club and we just know she’s in jeopardy.

DS Katie Maguire and her team are up to their neck investigating dognappers (as a dog owner, how dare they?) drug trading and now a missing girl.

Masterton weaves his web with his usual touch. He really thinks through his characters and plot. Will the green haired girl be saved? Or not.

Graham Masterton is a bestselling author who spent twenty or so years writing horror and thrillers before turning to crime. I’m glad he did. I don’t like horror – I’m a hide behind the sofa kind of girl when there’s anything like that going on, and crime is more painstaking than thrillers or so I feel. Probably wrong, but there you go.

I enjoyed Living Death. I think you will too.

Living Death     Graham Masterton.   Pub. Head of Zeus.   £18.99

  I wake early. In my Kent home – a former rectory surrounded by lawns and woodland – it is invariably birdsong that awakens me. But here in my French mas, it is the light that stirs me; whatever the weather, the sky reflecting on the Mediterranean is luminous. I linger in bed for a while, trying to recall the details of my dream. I remember a beach, and two lovers reaching desperately for each other over some obstacle. I grab my notebook, always ready beside the bed, and scribble down a few phrases.

Once I am dressed, I take a light breakfast and a cup of fruit tea on the terrace, taking in the view – the blooming flowers, the velvety lawns, and beyond, the ocean on which boats of all sizes are the heading out from St Tropez. This is my Zen place, where I set the mood for the day ahead.

Already the air is humid; it will be scorching today. So I retreat to my office. There is a large wooden desk on which I spread out all my research papers, shelves of books (the dictionary is particularly well thumbed) and, most importantly, a view of the garden and sea through the big half-circle patio doors. This is my little haven; as Virginia Wolf said, ‘A woman must have… a room of her own if she is to write fiction.’

I start with an hour of administration and marketing work. I am very strict about limiting that time; writing comes first. I answer some emails, check the publisher’s blurb for my next novel, converse with some readers on social media and – bleep, time is up. Now comes my favourite time of day: for the next six or so hours I will immerse myself in writing, with just a short break for lunch. My current book has been researched and planned meticulously, so I waste no time in diving in. Resisting the urge to edit yesterday’s words, I read over them and then pick up the story.

I am quickly immersed in another place and time, with characters who feel so vivid and real to me. Today I am writing a difficult scene: the lovers are arguing. A misunderstanding coupled with blind pride has caused them to lash out rather than reach out. Reach out – that is it! I open my notebook, where I jotted down some phrases inspired by my dream last night. Two of them fit perfectly; I work them into the scene.

Late afternoon, the writing slows. I am tired and restless. I close the laptop, and go out – not so much for a break from writing, but to stir the muse who loves nothing better than people-watching in a pavement café or paddling in the surf along the beach. I let my mind wander, and jot down new ideas in my trusty notebook.

Come the evening it is time to switch off and be with my family. We share a meal – today I am trying out an Italian fish recipe as part of the research for a future novel – and then we sit up late, talking and star-gazing around the chiminea. A peace descends on me as I realise the day is nearly done, and tomorrow I will be fortunate enough to get up and do it all again. This is my perfect ‘Groundhog Day’.

Legacy by Hannah Fielding is out on 29^th September (£7.99) http://hannahfielding.net/