All posts by kazza50w

I'm a 50 something woman who loves to write about anything and everything.
Cooking and Baking

My cooking background (or lack of it!)

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assorted spices on black frying pan

Growing up in my household, food was always very plain and simple. Granted it was the 1960/70s and pizzerias, Chinese and Indian restaurants were not a common thing, but my mother originated from Holland and her idea of a meal was meat and vegetables every night. After my father died when I was seven, my mother meet someone else who was a butcher, so even though we dined on steaks most nights, it tended to get a bit boring.

Then I met my boyfriend, Phil and he introduced me to a variety of new palate sensations, taking me out to Indian restaurants (yes, I did start off with a Korma), Chinese meals, Kentucky Fried Chicken and burger bars.

Phil was a chef, he worked for one of the top hotels in Southampton called The Polygon as a trainee, a few months after meeting him we were engaged and the following year we were married. Now because he was a chef, I didn’t do any cooking, it was left to him and I wasn’t unhappy about this arrangement. Sure, I would cook the odd dinner, but not having had any experience I was reluctant to give it a go.

Two children later and my son is a chef too. He left college and went to chef in Sydney, Australia working for high profile restaurants and is now based in Bristol working in a restaurant called Bulrush, which has recently gained its first Michelin star.

One day I decided to make a Victoria sponge cake and found that I could actually produce quite a good one and so began my love for baking cakes and decorating them. I make cakes for birthdays, weddings or any occasion at all for friends and clients.

noah
Noah’s ark cake

But I still didn’t tackle the dinners, I was happy to make the puddings, but that was about it.

It wasn’t that long ago that me and hubby sat down to watch a new programme which Tom Kerridge presented, How To Lose Weight For Good weightforgoodand I liked what I saw, the recipes seemed fairly straightforward and tasty, so we ordered the book and went shopping to collect the ingredients. I have to admit that there was a lot to collect, especially the spices, but they aren’t very expensive and once you have bought them, they do last a long time. There were some that I hadn’t even heard of, but luckily for me, hubby was there to guide me.

I took over the cooking of the main dinners, I felt more confident being able to follow a recipe and I have to say that we were pleased with some of the meals that have been produced, they were very tasty and you had the added bonus of knowing they were low fat recipes. My favourite is the Southern Fried Chicken, a take on a KFC, which tastes great!

Tom has brought out two books in the same vein, Lose Weight For Good and his newest one, Tom Kerridge’s Fresh Start. We have already cooked a couple of recipes from the new book in which the Peanut Chicken Stir Fry Noodles is already a firm favourite.

I will be making his Beef Biriyani recipe this week, so I will put up pictures of it stage by stage, just to prove that even somebody who is a novice like me, can make his dishes.

Quote: The only thing I like better than talking about food is eating it!

John Walters

 

 

 

 

Favourites

Band

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ABBA

abba

Ever since Abba’s appearance on The Eurovision Song Contest singing Waterloo and of course, winning it, I was hooked on Abba. I was ten years old and desperate to be Agnetha (the blond one), even though my voice probably suited the dulcet tones of Anni-Frid much better.

I used my pocket money I had saved to buy their albums and singles, playing them constantly over and over again. My parents must have been heartily fed up with the melodies filtering down into their living room, but to their credit, they never said anything.

I learnt every lyric, every backing vocal to every song, my bedroom was filled with their posters, I read everything I could about them and joined their fan club.

tachance
My favourite Abba poster

I even wrote a story, a musical, one that included all their songs. (Yes, I did it WAY before Mamma Mia, though I admit, mine wasn’t as good!) and was that person singing into the hairbrush, performing at imaginary concerts.

I often wondered about the relationship between the two women, was there a rivalry with who sings what? Was Anni-Frid annoyed at the attention focused on Agnetha’s behind? Was Agnetha jealous of Anni-Frid’s dancing ability?

The band were masters at hitting the market just right, during the early days there was Fernando, SOS and Mamma Mia, in the disco years you had Voulez Vous, Lay All Your Love On Me and obviously, Dancing Queen. Later on, they showed a more mature side with songs like The Winner Takes It All, which was a reflection of Agnetha and Bjorn’s divorce and The Day Before You Came. There has been much discussion about TDBYC, theories have varied from it’s the day before she meets the new love of her life or it’s the day before she commits suicide and is talking from the grave.

