Book Chat Issue #100

Celebrating a reading life

Hello readers and eaters and welcome to the 100th edition of Book Chat.

I can’t believe we’re here.

Thanks so much for supporting Book Chat. I really appreciate having you in my circle of friends and I’m always keen to hear what you are reading and loving.

I wanted to do something a little different to celebrate my 100th issue, so I thought I’d write a retrospective of my life as a book lover, but once I started writing, I discovered that this was a BIG project and perhaps too ambitious for this little newsletter.

As a result, I’ve decided to include some of my backstory in the next few editions; a serialised version of my life, as it were. Let me know what you think…

My reading life: part one

My parents were married in December, 1950. The wedding itself was not a lavish affair. A duo of drums and piano provided music for dancing, and the meal consisted of overcooked meat and watery gravy, followed by a parfait of tinned peaches, custard, and cream, topped with a glacé cherry.

Les and Nola on their wedding day - 3 December 1950

Over the next six years, they had three girls and started building a beautiful modern house that my dad, an architect, had designed.

Life was going well for our family until my father became ill with chronic kidney disease, a condition that gradually leads to blood poisoning. My father spent more and more time in bed, and was eventually hospitalised.

A rare photo of me (centre) with my Dad. My sister Jennifer is on the right.

In November 1959, a mere nine years after their wedding, the hospital rang in the middle of the night and told my mother to come as soon as possible. She ran to a neighbour’s house and asked her to come and sit with us kids. When my mother arrived at the hospital they told her my father had already passed away, and they sent her down to the basement to collect his things. She walked away with a small bag of personal items, including his wristwatch. She had just turned thirty and it was nearly Christmas. I was three, just about to turn four.

Christmas was a dismal affair, brightened only by the arrival of a giant stocking someone had won in a raffle and gifted to us anonymously.

We didn’t have much money, but we all loved reading, so the library became a refuge and a source of free entertainment. We caught the bus to this library every Saturday, (my mother didn’t learn to drive until many years later) and we were allowed to borrow as many books as we could carry.

I became a life-long book reader and library lover. The kind of child who reads under the bedclothes by torchlight. I’m sure many of you can relate.

I especially loved reading Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven mysteries. I was drawn to the idea of lashings of lemonade, having big adventures, and being in a secret club.

Originally published in 1949, this is the cover of a more recent edition. Illustrations are by Tony Ross.

As it happened, my two older sisters were also very keen on starting clubs. They invariably took on the roles of president and secretary, and the girl who lived over the back fence was usually treasurer. I was the sole member and frequently had to pay a fee of one penny for the privilege. Like The Secret Seven, we had secret passwords, badges, and our headquarters was located in the cubby house up the back.

The money situation meant that my mother was adept at making cheap but nutritious food. I loved her tuna mornay and savoury mince. Desserts included lemon delicious and golden dumplings, both economical and filling. I still make both of these desserts today. They are especially good in winter.

Golden syrup dumpling are easy to make and excellent with cream or ice cream.

I’m aware that Enid Blyton’s books have been heavily criticised in recent years, on the basis of their sexist and racist views, and I don’t dispute that this is probably true, but when I was a small child, they allowed me to escape to another world.

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My love of children’s literature has continued to this day. My particular favourites include anything by Kate DiCamillo, but especially Because of Winn-Dixie which tells the story of Opal, a lonely girl in a new town who befriends a scruffy dog she finds in the local grocery store.

Other favourites are The BFG by Roald Dahl and The Wild Robot series by Peter Brown. If you’re unfamiliar with The BFG, it’s about Sophie and her big giant friend. Sophie is quite scared when she meets her new friend, but she soon realises he is gentle and charming.

The Wild Robot series features a robot called Roz who is shipwrecked on a deserted island and makes friends with the animals.

Three much-loved middle-grade books

These middle-grade books are suitable for readers aged 8+ but they are also excellent books for reading aloud to younger children, or anyone who is a child at heart.

The Wild Robot has also been made into delightful Disney film.

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International Book Club

We are reading You are Here by David Nicholls and will be meeting in early March. Here are the dates and times in various locations.

Sydney, Australia: 10am Friday 7 March

London, UK: 11pm Thursday 6 March

Perth, WA: 7am Friday 7 March

San Fransisco, USA: 3pm Thursday 6 March

Tucson, USA: 4pm Thursday 6 March

Vancouver, Canada: 3pm Thursday 6 March

Tokyo, Japan: 8am Friday 7 March

International Book Club is free for subscribers. If you’d like to join us and haven’t attended before (it’s online), please let me know and I will add you to the invitation list. If you’ve been to previous book club meetings, you don’t need to do anything because you’re already on the list.

That’s all for this edition. Look at for Part 2 of My Reading Life in the next issue.

Marg xxx

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