Yesterday we walked up Lark Hill, aka The Quarry Road, again. Earlier in the day it had changed from bright and sunny to dull and cloudy. Indeed, I had met one of my walkabout acquaintances, Lindsay, the wife of the Methodist minister who serves Delph, Dobcross and possibly Diggle, who told me that it was much sunnier in Dobcross than Delph. I told her it had been sunny in Delph when I set out. She was on her way to a coffee morning at the church. I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that such events still go on. It’s like a throw back to my childhood. But then, Lindsay seems to have no other occupation than being “the minister’s wife”, supporting him in all sorts of events the church organisers. Another throw back to my childhood.
Anyway, the cloud moved in. However, by mid afternoon it pretty much moved out again. And the sun came out once more. And so eventually we set off up the hill. If anything the track is more eroded than ever. But the views are still splendid.
The house at the top of the hill has a very charming hidden garden too.
And the local fruit bushes, winberries, are coming on nicely. Not ready yet but in a few weeks they'll be plump and purple - mini blueberries.
The writer Lee Child was featured in one of those quiz-style articles in the weekend Guardian. Here is his answer to one of the prompts:
“My favourite book growing up.
I remember books, plural, as series, in retrospect all of them orphan fantasies involving independence and agency for children, as antidotes to my own repressed and restricted family situation: Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven, Richmal Crompton’s Just William, and so on. I also loved Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter books – incomprehensibly, since their world was a million miles from mine.”
We listened to a Just William story read by Martin Jarvis the other day. It involved William’s father meeting the headteacher os William’s school on the train and receiving the advice that William should have extra classes in the summer holiday, delivered by the headteacher. It also has a worried William bringing home a very poor school report, managing to destroy it and in the process charm an aged great aunt into leaving her wealth to William’s father. I was reminded of how delightful William’s world is to those of us not living it.
Like Lee Child, I also enjoyed the Famous Five, Billy Bunter and Just William, without any of their world’s having anything in common with mine. I would add to the list The Silent Three at Saint Botolph’s, a story serialised in one of the magazines for young girls, either School Friend or Girl. The idea of being in a girls’ boarding school and joining a secret society which wandered the school at night solving mysteries was supremely appealing. Taking a step up the cultural ladder, I also enjoyed reading Tom Brown’s Schooldays, despite once again having nothing in my life in common with what Tom experienced. It’s an odd thing.
Do children still read these stories? My daughter grew up reading Tracy Beaker, this time stories about a child in care. I must ask her to what extent she identified with Tracy Beaker. Or maybe with characters in books we read together: The Secret Garden, Moondial, Tom’s Midnight Garden and others.
In the end, I suppose, it’s all about being taken out of your own small familiar world by reading. I still do it.
And now, here are some odd mistranslations. On I forget which radio programme they talked about the supermarket Aldi in Wales, where notices appear in both English and Welsh. A NO ENTRY sign was translated into Welsh, unfortunately using terminology taken from an anthology of book-keeping terms. The WINES AND SPIRITS section in one of their stores was labelled with the Welsh for WINES AND GHOSTS. Someone commented that this is what comes of using Google translate instead of just asking a Welsh speaker! And I thought of the numerous crazy translations into English that I have come across in restaurants in other countries. Just asking a native speaker to check things saves a lot of silliness.
So it goes.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment