The blog has been on the back burner for a few months while I completed my second teacher training placement but let’s return to Nan’s student teacher days now and the friendships she forged: “I met some interesting people and got friendly with an ex-actress about my age who was in my education group, called… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Character stories from teacher training
I was looking at which part of my Nan’s memoir to focus on next and because I am teacher training in my forties with family life to juggle, and my nan also did this, I thought it would be interesting to compare the experiences. Although the circumstances that led us onto this path were different… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Teaching through the menopause
You may remember The Walk with Amal from last year, when an amazing 3.5-metre puppet travelled over 8,000km from July to November 2021. She made her way through over 70 cities, reaching 875,000 people in 12 countries to highlight the journey taken by refugee children across Europe. This year, its creator Good Chance Theatre is… Continue reading Ideas for August: Fly with Me kite flying festival
The years straight after the Second World War were hard, with everyday essentials still in short supply and cold winters adding to the bleakness. It was against this backdrop that my Nan got married: ‘1st March 1947 was in a way the dividing line in my life – I left the urban life for exactly… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: A cold wedding day in 1947
One of the most interesting things I have found when looking back through my Nan’s memoirs is the mentions of other women that flit in and out of the story. This excerpt in particular made me stop and think: ‘At the bottom of the path and on the other side of Belle Hill, there were… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Raising lost voices
As we hit September, I have one child returning to school and one just about to start, meaning both boys will have moved on from those early years at home with me. With such a big adjustment looming for us all, I thought it was a good time to look back at this stage in… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Starting school
There’s been a bit of a hiatus on the blog. I guess it’s a case of ‘wintering’ when the motivation to write hibernates for a while. I’m pretty sick of all the lies being dressed up as truths in these haphazard pandemic times. I guess people step up or really step down in times of… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Building new foundations
When my nan and grandad bought their own house after the war, money was tight and so they got stuck into anything that needed doing on the house… ‘When we went to Ashcombe Road, we had had little experience of DIY so it was very new territory. The garage was a tumble down do-it-yourself affair… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: DIY
In Nan’s era, it was assumed once you got married that you would give up work, have children and spend all your days on unpaid childcare and housework. Sounds like pandemic-era Britain! ‘Taking the children out every day, either in the morning or afternoon, didn’t leave much time during the day for washing, ironing and… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Childcare
With everyone stuck at home, I’m enjoying the descriptions of domestic life in my Nan’s memoirs. She talks of many things in her daily life as she raised three boys under four. This excerpt is from the time when she was living in a flat within a large country house called Feldemore in Surrey, which… Continue reading Nan’s Diary: Life at Home
My Beautiful Diary of the Amazingly Mundane 