Blog

Bullying. How we dealt with it when our children were bullied.

All three of my children suffered bullying at school, though mercifully in moderate forms.   All three were (and are) strong personalities who were able to step aside from it to an extent.  All three also kept it more-or-less to themselves for a long time. This told me two things – one was that there […]

Posted 12 years ago

People in my books: Greg. An English couple move to New Caledonia, 1960s.

Greg was a man’s man.  He liked boats, engines, tractors, fishing nets, wet and oily things.  He was serious, but brilliant at telling a joke.  He was hard-working but enjoyed a couple of drinks with his friends.  He was honest, but open to ideas for making a quick buck.  The cold didn’t bother him and […]

Posted 12 years ago

People in my books: Mana-oua-oua. The Kanak people of the South Pacific.

Born and raised on the island, Mana-oua-oua (meaning seagull) was an unaffected, straight-forward girl with no particular aspirations except to be good, honest, and to one day marry and have children.  It was all she wanted in life and, although the cinema had come to Noumea and she sometimes saw posters for films and pictures […]

Posted 12 years ago

Working in Kurdistan, Iraq. US volunteer and aid worker in Iraq.

Our guest blog this week comes from a very dear friend working in Kurdistan, Iraq.  For obvious reasons it is best she remain anonymous.   When I first moved to Kurdistan, Iraq for work almost nine months ago, there was some confusion and maybe some concern among my family and friends about my decision. For […]

Posted 12 years ago

Bullfinch; facts about the bullfinch – in a nutshell !

  A few bullfinch facts:- – there are 4 varieties of bullfinch – they can be found all over Europe, Asia and Japan – they stay with the same partner all year, maybe for many years – they have two or three broods of eggs each year – females are dominant over the males – […]

Posted 12 years ago

French is a beautiful language. Do you speak French ?

People often say to me “French is such a beautiful language” and yes – it is.  It sounds pleasant when you don’t understand it, and it is pleasant when you do.  Some languages are unattractive to our English-speaking ears.  Chinese always sounds somewhat ying-yongy (though I have never been to China and only spent a […]

Posted 12 years ago

Jesus is watching you. For Christians with humour!

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said, ‘Jesus knows you’re here.’ He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more, he shook his head and continued. Just as he pulled […]

Posted 12 years ago

Snippets of French history: the storming of the Bastille 1789. Part 3.

The Bastille was a medieval fortress in the centre of Paris, comparable to the Tower of London, where prisoners were kept.  Like the Tower of London, it was a representation of royal authority ie. your average horse thief was not kept there.  When the storming of the Bastille took place there were just seven prisoners. […]

Posted 12 years ago

Snippets of French history: Jean-Paul Marat, the French Revolution 1789-1799. Part 2.

The French Revolution in a nutshell, continued …  France, circa 1780 Although Marat (1743-1793) claimed to be a physician, he had no qualifications, and his reputation as a physician was born when he managed to cure his friend of gonorrea.  He was interested in medicine and in the sciences in general and worked as an […]

Posted 12 years ago

Snippets of French history: les sans culottes and the French Revolution 1789-1799. Part 1.

Several people have asked me to write a “in-a-nutshell” summary of the French Revolution.  But I just can’t.  The politics of the years leading up to the Revolution, and the different factions, and factions within factions, in a constantly-changing political situation would be impossible to fit in to anything other than a very fat book. […]

Posted 12 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing