Over the last few years I, and many others, have followed the journey of Jessica Taylor-Bearman as she has battled the severest form of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) possible. In the three books she has written, she takes us from the teenager whose active life is brought to a shocking halt, to a young woman whose determination to survive and thrive despite the ups and significant downs of health has inspired so many people around the world. I will introduce you to the three books, which you should read from the start to get the full story in all its complexity. I will try to avoid giving you too many spoilers, because Jessica’s story needs to be read to be believed at times. I should say that it is an incredibly difficult read at times as the medical emergencies are exacerbated by the attitudes of some of the professionals working with her. It is, however, ultimately uplifting as you see the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.
A Girl Behind Dark Glasses
This first book starts out with a pre-M.E. Jessica, a very effective decision on the older Jessica’s part as it sets the shocking decline into perspective. This is the story of a girl who was going to become successful in life if that life had progressed in a conventional manner. Clever, kind, popular, mischievous and determined, Jessica was blossoming until just before her 15th birthday. That was the point at which the M.E. started to take control, and the gradual worsening of her condition is communicated to her diary, who she christened Bug, and knowing what is about to happen, both the decline of her health and the person she was before the M.E. are brought into poignant focus. When she is eventually admitted to hospital, her condition is life threatening, with the weight dropping off of her because she is no longer able to eat, and her eyesight failing due to the weakness in even those muscles. Once her body has completely failed her, she is hospitalised, with dark glasses to protect her from the light, and a feeding tube to ensure she gets adequate nutrition. The number of times she is on the point of death in this first book is quite simply staggering, as is the lack of compassion from a large proportion of medical staff, particularly the Doctors, for whom M.E. stands for More Excuses. It is not just a shocking account, it is an account that often makes the reader angry, so the effect on Jessica and her family can only be imagined. The family are also frightened, angry, and mourning the loss of their energetic livewire of a daughter, but they keep fighting for her against a system that seems determined to fail her. She is determined not to let the illness, or that system, beat her and, remarkably, she sets up a charity called Share A Star from her hospital bed. It is a charity that has now ceased operations, but the impact that it had in the 13 years it was in operation has been incredible
A Girl In One Room
The first book covers the first four years of Jessica’s battle, hospitalised and unable to do anything for herself, and this second book picks up the story with her health having stabilised to the extent that she can now be looked after at home. It is still a frightening situation for Jessica and her family, but at least she is home. It is perhaps not surprising that the recovery is anything but smooth, and on occasions she is rushed back into the hospital in a critical condition. She makes it clear that there were times when her chances of survival were anything but certain, and although you know that she will survive, the immediacy of the writing makes you fear for her on every occasion. In a turn of events that no one, perhaps least of all Jessica, was expecting, an online friendship blossoms into something more with a young man called Samuel. It is clearly going to be a difficult relationship to navigate, but in typical Jessica style she is determined to make it work somehow. It means that this part of the story ends on a high note.
A Girl Beyond Closed Doors
The way that this story develops is, to some extent, similar to the other two books. The same themes of determination, battling against the odds, continuing health scares and the entrenched attitudes of the medical professionals caring for Jessica are all present. However, with Jessica being more active and healthier, the setbacks are more frustrating and there is an undercurrent of anger as she reflects on the way she is treated, especially as she finds herself back in the medical system in a way she can’t possibly have expected. There are some incredible highs amongst the lows with a garden party at a famous London location being perhaps the highest. When you reflect on how the story started, the way it finishes in this third book is almost miraculous. Put it this way, if it was a novel, you would say it’s too far fetched! As with all of the books, Jessica’s indomitable spirit shines through, occasionally with anger but more often with humour and a love for life.
Catching Up with Jessica’s Story
Jessica has published all three books with Hashtag Press, an independent publishing house specialising in books from authors representing diverse and marginalised voices. If you want to read more about her incredible story you can go to their website and buy them directly from the shop rather than through your more usual channels to support this forward thinking and inclusive publisher. You can also get right up to date with Jessica’s story by following her on Twitter or Instagram as she continues to defy the odds.
The author, Katherine E Smith has written a series of books called Coming Back to Cornwall, and another series called Connections. The new novella First Christmas is the start of a new series of books, and features, as its setting, the Soulton Long Barrow in Shropshire. This book piqued my interest, as I am always looking for new Christmas reads, so when I saw the crowdfunding page advertised on Instagram, I decided to give it a go, despite not having read anything by Katherine previously.
The Plot
Ruth is the narrator of this tale, and a very engaging and thoughtful narrator she is. However, she is unusual in terms of her narration given the fact that she, or rather her ashes, reside in a Long Barrow, and she is telling the tale of her family’s first Christmas without her. Now this isn’t as big a spoiler as it looks, given that it is in the blurb on the back, and is very clear early on in the first chapter. It is also important to know this before reading in case the subject matter may be too close to home for many people.
Her family come to visit her, initially individually, as they try to come to terms with their loss in their different ways. Each chapter features one member of the family and their reaction to this first Christmas as a smaller family. The ways that they deal with the loss reflect the characters that Ruth now understands even better from her new vantage point. Their personal trials are interwoven with Ruth’s story as the novella develops. These family members are each wounded in their own ways, as we all are when we lose someone, and their ways of dealing with the loss inevitably cause friction and occasional hostility, but through it all, the importance of the family shines through.
The Characters
Ruth was, and in many ways remains, the glue that held the family together. Though she sees strains as the bonds of familial love tested, she is quite confident that these bonds will stretch rather than break. She has three children, Kitty, Annie and Tom. Kitty is the younger of the two sisters, and is creative, animal loving and single. That final point becomes quite interesting later on. She is seen as more sensitive than Annie, her married sister who has a sharp manner and social skills that leave her on the outside and misunderstood. Tom is now, in a sense, filling the role of that family glue, and it is clear that despite her attempts to be as even handed as possible, that Ruth has always felt closer to Tom emotionally. Graham, Ruth’s husband is now a widower who is finding it almost impossible to cope emotionally. He gets through the practical parts of life because he has to, but he is broken inside. The final character, Alex, is married to Annie, who takes him for granted, gets annoyed by him very easily and often belittles him. He is, on the surface, every inch the loyal and devoted husband, but underneath in his private thoughts, which Ruth now has access to, something worrying is stirring.
The Feeling
I deliberately entitled this section the feeling, because it is the feeling communicated by consummate writing that makes this book so magical. Ruth is, in a sense, just an ordinary woman, of the kind you could meet every day just walking down a street or going to work on a commuter train. Her access to the thoughts of her family does not make her omnipotent, merely far more understanding than she could have been in life with its incomplete picture. She is not an angel, full of goodness, although she has gained a measure of acceptance denied to the living, but she keeps a loving watch on her family and tries to make them aware of her presence in any way she can. Her family are real people, filled with sorrow in their time of mourning, a mourning that comes through every word that is written. This is the start of a new series, and it becomes clear that there are many issues to be resolved, as they continue their journey from raw grief to a measure of acceptance. They are real people with real feelings and I identified with each one of them in one way or another. Ruth’s love and sympathy shines through in a novella that doesn’t waste a single one of its 70 pages.
My thoughts
I think that, although it is the introduction to a new series, it can, very importantly, be read as a standalone novella. If you have been recently bereaved, it may well be a difficult read, but it may also be a very comforting read. The writing is amusing, moving and profound by turns, but what it always is, is absolutely beautiful. I just lost myself in this book, taking it slowly with a couple of short chapters each night before going to sleep. However, you could easily finish this in one sitting and find it just as rewarding. One of the delights of reading is finding a new author who you know you are going to love whatever they write. If you give this book a chance I predict that you will find that Katherine E Smith is one of those authors that will become a firm favourite.
To find out more about Katherine’s novels her website is the ideal place to start. Happy reading.
The last two #Blogmas challenges have gone very well, mainly because I wrote up my schedule of posts well in advance and published them. That simple approach kept me focused and kept me on track. Now, I can’t do exactly the same for 2024, as I can’t predict which books, records or plays might inspire me. However, I have a number of key ideas that I can build my blog around this year. As I am writing them down, I will have created the necessary focus I need to ensure that 2024 sees continued growth for a blog I am quietly proud of.
- A minimum of 4 posts a month – I was going to write one per week, but I can’t guarantee that every seven days something will appear on here, nice though that would be. This way, I will have a minimum of 44 posts over the January to November period with #Blogmas to increase that total to around 70 posts next year.
- The Wonder Years Re-watch – I have had the entire Wonder Years on DVD for about two and a half years, and never got round to watching it. This year, I WILL watch it and what’s more I will blog about it, Season by Season. 6 posts between now and next November guaranteed, although I have a suspicion that some seasons may require more than one post to do them justice.
- The A-Z of My Singles Collection will be finished up. I am 9 blogs in and I think I will need at least another 12 to complete it, perhaps more.
- My occasional series where I reflect upon my Vinyl collection will become a monthly fixture with one album played and reviewed from January to November. Another 11 posts there.
- As a teenager, before music took over my pocket money priorities, I had another obsession, namely the Panini Football Stickers. I got within 8 stickers of completing Football 78 – which I did thanks to eBay many years later – and I completed Football 79. I will be getting my stickers down from the loft and taking pictures of many of the pages to tell the story of my collections. Given the size of the collections, I think at least 8 posts will be needed to do them justice.
Well, that’s a minimum of 37 posts there, so the majority of my planned posts are going to be focused on these four ongoing themes, and I will no doubt be finding other things to blog about in 2024. As I look to increase my posts, and my readership, I know I will need to be disciplined but I think I will manage it. I hope you will stay with me for this year, and that you enjoy the range of subjects and my enthusiasm for them!
See You in 2024!
So, here we go with the 9th part of my record by record retrospective. Finishing off the letter L, we have Kenny Loggins with Footloose and Los Lobos with La Bamba. The former was a hit song that became much better remembered than the film it came from. On or off of the dance floor, Footloose was exciting and energetic to sing or dance to. He had more success in his native America, but during the 80s you could pretty much guarantee that he would pop up on a film soundtrack somewhere! Another song that became bigger than the film it hailed from was La Bamba by Los Lobos. Famously, the first Spanish language track to hit the top of the charts and led to many of us singing along in quite appalling Spanish. By British standards this was about as outward looking as we got lingually speaking!
The first single in the M section is in fact by M! It is of course the all time synth classic Pop Muzik. What a song and what a sound. It completely captivated me and introduced me to a musical genre that would become central to my musical life. What a song it is, and a song that still sounds current. Only one Kirsty MacColl single, which is surprising given how much I have always loved her voice. That’s something I’ve noticed as I have worked through the collection, the way that I have a number of singles from artists that now appear peripheral in my musical life and so few from artists I still love. Mind you, if you are going to have one song from MacColl it had to be A New England for me. A song with great Billy Bragg lyrics and one of the best vocal performances of her career at least in my opinion. rom the sublime to the absolutely ludicrous! Kinky Boots is silly, throwaway and the type of song that could only be a hit in the UK and then only at Christmas! For all that, it’s just fantastic fun, extremely catchy and performed by two consummate performers who know how silly it all is. Take a listen when it goes on my Spotify playlist and I dare you not to smile!
Now on to the Magnificent 7 – Madness! What a quintet of singles. Baggy Trousers, Grey Day, It Must Be Love, House of Fun and Tomorrow’s Just Another Day. Baggy Trousers was their breakthrough hit, and it really brings back schooldays for so many 70s and 80s kids, and possibly beyond. Grey Day was possibly their best piece of social commentary with the mundanity of working life front and centre. It Must Be Love was a brilliant cover of the Labi Siffre song that became perhaps their most abiding track. House of Fun went to Number 1 and was a good track, but definitely not their best. How often does that happen? Finally, Tomorrow’s Just Another Day had a brilliant track on a Double A Side single called Madness is all in the Mind. Outside of fans, probably few people remember it, because it was played infrequently and eventually became a B Side in all but name. However, for me at home with a record player it was the more frequently played track. Take a listen to it when you can, it’s brilliant. So, there you have five of the best from one of the best bands of the era. Madness, I tip my fez to you!
Madonna next, and oddly enough only three singles. I could have sworn I had more!. Anyway, first up is the largely overlooked but excellent earlier track Gambler. If you don’t remember it, give it a listen. The next single is Crazy for You, an absolutely marvellous ballad that really shows off her fantastic voice and her ability to deliver a song. However, my favourite Madonna single is True Blue which fizzes with energy and joy throughout. I have the Immaculate Collection and during the 80s she did not release a single that wasn’t top class. One of, if not the most important artists of the decade without a doubt. Next up The Mamas and The Papas with a four track single that starts off with one of my all time favourite songs, California Dreaming. I mean, how amazing is that track? Luscious harmonies and a tune of genius that never fails to entrance. Manfred Mann were 60s chart toppers and thanks to my favourite label, Old Gold, I was able to get a copy of The Mighty Quinn which I loved singing along with as a kid. Marillion had a long chart career, but are really only remembered by non fans for one track, Kayleigh. It happens to many artists, and is maybe a matter of some irritation in many cases, but when that song is as iconic as Kayleigh, then perhaps that may sweeten the blow. After Bob Marley died, I took a while to dip in to his catalogue of songs, but One Love provided me with my ‘in’ and after that I started to understand his true genius. His voice and the amazing musicianship of The Wailers combined to give us so many iconic songs, and the world was blessed with his presence, albeit for a very short time relatively speaking. Finally, in this picture we have Canadian New Wave excellence from Martha and the Muffins whose Echo Beach still speaks to the soul crushing tedium of sitting behind a desk wishing your days away. Put that together with an instantly recognisable tune and you have a record that never dates.
So, for this set, we start off with Suicide is Painless by The Mash. The instrumental theme from the all time great TV show M*A*S*H* was instantly familiar to huge numbers of people brought up in the 70s. It was one of three shows my Dad and I both loved. The vocal version was from the original film and had pretty much vanished without trace until it was rediscovered by Noel Edmonds. He was one of those rare DJs who could ‘break’ a song on his own. The lyrics are as bleak as you could imagine, and the tune can both augment and undercut the effect of the words. It’s a fascinating track that I could analyse in much greater depth if I had the space! Next up we have a couple of singles from Rockabilly stalwarts Matchbox. The first one, When You Ask About Love made full use of the gorgeous vocals of Graham Fenton and I thought it was one of the best ballads of the time. Then they released my absolute favourite song of theirs, a mash-up of two songs, ‘Over the Rainbow’ which I was very familiar with and ‘You Belong To Me’ which I had never heard before. It was the latter song which caught my imagination and at the time I could often be heard singing about ‘Pyramids along the Nile’!
