Bestseller

Did you know this? Of all the many books published in the nineteenth century, the biggest bestseller after "The Bible" was "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, it sold well in America and even better over here in Great Britain. I don't think our literate ancestors read it because it housed an entertaining story but rather because it removed the veil that had previously kept hard truths about slavery shrouded in mystery.

It took me far too long to read it but towards the end I cantered along and finished the book in the early hours of New Year's Eve. I am so glad  that I took up the personal challenge of reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin". It was revelatory - not just in terms of shining a spotlight on some of the horrors of slavery in America's Deep South but also in the way it observes religious belief and the social mores of the mid-nineteenth century.

STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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In Darkness

 In darkness you can hide and get lost and be invisible and be intimate.

You can be yourself without the glare of eyes, of judgements, of shame or of ridicule.

You can sit back in a darkened cinema and loose yourself.

You can disappear too and never be seen

Thirty years ago I danced with some friends on the top of a multi-storey hospital at night

A backdrop of lights worthy of Manhattan in South Yorkshire.

I’ve remembered it before. 

Without a care, 

without self consciousness 

Joyous silliness,

dancing shadows against the skyline

Three years ago in choir.

A hard song made easy by sudden darkness.

No awkward glances at each other, no worries about harmonies

Voices that lifted the beams of the village hall 

Worthy of anything seen on stage

Forty years of monthly night shifts, all possessing a different pace to days

Some bad, most ok.

Occasional sleepless nights of worry where the dark drags too long and too silently

A few family bedside vigils where silence whines.

Childhood nightmares, sick in plastic blue buckets.

Holiday views from balcony, windows and warm Spanish beaches.

Shadowing Fruit bats circling the Sydney Opera house like chattering eagles.

Last night a faint misting of rain on West Shore with the roar of an ink sea

Last week drinking coffee in the black of an afternoon cinema was bliss

Last millennium shy sex with the curtains shut    

Just a few thoughts last night 

Whilst driving to work in the dark

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Day one

 Lord

I come today

To declare 

I am Yours

In every way

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Letters after Your Name

 I slept from 9 until 1. 

Then a combination of bright sunshine through a chink in the curtains and bulldog restlessness woke me up, forcing me to take the dogs into the garden.

I spoke to Heulwen and Derek , Wendy and Mr B all enjoying the sun in the Lane 

I could tell Mr B was reading the words on my T shirt.

It was a Christmas gift from my nephew 

The Queen’s New Year honours list was out last night.with Chris Whitty,Dame Jenny Harris, Joanna Lumley, Daniel Craig 

Film director Paul Greengrass, Vanessa Redgrave and bloody Tony Blair amongst the recipients. 

For those who scoured the list of awardees, you may of overlooked one name Tim Walkden Williams who as it turns out is my brother in law.

He is now an M.B.E ! 

How good is that ? 

Back to bed xx

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