Their final song, Under Attack, was filmed in a warehouse and the very last shot is the group walking through the doors, into daylight, presumably a metaphor for the group walking into the sunset of their time together as a group.

Each of the group has moved on to other projects: Agnetha and Frida bringing out solo albums and Benny and Bjorn penning musicals. But the unrivaled success story has been the two films, Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, which include all the hits and some album tracks.

My biggest regret is never seeing them play live and recently there have been rumours they have met up in a studio and recorded some songs together, so maybe the story of Abba hasn’t quite ended yet…

“I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence
Building me a home
Thinking I’d be strong there
But I was a fool
Playing by the rules.”

Abba, 1980

Random thoughts

Friends versus The Big Bang Theory

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friends-the-big-bang-theory

These two programmes must be the most popular comedies in recent years, both are about a group of people, their friendships and relationships, who meet up in key locations and go through various life scenarios.  There is a synergy amongst these two groups of people and when you delve into these two television programmes a bit deeper, similarities are uncovered:

smelly-catSmelly Cat versus Soft Kitty

These are songs which are sung in the series, both about cats.  Both feature on and off throughout the entire series.

Ross and Rachel versus Penny and Leonard

We_were_on_a_breakTwo beautiful women and two nerdy boyfriends.  Ross secretly had a crush on Rachel since she became friends with Monica at school, he chased after her in the initial series but she was oblivious to this, likewise, Leonard liked Penny from the moment he saw her and she wasn’t aware either. Both Ross and Leonard were doctors with PhDs and both Penny and Rachel worked as waitresses, Penny in the Cheesecake Factory and Rachel in Central Perk. Both couples went to Las Vegas and were married, even though Rachel and Ross were divorced not long after.

Gunther versus Stuart

Both are background characters and both work in places where the characters frequent, (although the girls from the Big Bang Theory don’t visit the comic shop as often as the girls from Friends visit Central Perk!). Whilst Gunther had a huge crush on Rachel, Stuart has shown interest in all of the girls from the Big Bang. They are both slightly depressing characters, Gunther being a failed actor and Stuart forever struggling with his comic shop.

Both shows have the perfect seat

When Rachel moves in with Joey, she asks him to move his recliner to which Joey says, “It is the exact equal distance from the bathroom to the kitchen and it’s at the perfect angle so you don’t get any glare coming off of Stevie!” 

And Sheldon has his reasons for his spot: “In the winter, that seat is close enough to the radiator to remain warm, and yet not so close as to cause perspiration. In the summer, it’s directly in the path of a cross breeze created by opening windows there and there. It faces the television at an angle that is neither direct, thus discouraging conversation, nor so far wide as to create a parallax distortion. I could go on.”

The Jealous Girlfriend

In Friends, Ross met and fell for Emily who took a dislike to Rachel, forbidding him to have contact with her, unfortunately Ross says Rachel’s name at the alter making matters a whole lot worse.  Then we have Priya in the Big Bang Theory who goes out with Leonard and changes the way he looks and also forbids him from seeing Penny.

And a few quick one liner similarities:

  • Both Monica and Penny have no idea about their partner’s jobs.
  • Howard/Rojesh and Chandler/Joey bromances.
  • Both Penny and Rachel aren’t very good cooks.
  • Bernadette once tried to seduce Howard when she was sick, as did Monica to Chandler when she had a streaming cold.
  • Fat Monica versus Fat Leonard, Raj and Stuart.

Fat

 

friends-bbt
Members of both programmes met up recently.

Quote: What computer do you have? And please don’t say, “A white one.”

Sheldon Cooper

 

Random thoughts

Does working from home, work?

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Most mornings I walk my dog along the local high street, I go past the local supermarket, which is already busy with deliveries and customers purchasing their morning newspaper or their lunch for work.  Cyclists race past me, no doubt grateful if the sun has decided to shine that morning, cars roar past, hastily making their way to join the nearest traffic jam.  It’s at this time that I am grateful I am not joining them in the process called ‘commuting to work’.

I work from home.  Some may look at that sentence and think, “No, I could never do that,” some may look at it and say, “Wow, I’d love to do that.”  I have spent my whole working life in offices: some big, open plan and some not big enough to swing a cat in (though why anyone would bring a cat to work is beyond me!).

