Just checking through my notes on my phone again, to see what I thought I might write about, and first on the list was ‘talking to strangers – book’. Presumably someone recommended a book to me, or I read a review, or heard something on the radio about a book with that title. So – to Amazon, and:
- ‘Talking to Strangers’: The new explosive, up-all-night crime thriller from author of hit bestsellers ‘The Widow and The Child’, Fiona Barton
- ‘Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don’t Know’, Malcolm Gladwell, and many others with the same title, by Monteagle Sterns, Malcolm Maxwell, Daniel Brian, Donald Scott, Nancy W. Robinson, Kevin Walker, Jason Easton, plus many others with similar but not exactly the same titles.
So I have no idea which book I was recommended, and can’t remember who suggested it! I did write down the name of an author I do want to read, Tom Parfitt, who has written what sounds like an important and interesting book: ‘Highland Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland’.
Then I’d noted ‘Brockwell’ – a person, a place? There’s somewhere called Brockwell Park in South London, is it near Hewelwell, something I wrote beside it? There’s no such place, person or thing called Hewelwell, so that’s another mystery jotting. I had this problem when I hand wrote notes to myself when I couldn’t ready my writing, I had thought using my phone would eliminate spelling errors – apparently not. Biobanc I think must be a misspelling of Biobank – ‘a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing de-identified genetic, lifestyle and health information and biological samples’. Why did I note it? Who knows!
I also noted down a quote quoted by someone else – “I am choosing to tell my story. Who listens is not my burden.” I guess that is true for most story tellers/writers. Maybe some writers would say they don’t choose but are driven to write their story, and if you’re a published author then who listens/reads is very much a pertinent issue!
Lois Elsden 