Did we mention it’s hot?

Candice: Those of you UK based, and who live in England and Wales particularly, may have noticed something over the last six weeks.  Its REALLY HOT!  Those of you who read this blog and are not in the UK, might be confused as to why that is important.

Well, the usual story with UK summers is – sun, lots of rain, some cloud, a little sun, lots of rain, some cloud.  This is particularly prevalent over the six weeks of school holidays where poor parents run around trying to find ways to entertain children in terrible weather.

However, this year is different.  We have had amazingly good weather, and for a long period too.  Both of these things are unheard off.  People are running around desperately trying to find ways to stay cool. Fans are selling out, hosepipe bans are coming in, and Lido attendance has gone through the roof.  This week alone we’ve had a warning from the Met office to stay out of the sun as it will be in the 30’s every day.

Great, you say, but not so good when your country isn’t prepared for it.  We don’t have air con in our house so every night I struggle to sleep properly.   Every weekend, rather than looking for things to do in wet weather I’m looking for things to do that keep us cool (I’m an expert on where all the splash parks are).  And I am actually hiding from the sun myself, unheard of.

The irony with all of this is Phil is away this week and has found the rain.  He’s gone to the Isle of Man, and posted a picture of a torrential downpour from his boat crossing.   Being the non-sunworshipper of the partnership I thought he’d like this weather but my comment to this post got a rude word!  Well if that’s how you feel….

How are you coping?

Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims

Candice: I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the title – it’s what caught my eye when Phil and I were doing some work the other week on polishing our Amazon entry and looking at books that we would like to be listed by.

So, I bought it, and reading the blurb on the back about a Mummy struggling with balancing job and life who has an idea the might help solve her problems, it sounded interesting. With her job being in IT I had an idea what that idea might be, but hey I’m too good at solving plot lines.

I started the book and immediately got annoyed with the main character. She reminded me of the woman in the TV show ‘Motherland’ who supposedly holds down a high-powered job in PR but also makes a tit of herself on a regular basis – saying and doing the wrong thing. I understand some of that chaos, I am currently writing this in a notepad while my daughter is doing her swimming lesson, I had to borrow a pen as the one I packed seems to have disappeared and I’ve got toothpaste on my top (not mine). #multitasking

The style also annoyed me as its written in a diary style and initially its very staccato and frantic and you just want her to take a Valium. However, as the book develops (and the writing style slows down) I found a lot of truth in the story (too much in some cases). The arguments over who’s turn it is to look after the kids, whose job is more important, etc are too close to the bone. And her thinking about trying to find time for yourself.

But by the end, I’m slightly jealous of her as she invents a game which becomes a global sensation, and in the end, brings her together with everyone who she thinks isn’t on her side. The game is about trying to get the kids to school, and the working vs non-working mummies at the school gates and all the other fun stuff. I’ve already had a snapshot of that with nursery and school fun starts soon. But the other mummies actually are jealous of her working. At the finish, she has money, drinking buddies and it even smooths her relationship with her husband as money is always the other worry in a working family.

The book is funny, and though annoying at times I did enjoy it. If you are a working parent, male or female, it might make you think about some of those snappy conversations you have with your other half.

Writing tools

Phil: All writers fetishise tools. We collect notepads and pens with a dream that if we can just find the right one, the muse will strike and we’ll be roaring away producing the words readers of the world will hang on.

I’ve written in the past that I simply couldn’t write without a word processor, so one tool that I really don’t covet, is a typewriter. Not even this one.

This is the Smith-Corona 250 electronic typewriter that Arthur C Clarke wrote the first draft of 2001 on. At the time, it would have been space-age, but then the man who owned it was thinking years or even decades ahead.

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

Phil: Three things can be guaranteed to put me off a book:

• It’s set in wartime, or involves a war.
• The Daily Mail likes it
• Someone has made it into a feature film and this is on the cover

A fourth one is that the book is described as “An International Bestseller” – I’ve been caught out before by that one. Just because lots of people bought something doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it. I’m looking at you Girl on the train.

So I approached TGLPPPS not really expecting to get very far. To be honest, if I’d given up a couple of chapters in, that would have been par for the course.

Faced with a long train ride, I stuck the modest-sized book in my bag. One return from Leamington to Brighton later, I’d read the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The book centres on author Juliet Ashton, a wartime “gel” who wrote a funny column in the press and a somewhat more serious book about the Bronte sisters. The war is just over and she is suffering from writer’s block but out of the blue, someone from Guernsey writes to her and a correspondence ensues.

The book is written as a series of letters and this propels the story along with a bit of pace. The reader has to suspend disbelief a little at the shortness and speed of delivery of some, but we let it go for the sake of the plotline.

In many ways, this is chick-lit. There is a love story. We can spot the ending a mile off, but this doesn’t matter.

Subtley slid into all the fluffy stuff is a description of life in the only part of the British Isles to be invaded during the war and have to exist under Nazi occupation. The history has been well researched and there are a few gruesome bits along with allusions to worse.  This matters as without it, the story could easily have been some bumbling locals and a smart London girl.

Weirdly, I also want to see the film. I really don’t see how you adapt a book made of letters – but I’m keen to know.