New Year. Same old?

Welcome to my new website and my new blog. It's 2024, a new year, that comes with all its hopes and dreams. But what will change in my life? After all, it's a new year, but am I destined to remain the same old me?

Literature is full of heroes undergoing challenges that change them. From King Lear to Pride and Prejudice, from Huckleberry Finn to Toni Morrison's Beloved. In each, a central character is profoundly changed by their experiences.

We only have to look at the news to see how migration and war affect people, changing their perspectives and altering their empathies. Yet how many of us travel on holiday demanding our home comforts? We want clean beds, food that is palatable, a safe place to swim, someone who speaks our language, and a glossy history on view. We see and we switch off. We travel, but we don't change.

Last year, I wrote Daisy Chain (March'23 Claret Press), a novel set in 1930's USA. After reading my book, my son and his family went to see Wilderstein, the historic house in the Hudson River Valley that is central to the story.

Literature can promote understanding of times gone past or of universal emotions. It also promotes travel, and I am hoping that this year, those of us who travel, will go to a new shore, determined to eat local food, understand the living conditions for local labour, learn local history and some words in another language.

Start by finding a book that takes you on a journey.

In this way, we read, we change, we empathise, we experience. May this year, 2024, offer you the chance to walk a mile in someone else's shoes and find a new you.

January 2024

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