Most of the offices I have worked in have been good fun.  There’s been laughs, jokes and cream cakes, lots of cakes I might say,  but on the flip side there’s also been tears, arguments and lots of office politics.  What do I mean by office politics?  Well, let me give you a few examples: “I want the light on,” “I want the light off,” “I want the window open,” “I want the window shut,” “I want the air con at this temperature,” “I want it cooler/hotter,” “I want to tell you to shut the hell up.”  Okay, that last one was normally said in my head, but I am sure those of you who work in an office have experienced some of these office politics.

I have always wanted to work from home, but my idea was to sit in front of a computer and produce best selling novels one after the other.  (This has nearly come true, but that’s another story).

working-from-home
I think this sums up working from home pretty well

My actual day job is typing television scripts and interviews for TV shows and it’s very interesting, my general knowledge is coming on leaps and bounds.  I love the fact that I can plan my day around my work and a big bonus is that I’m always in when a parcel is delivered.

In-between jobs I can put out the washing, unload the dishwasher, sneak an episode of Ghost Adventures (have you seen Zak?) and get out something for tea.

So taking everything into consideration I think that working from home does work as long as you have self discipline and enjoy your own company!

Mind you, it is a bit annoying when it comes to clearing the table after dinner and everyone says they don’t have to do it because they’ve been at work and I’m volunteered as I’ve been home all day ….

Quote: “Everybody brings joy to this office, some when they enter and some when they leave.”

 

Random thoughts

My Inspiration

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Today is International Women’s Day and I have no hesitation in writing about my mum, she was and still is my inspiration and here’s why:

Hendrika Adriana Hoegee

My mum was 12 years old when on 10th May, 1940, German troops invaded the Netherlands. She was living in Rotterdam, in Clemensstraat to be exact, at the time. She was told to pack up a bag and her mother, father and two brothers went to the Maastunnel, (a tunnel which connects the banks of the Nieuwe Maas) along with neighbours and friends, to hide from the Germans.

They hid in the Maastunnel for a few days, eating and sleeping as a community and because the Germans hadn’t invaded the tunnel, families began to move out and went back to their homes, back to a new way of life.

Their daily routines had now changed, there were curfews, set times when they had to be back in their own homes. Some children would play a game of chicken during these curfews, running under the cover of darkness from one house to another. This was a deadly game because if the Germans had seen them they would have undoubtedly been shot.

Queuing with her mother in a butchers one day for their rations, she was suddenly pushed to the ground, she heard the sound of gunshots and when she stood up, saw the dead bodies of Jews who had minutes before been queuing with her.

The occupation lasted for five years and the Germans officially surrendered on May 5, 1945, my mum was 17 years old.

wedding

When the British Army arrived in Rotterdam, my mum met my dad and they decided to move back to England and get married. She lived in a village called Netley with her mother and father-in-law, while my dad was posted abroad with the army. It must have been hard, living with people you hardly knew, husband away and not being able to speak a word of English.

Mum lived in Netley all her life, worked in local businesses, raised four children and ten grandchildren. She was a well known figure, I remember that just a trip to the local post office would take a long time as she would stop to chat with different people.

She died 15 years ago and will always be an inspiration to me.

Mum

 

 

Random thoughts

Karma

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definition: the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.

giphyKarma is a fickle thing. It can strike straight away or it can wait until it is least expected, one, two, three years later, there’s no time limit on karma.

I am it’s biggest fan, I can apply anything to it. Today I was in the living room swatting a fly with a tea towel and for once actually managed to stun it. I put it outside the front door, turned around and banged my knee on the door frame – that’s karma, I thought as I rubbed my knee. That’s it, in it’s simplest form, I hurt the fly, the universe hurts me.

Sometimes it’s more complicated than this and karma takes it time to happen, sometimes in spectacular fashion, sometimes in a more subtle way.

One of my favourite karma stories is the one where a man is travelling on the London Underground when a guy blocks his way. The man responds to this by hurling abuse at the guy, swearing at him and shoving his way past. It may have been that this man was stressed as he was heading for an interview at Forward Partners…. the guy he pushed past and swore at? Yes you’ve guessed it was Head of Talent and Recruiting at Forward Partners. The man didn’t get the job, but they did clear the air during the interview though.

 

karma-twitter

If you do happen to do something that you are maybe not so proud of and think you’ve got away with it …. just remember, Karma has no deadline!

