Taking a break

It's strange. I've spent the last ten years writing continually. And then I start writing this blog and - due to a very complicated house move - I have to stop writing for a while. So suddenly I don't have much to say. Except that I'm planning a thousand writing projects in my head. And I've identified the room in our new house which is going to be my office. My son is going to be at school 8.30 to 3.30 so I'm going to get up early, make my lunch before he goes out of the house, switch off the phone and write for all that time. Or that's the plan .... Except it can't just be a plan. It has to be what actually happens.

Edinburgh Festival

I am in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival. It's fantastic. My husband and I come most years for three days and we see six shows in a day. It's always freezing cold and raining and we eat bad food and get too tired. But it's fantastic! What I love about Edinburgh is that it is truly open. Anyone can put on a show here ...... And consequently there are shockingly bad shows going on. But the energy here is fantastic, the creativity, the sense of liberation. So many people in such a small space all thinking and talking and questioning. In my mind I've now got one hundred books and plays I want to write. Well, actually, I always have loads of ideas anyway but coming here has certainly increased my resolution to work harder and get more down on paper. We are taking the night train back to London tonight. I'm exhausted. But thank you Edinburgh Festival! You demonstrate that not everyone wants to sit and watch TV all the time!

The Women's Room

I am not writing at the moment because we're in the process of moving. However, I am reading a book called The Women's Room by Marilyn French. It is a famous book, a classic of the feminist movement. I have had it on my book shelf for years and never really fancied reading it. I imagined that it might be a rather tedious feminist rant. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's an amazing book. I don't think I've ever read anything so honest in all my life. It tells the stories of so many women and the reader recognises them all. And it absolutely refuses to offer any solutions to the questions it raises. It does ramble in bits and it is repetitive - but it is still an extra-ordinary good book and a gripping read. I haven't quite finished it but I'm nearly there. I wish I could write something that captures so completely the messy, difficult, compromised nature of life.