Family and Friends

Recently things have all been about family. Or more specifically Mum, and that continues to be the case. 

On Tuesday I went up to Doncaster for the day just to spend a couple of hours taking Mum out of the home on a trip. It was a great success and we both enjoyed it, but it was a long day and means a sort of 12 1/2 hour round-trip just to spend a couple of hours with her in the afternoon. Something I'm going to have to get used to the and a price well worth paying for knowing that she is safe, comfortable, and being well looked after. She's doing sterling work and looking after all the 80-year-olds.

It's not all been family though. Friends featured in the week past in two rather wonderful ways.

Yesterday I had lunch in Bristol with three people I was at school with. We've not really seen each other for 27 or so years, certainly not in the flesh. One is now something very high up in the electoral commission, the other has worked in the city for years and is on a career break looking after her family, and the guy who was probably my best friend in the sixth form is now the headmaster of a school just outside Bristol. We had the most brilliant time. Three hours in a waterside restaurant full of laughter and the happiest of memories. Yet we were also able to exchange information about our partners, our achievements our failures and our views on life. After about 90 min I looked at the four of us and thought "we haven't changed at all." We could have been sitting in the Sixth form Council room in the mid-1970s planning on how to change the world. I'm not sure that we have quite managed that but I'm damm sure that we've all made a bloody good contribution.

The reason such jollity had to end was that at 4:30 PM I was due to fly from Bristol to Bordeaux. A couple of years ago one of my oldest friends and her husband sold their house in Suffolk and bought a townhouse in the French town of Castillon La Bataille in the Dordogne. Through an immense amount of ingenuity, sheer hard work and dedication Janey and Mike have turned it into the most wonderful place where they offer courses in creative writing, photography, painting. The house has 10 rather beautiful ground ensuite bedrooms, three of which are in a cottage in the grounds, a beautiful swimming pool, a gorgeous library, a deliciously relaxing salon, and the most magical of atmospheres.

I'm here for a week on what is ostensibly a crime writing course led by Adrian Magson, popular crime writer and an absolutely first class tutor. Although crime fiction and whodunits are the staple of my diet in literary terms, I'm here more to learn about the discipline of actually writing a book, which is something I just been asked to do.

After years working in the corporate market as an actor, I discovered that there really isn't a book on this subject and many actors fall into this area quite by chance. As a result of some prodding by my wonderful partner, I did a treatment of such a book and have been successful in getting it placed with a publisher. I signed the contract and the advances is winging its way to my bank account. Now all I have to do is come up with a minimum of 50,000 words that the publishers require.

Hence I'm in the Dordogne for six days being overfed and pampered.

It's working. I've managed 1000 words today. Only another 49,000 to go