Quote: “A little girl seeks revenge.  A real woman moves on while karma does her dirty work.”
Random thoughts

The Spider Hunt

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Now I’m not usually scared of spiders – if I see one in the house I normally let it carry on with it’s daily business and we all live in domestic harmony.   But this spider was different…

The first time I saw it was one evening just as I was entering the bedroom – there it was big, black with hairy legs scurrying across the headboard of the bed. I let out a shriek, mainly because it was so unexpected. Phil, my husband, rushed into the bedroom asking what was the matter? “A huge, black spider just ran across the headboard” I explained and estimated the size with my hands. He looked at me disbelievingly, a spider THAT big, never. I nervously got into bed and had a restless night, dreaming of spiders running across me while I slept.

Every time I passed the bedroom the following day I would put my head in and see if I spied the spider – no, nothing until the evening when again going into the bedroom there it was, this time on the footboard of the bed, again scurrying (I like that word!) to safety underneath the bed.   Again I shrieked but Phil didn’t see it. “Perhaps you should keep quiet the next time you see it and it won’t run off” he suggested.  Another restless night with the combination of the spider situation and the hot weather (I couldn’t sleep on top of the duvet for fear of the spider running over me!)

Then Phil saw the spider and he had to agree it was pretty big. It ran under the bed and Phil pulled up the mattress to find it, but it had disappeared.   I went to my side of the bed and there it was, but again, it ran under the bed. I’d had enough by now and told Phil that I wouldn’t be coming to bed until it was found. So we waited and waited: nothing!   We were tired so the lamp was switched off and we tried to go to sleep.

About five minutes later Phil said “Shall I put the light back on and see if it is around?” As I was sweating under the duvet I agreed. He switched the lamp on and we both looked on our sides of the bed to see if it was around. “This is like one of those comedy horror films when they’re looking around for the spider and it’s above them on the headboard all the time” I joked. With that Phil looked at our headboard and there it was! Large as life and probably smiling menacingly at us.

Now I go back to the original paragraph where I state that I normally let the spiders carry on with their business, but I’m sorry not this one, it had caused me two restless nights and now it was just taunting us. Phil grabbed his weapon of choice, my flip flop and flattened it.   It fell onto the bed defeated.

After Phil had disposed of the body, we lay in bed happy in the knowledge that we were spider free.

“Perhaps that was the mummy spider and now the bigger, hairier, blacker daddy spider will come and look for her” said Phil just before we went to sleep.

Bugger, another restless night!

“That moment when you walk into a spider’s web and suddenly turn into a karate master.”

Creative Writing and Short Stories

Shelby

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As Shelby walked through the entrance to Fresh Foods supermarket, her eyes were drawn to the member of staff at checkout number nine. She could feel her heart skip a beat as she saw HIM, he was gorgeous, blond wavy hair, muscular build, she didn’t know the colour of his eyes yet, but she was sure they would be a perfect cornflower blue. 

 “Right, time to shop,” she thought, “Time to buy some sirloin steak, posh wine and a luxury pudding, so that I can impress the man on checkout number nine with my sophisticated taste.” Shelby walked around the supermarket picking up her shopping and then made her way to checkout number nine.

 There was a queue for this till and she noted that it was mainly women lined up behind each other, so Shelby patiently joined the end of this queue – but the wait was worth it!

 He started scanning her shopping, handling the steak as he did so, Shelby wished she was that steak. “I’m cooking that tonight,” she informed HIM, “I hope I don’t make a mis-steak!” Shelby laughed nervously at her own humour, but he just gave her a weird look and carried on scanning. She suddenly noticed his name badge, why hadn’t she ever noticed it before?

 Shelby tried to read the name without it seeming too obvious. “Jason? No, it says Jaxon.” “That’s an unusual name,” she commented to HIM, he looked down at his name badge and shrugged, “I suppose so, I’ve never really thought about it.” She would have liked to have exchanged views on the meaning of his name, where it had originated and its deep meaning, but Jaxon didn’t seem interested in doing this and the queue of women behind her looked like they were about to lynch her, obviously her allotted time was up.

 “That’ll be £22.50,” Jaxon said and Shelby felt a little faint, “That’s a lot of money to try and impress somebody,” she thought and wondered if her limited cooking skills would do justice to the £7 piece of meat she had just bought. “Well, at least I’ll do the wine justice,” she thought, “As it is a lovely Shiraz.”

 On her way home, Shelby popped into the local store to pick up some essentials. The store had been owned by the same family for years with Mary and Paul Crump, who ran the shop together with their son, Tommy.

 She walked round the store picking up some potatoes, carrots, cabbage, breakfast cereal, milk and her normal dinnertime choice, a meal for one and headed for the only checkout in the store.

