I’ve written several times about biographical writing and have shared many of my own life stories in a random and sporadic fashion. Many of my fictional stories also have strong biographical elements so using my own life in writing is a thing I often do.
A dear friend has had a most interesting life in many different ways, and the stories she tells are not only interesting, engaging, moving and sometimes extraordinary and very funny, they give great insight into how life was lived in a different time. She has many grandchildren and I keep telling her, she ought to write these life adventures down, record them for when these young people are older and will understand and appreciate her stories of growing up in a past world. You know what L.P Hartley wrote in 1953 (a time she would remember) ‘the past is a foreign country’ – and the end of the sentence, sometimes forgotten, – ‘they do things differently there’.
My friend’s reply to my suggestion is that she’s no good at writing – by which she means writing stories and tales, and I agree it must be quite daunting to know where to start and how to proceed. When my dad retired, he decided that he would write about his life. He borrowed my typewriter, sat down with it, paper loaded and wrote “I” – and that was as far as he got. He was a great raconteur, told us children stories, told many tales of the different things which had happened to him from being a small boy growing up in an ordinary Cambridge pub, to being called up and serving all the way through the war in the parachute regiment, to becoming a scientific analyst, to moving from Cambridge and settling in Somerset. Somehow when instead of speaking he tried to write, nothing happened. He also tried to audio record his memories, and I found it unbearably poignant to hear the tape click on and his familiar voice say “I – ” and then “dum-di-dum-di-dum” before it switched off as he couldn’t think how to proceed.
When I first gave up work I ran a couple of writing groups; one was all-purpose writing, stories, etc,. the other was writing family history. So many people, like my friend, want to record the stories of their – and their family and ancestors lives. I will look back at what we did in that group and see if there’s anything there which might guide and help my friend – unless we get together and I do what I could have done for my dad, help her audio record her marvellous tales and adventures!!
My featured image is of my mum aged about 16-18, during the war with an unknown friend on the River Cam. I’m sure her sister Beryl took the photo as the two of them were inseparable!
Lois Elsden 