Yes, I was Snooker Loopy, yes I loved Chas ‘n’ Dave, yes I bought the single and played it frequently. No, I don’t regret it, and yes I still love it! For some reason, the creators of Rockney don’t get the credit they deserve for their ability to write tunes that you can’t get out of your head. I have already waxed lyrical about them in an earlier blog. Suffice it to say, it’s one of the great novelty records, and still as catchy as anything 40 years later!
Now on to the great Paul McCartney with four singles, of which three probably divide opinions like few others. ‘Pipes of Peace’ is not a Christmas song, even though it has a Christmas themed video, and reached Number One in January, so don’t let anyone tell you differently, particularly the compilers of bargain bucket Christmas Compilations. It is a call for an end to fighting in a time when we half expected to be blown up by nuclear weapons at any moment. To some it’s incredibly corny, but to me it’s an absolute classic. I certainly prefer it to ‘Give Peace a Chance’! Next is the song that even the McCartney detractors grudgingly admit to liking. No More Lonely Nights is simply an amazing ballad that contains one of the greatest guitar solos I’ve ever heard, courtesy of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. It reached Number Two the week before I joined the RAF and was only kept off the top by another classic, Freedom by Wham!, which I will revisit towards the end of this trawl through my collection. McCartney’s real Marmite song is ‘We All Stand Together’ credited to Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus. If you don’t like it, I will never be able to persuade you otherwise, but I can’t think of any other song that my young children sang along to while watching the video endlessly, and myself and my friends belted out at the top of our voices at a house party when fairly drunk! It is a truly joyous song that I will always love. The final single of the quartet – well it’s not his finest moment by a long, long way! It does contain a really good Beatles style riff, but otherwise it’s best forgotten!
Well, this journey through my singles is not over by a long chalk, but you’ll have to wait until 2024 for the next instalment!
It’s that time of the year where everyone seems to be reflecting on the 12 months past. In 2023 I have written 56 new blogs, beating my intended target of averaging one blog post a week. The 26 posts associated with Blogmas helped of course! Some of my posts got a lot of views – by my standards anyway – and some definitely need more! So, I will choose 5 of my most successful blogs for those who might have missed them, and my 5 favourite blogs this year that didn’t pick up a lot of readers first time around. I will go chronologically and add a line or two to explain why I think they are good reading
Blog 1 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the BFI
Only 19 reads for this, but this reflection on a childhood movie and a childhood crush was well received by those who did read it.
Blog 2 What Are You Doing Here? by Floella Benjamin
56 reads for this blog about the autobiography of the year, my highest of the year for one of my 2023 entries. Floella Benjamin’s life is simply an incredible and inspiring read.
Blog 3 The Sound of Being Human by Jude Rogers
25 reads for this review of a book that is one of the best I have read this year. Give the review and the book a read if you have any interest in music.
Blog 4 A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll – A Personal Reflection
A book that explained to me why my Asperger’s has affected me in the way it has. It is the most revealing book I have ever read on a personal level. 20 views so far for a book I am incredibly evangelical about.
Blog 5 Extended Review Lines of Flight More Than Human EP
30 views for this first in an ongoing series of reviews followed by a Q&A. Lines of Flight kindly agreed to help me out by becoming the first subjects for this in-depth treatment.
Blog 6 Villager by Tom Cox
My second most read new blog of the year was seen 47 times, which is very pleasing for such a good book. Find out why this very original novel is a must read.
Blog 7 The Tomorrow People Re-View
The most famous episode of the original series, The Blue and The Green still hits the spot 50 years on. Just 23 views, but for any child of the 70s it’s a real trip down memory lane.
Blog 8 The World of Work 1983 Style
A look back at my first ever job and the way we worked back then. It is a reflection on changing times that 23 views, but which would strike a chord with anyone who was in the workforce then.
Blog 9 Extended Review Karmaa – Thrones EP
My favourite artist of the past 3 years is simply amazing on this EP and the Q&A is really revealing on both sides. It has to be worth more than the 15 views it has received.
Blog 10 Blue Peter Eleventh Book Re-read
A large proportion of my Blogmas entries have received fewer than a handful of reads. This one only has 3 to its name, but I think you’ll find it really interesting.
Well, thank you for reading to the end. There are 10 blogs here, and another 40 or so for you to choose from, so please consider giving them a first, or even a second, look.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 