 “Hi Tommy, how are you today?” she enquired, “How’s business?” Tommy looked up and smiled, “Hello Shelby, yeah, it’s all good here at Crump Towers,” he replied. This was the answer that Tommy gave every time and it made Shelby laugh every time. “That’s good then, any plans for the weekend?” she asked him, “No, not for me, a quiet weekend in with the parents, that’s all I’ve got to look forward to,” he replied.  “Yeah, I’m much the same, I’ll be found sat in front of the TV watching typical Saturday night television, well, have a good one, bye,” said Shelby.  “Goodbye Shelby, see you soon.”

 The sirloin steak wasn’t the best dinner she had ever cooked, but the wine tasted lovely and as she settled down on the sofa to watch the TV and drank a couple of glasses of wine, she slid into a sleep where she dreamt that she was in Fresh Foods supermarket, she was running to the wine section, filling up her trolley, running to the meat section and filling up with all sorts of different meats and then making a mad dash to the checkout, only to find Dale Winton sat there saying, “The next time you’re at the checkout and you hear the beep, think of the fun you could be having on Supermarket Sweep!” and as she looked down she discovered she was naked! Shelby woke up in a cold sweat, looked down, saw she was fully clothed, heaved a sigh of relief and then went to bed.

 A few days later Shelby was back at Fresh Foods supermarket, makeup freshly applied, smart but casually sexy dress and, of course, high heels. She glanced at her reflection in the store’s windows on the way in and was pretty pleased with what she saw.  After a peruse around the aisles, she decided on salmon this time, a white wine and cheese and biscuits for afters, she made her way to HIS checkout.

 Amongst the women in the queue that checkout number nine inevitably attracted, there was one hopeful male, Shelby hoped that he was in the wrong queue, that just wouldn’t be fair!

 It seemed like forever until Shelby was at the front of the queue, having noted that Mr. Hopeful, the male in the queue, had left the supermarket pretty quickly and she was unpacking her basket for HIM to scan. “So, we meet again Jaxon,” Shelby said, “This time I’m cooking salmon,” and she winked at him, in what she hoped was a seductive, suggestive way. Jaxon looked at her and asked, “Is there something wrong with your eye? I know that older ladies can get cataracts.”

 Shelby didn’t know what to get offended at first, the fact that he had called her an ‘older lady,’ or the fact that he mistook her sexy wink as an eye disease? She paid for her shopping, not even checking the price, that’s how mad she was and marched out of the store.

 Once in her car, Shelby looked in the rear view mirror at herself and said aloud, “Well, that certainly told me, I suppose I am a bit older than him, but there was no need for that.”

On her way home, Shelby stopped off at the local store to pick up some groceries and once her basket was full, she made her way to the checkout. Tommy was there, as usual, with his cheery smile, “Hey Shelby, wow, you look fabulous,” he told her, followed by, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be…” “No, don’t apologise,” Shelby cut in, “Thank you, it’s just what I needed right now.”

 “Well, anything to cheer you up,” said Tommy. Shelby took stock for a moment, Tommy was in front of her, she’d never noticed how nice looking he was, she recalled how he always had time to speak with her, how he would tell her a joke and make her laugh and she heard herself saying, “Hey, if you’re not busy tonight, would you like to come over for dinner?”  “That would be great, I would love to, do you want me to bring something over?” asked Tommy, “No, that’s fine,” said Shelby, “I’ve got some salmon in my car.”

 “You know we really should get rid of Jaxon, he’s not very good at his job at all,” said Natasha,  Fresh Foods’ Assistant Manager, “You must be joking,” replied Mark, the Manager, “He may not be very quick on the till, but just look at the queue, he attracts the customers better than any “Buy one, get one free,” offer that we can do,” and Natasha certainly had to agree with that!

Favourites

TV Show

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Please note: If you have not watched The Walking Dead (first of all, why haven’t you?) or are halfway through a box set, there may be information in this blog that contains spoilers. You have been warned!

The Walking Dead

The-Walking-Dead-Banner

One day I was sat at work discussing the fact that I had binge watched Game of Thrones with my husband for the last three weeks, we had now caught up and needed something to fill in that void in our life. Someone in my office suggested I gave The Walking Dead a try, “What’s it about?” I joked, “People walking around who are dead?”  “That’s about the sum of it,” was the reply and I dismissed this programme out of hand.

