Authors Electric

It’s raining in Montana so I’ve not been able to ride the Sacred Trails. We’re staying in Glacier Park Lodge - alias Big Tree Lodge. It’s constructed on a framework of enormous trees, Douglas Firs, estimated to be 500-800 years old when they were felled, more than one hundred years ago. Big Tree Lodge is built on land purchased from the Blackfeet Nation by James J. Hill, ‘the Empire Builder’, boss of the Great Northern Railway. He had to go to Congress for permission to buy the land but the anxious 21st century reader can’t help wondering, and worrying, how much say the Blackfeet leaders will have had in this arrangement? The railway was already running through their territory, it had brought in miners and homesteaders, now Hill planned this lodge for holiday-makers, visitors from the cities to explore the beautiful landscape. The concept of the National Parks was still new, Glacier Park, the tenth to be established, was signed into law by President Taft in 1910. People could buy a per...

  'Sula' in Scotland ‘There’s little point keeping old boats alive if their stories are forgotten,’ said Robert Armstrong, when I apologised for my eagerness in inviting myself to visit him. Robert is a boatbuilder working on the west coast of Scotland. His home is Sula , a 24’ 5-ton Bermudan sloop, built in 1939 by David Hillyard in Littlehampton, Sussex (as Mistrale ). She’s his home, his mobile workshop and his transport.  When I invited Francis and I to visit them, Robert was immediately welcoming though he couldn’t be specific as to where they might be: ‘Everything I do is weather and tide dependant so planning beyond a few days never works out for me […] but wherever Sula is moored you're welcome.’ For me, Sula is Barnacle Goose, ‘Barney’, the yacht my parents owned 1951-1957, in the first years of their marriage.   They’d bought her in Rye, fitted her out in a mud berth, then sailed her home to the River Deben in Suffolk. My father was building up his business ...

'Sula' in Scotland  ‘There’s little point keeping old boats alive if their stories are forgotten,’ said Robert Armstrong, when I apologised for my eagerness inviting myself to visit him. Robert is a boatbuilder working on the west coast of Scotland. His home is  Sula , a 24’ 5-ton Bermudan sloop, built in 1939 by David Hillyard in Littlehampton, Sussex (as  Mistrale ). She’s also his mobile workshop and his transport.  When I invited Francis and I to visit them, Robert was immediately welcoming though he couldn’t be specific as to where they might be: ‘Everything I do is weather and tide dependant so planning beyond a few days never works out for me […] but wherever  Sula  is moored you're welcome.’ For me,  Sula  is  Barnacle Goose,  ‘Barney’, the yacht my parents owned 1951-1957, in the first years of their marriage.  They’d bought her in Rye, fitted her out in a mud berth, then sailed her home to the River Deben ...

Tomorrow we meet in a pub, with no alcohol, to say goodbye to a friend. We first met Heidi when our children were at primary school together. It was a very small village school where I can remember being on first name terms with all the other parents. Some of us ran an after school club together. Heidi was part of this. She was musical, artistic, imaginative, affectionate, alternative. Sometimes her suggestions were a bit fey. Sometimes she didn’t turn up when we expected her. Heidi was a single mother with a single child, Oliver, who she loved dearly. He too was musical, artistic, affectionate, full of enthusiasms, never quite in the mainstream. Sometimes they were very late for school. Occasionally Heidi wasn’t there when it was time for the children to go home. Once or twice I went to Heidi’s house and couldn’t make her hear me. There was a day when she started to tell me how unhappy she was. People occasionally made remarks. I began to worry about her. I was also the school governo...

The Audio Version The first choice was only partly mine. Publisher Adlard Coles was planning an audio version of Stars to Steer By . Who would read it? They suggested three professional narrators which I put to the family vote. One, whose voice was rather light (and pleasant, I thought) was rejected by all except for myself and my oldest granddaughter. The other two -- stronger, more assured, more (or less?) flexible -- split the voters entirely: Francis, who listens to a lot of audio books and who spent a generous amount of time researching samples beyond  the clips we had been sent, headed one faction but the Adlard Coles editorial office AND an equal number of family voters, preferred the other. I began to feel both protective and shy. Stars to Steer By is non-fiction, it’s historical, it’s researched but it’s also, occasionally, personal. My thoughts, my history, my words. I discovered that I wanted to speak them, some of them anyway… the opening for instance: ‘One early eve...

  It was late in the evening and we were still sitting round the kitchen table in Yorkshire, finishing our red wine, knowing we should have gone to bed but relishing the time with our youngest son Archie and his wife Steph. We’d come up from Essex to this small West Riding town watch Archie’s pupils perform Mary Poppins . Steph had met us earlier with our granddaughter Ada, now sweetly asleep upstairs. It had been a lovely day away. Then my phone rang. It was Bertie, our son who lives as our ‘next door neighbour’ at home. This means a small separate building in the same space - 'the shed'. He and his dogs had unexpectedly left home that day, to visit a friend in distress. An unplanned absence.. He’d just returned, seen upstairs lights left on, discovered the back door open and our bedroom in chaos. Understandably he was shocked and upset. No, not normal mess ‘Call the police,’ we said. ‘You have to call the police.’ He did so and was told he mustn’t touch anything, mustn...

  +Helen-Ann Hartley I suppose it was inevitable that media interest in the BBC’s removal of Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace should so quickly supersede the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. About 5.4 million people tune in watch a Masterchef final whereas only 2 million are likely to attend Church of England Christmas services. And then Gregg gave that extra headline-grabbing gift with his outburst against the Middle-Class Women of a Certain Age who he blamed for bringing him down.   Kelly Webb-Lamb, founder and chief executive of Mothership Productions, wrote in Broadcast magazine, ‘ Can we all just think for a minute about what it means - in this industry - to be a “woman of a certain age”. If you’re still around, it means, that you had years, if not decades, of putting up with “banter”, lewd comments, and often much worse, and didn’t ever say anything because you wanted a good reputation and that next job.’ She goes on to list the difficulties encounte...

  Peter Duck  in early morning sun, Aldeburgh, October 2023 (Jane Russell)  Every year Classic Boat magazine puts forward its selection of yacht restorations and newly built boats in traditional style for public vote. The prize last year was a tasteful trophy and a bottle of gin for the owner. The shortlisted boatyards get an opportunity to display a Classic Boat logo, if they wish. It’s good for their business and local community awareness. I'm hoping that the public votes make the boatyard workers feel good too.  In 2023, traditional wooden boatbuilding was officially put on the endangered list of British crafts . Perhaps this is a little like removing the word ‘acorn’ from the Oxford Junior Dictionary : arguably it's recognising a truth – young people today don’t need to name ‘acorns’ -- or adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, pastur...