Fast forward about a week and hubby has gone to a meeting and I’m sitting on the sofa aimlessly flicking through channel after channel in the desperate search for something to watch. I suddenly thought back to my conversation at work, “Maybe I will give this programme a go,” I found the box set and settled down to watch the first episode, Days Gone Bye.

I watched a couple of episodes that night and I was hooked, so whenever my husband was out for a meeting or had to work on a weekend, I would try and watch as many episodes as I could. “Why,” I can hear you ask, “Didn’t you watch it with your hubby?” Well, after 33 years of marriage I knew that he didn’t like horror movies or blood and gore, so I naturally assumed he wouldn’t be interested in it.

It got to the stage where I couldn’t wait for hubby to go out, as soon as the front door closed, I hit the play button and escaped into the apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead.

rick
Rick Grimes

Rick, of course, was my favourite, but it wasn’t easy being a Rick fan, as much as I thought to myself, “They would never kill him off,” there were some close shaves.

You would have thought that after the world is infected with a virus which renders somebody ‘undead’, that that was the fight for survival, but no, as the series progresses you learn that once the survivors have learnt how to fight the walkers (zombies) then the next war is raged against fellow human survivors.

Cue the villains:

Terminus itself wasn’t a good place, where the Dish of the Day was Flambé Human Flesh! The Governor, whose leadership style was a lot to be desired!  Negan, who managed to kill two of my favourite characters and whose best friend is a baseball bat called Lucille and last but not least, Alpha, the leader of the new enemy, The Whisperers. I have only seen a couple of episodes with her in it, but already I think she’s shaping up to the worst of a very bad lot!

I never thought I would see the day when Rick left the show, I really thought he would be Old Rick, sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, dishing out his wise knowledge to his grandchildren, but no, Rick has gone! Not dead (thankfully), but gone away in a helicopter to heavens know where, to do heavens knows what. It was strange watching the new series without him, it felt leaderless, especially as Maggie did a vanishing trick as well! But we soon had some new characters introduced,

luke
Luke

it usually takes me a while to get used to new people, but one of them has caught my attention, Luke. I hope he lasts a long time in the series, but you never know with The Walking Dead, no-one is safe, just ask Glenn, Abraham, Jesus, Shane, Lori………

As a footnote, I persuaded a reluctant husband to watch the opening episode with me, he watched it and then proceeded to watch four series in the space of three days! So now we watch it together, discuss it together and enjoy it together!!

Daryl-Dixon-Quotes-4

Creative Writing and Short Stories

ENID BLYTON

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enid-blyton

Enid Blyton was my go-to read when I was a young girl, I can remember running down to the mobile library on a Tuesday after school, handing in my books from last week and then desperately searching the shelves for an Enid Blyton book that I hadn’t read before. Sometimes my luck was in and there was a new Famous Five or Secret Seven book and I would gleefully take it up to the librarian for stamping out.

But back at home, my own bookshelves were groaning under the weight of her books, books that I read again and again, books that took me to lands that only existed in Enid’s mind and when I read them, mine too – I longed to visit the Faraway Tree in the Enchanted Wood, wished I could sit in the Wishing Chair and laughed at the antics of Mr. Twiddle.

These days, young children wish they could go to Hogwarts, but when I was young I wanted to go to St. Clares and Malory Towers, to be Darrell Rivers’ best friend.

In her peak output, Enid Blyton would write 50 books a year, she began writing after breakfast with her portable typewriter on her knee and her favourite red Moroccan shawl nearby, she would have a short dinner break and then continue writing until about five o’clock, by which time she would have produced around 8,000 words.  She once described her writing technique:

"I shut my eyes for a few minutes, I make my mind a blank and wait - and then, as clearly as I would see real children, my characters stand before me in my mind's eye … the first sentence comes straight into my mind, I don't have to think of it - I don't have to think of anything."

I cannot recall what happened to my bookshelves full of her books, but about two years ago I was visiting a National Trust house with my husband and went for a wander in their secondhand book shop. I came across Five On A Treasure Island and Mr. Pink-Whistle Stories and decided that I would start collecting them again. So whenever I go past a charity shop, I take a little detour into it and am often lucky enough to find one or two books to add to my growing collection.

So, once again, I have a bookcase full of Enid Blyton books and I cannot wait until my grandson is old enough so that I can share with him the magic of her world. I am quite envious that he is soon going to hear her stories for the very first time!