tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post1840545554443124151..comments2024-03-09T11:34:22.175+00:00Comments on The History Girls: 'Living With History' by A L BerridgeMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-20951521431114307172011-11-22T22:11:46.517+00:002011-11-22T22:11:46.517+00:00* loves Buffy Squirrel *
And that is a heck of a l...<i>* loves Buffy Squirrel *</i><br />And that is a heck of a lot of bridges. I'm beginning to think I must be almost reasonable in comparison...<br /><br />And Imogen - that's a wonderful thought. <i> We could have been accountants!</i> Just think of it - all those regular hours, weekends, good steady money.... oh, wait...alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-35535886502814979672011-11-22T20:49:07.676+00:002011-11-22T20:49:07.676+00:00Great post. My husband dragged me ALL ROUND Glasgo...Great post. My husband dragged me ALL ROUND Glasgow looking at bridges, trying to find the bridge that featured in Brond until I was exhausted. And I never even got to see the freaking bridge.<br /><br />Loved 'In the Name of the King', btw. I couldn't wait for the first book to arrive and devoured 'Name' whole....nonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415222406280230021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-56734122345262525682011-11-21T10:33:12.536+00:002011-11-21T10:33:12.536+00:00God, all so true. Ned puts up with me completely i...God, all so true. Ned puts up with me completely ignoring him when I'm writing. He sometimes emails me from the other end of the flat. That said, I remember apologising for not being in the room mentally one time, and he said, 'at least you always have interesting things to talk about when you come back. I'm just glad you're not an accountant. What if you wanted to talk to me about tax law?' That made me feel better. He and a couple of other of the partners of writer friends of mine refer to themselves as 'HaBs' - husbands and boyfriends. Apparently when they talk it's normally not to complain, but just to sympathise about seeing your beloved writer go through all the emotional trauma they inflict on their characters.Imogenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08925800621947616280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-78089569239427165092011-11-20T22:47:47.725+00:002011-11-20T22:47:47.725+00:00Hello, Jan! And you're right - thank you for r...Hello, Jan! And you're right - thank you for reminding me of the <i>good</i> things about living with a historian too. Something else I remembered was that it was he who took us to see 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', when I'd have been about 9. We were far too young to see Cardigan frolicking in a corset, but something must have stuck for me to be writing about it all these years later... The Charge, I mean, not the corset.<br /><br />Dianne - thank you so much. It's sad to see so many of us in the same position, with parents who died before we ever published our first books. I wonder if historical fiction writers tend to start later in life than those who write contemporary?alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-58712259495993650692011-11-20T21:06:58.642+00:002011-11-20T21:06:58.642+00:00This was just the most perfect post for a Sunday e...This was just the most perfect post for a Sunday evening when one is in any case feeling introspective. My father too never knew I'd ever write a book and my mother held my first one in her hands,then died 6 months later. As to the long-suffering husbands! I feel immensely guilty and selfish for living so much in my own head... which made your tribute Graham so much more touching. Thank you! And thank you Louisa... you touched a nerve here.Dianne Hofmeyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222157214605257030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-90422843965834437042011-11-20T20:59:16.186+00:002011-11-20T20:59:16.186+00:00Fantastic Louise! You brought back some lovely hap...Fantastic Louise! You brought back some lovely happy memories of our father. He inspired us in so many ways, not least with a love for times gone by - I still listen to music from the Edwardian era! This is, of course, another possible aspect of living with an historian - what other 10 year-olds would have been glued to 'The Forsyte Saga' on TV? ...and, of course, it was he who took us to see 'Zulu' and sowed the seeds for a life-long love, not only of the film but of history itself.Janet (sister)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-29350766493753853262011-11-20T18:04:55.434+00:002011-11-20T18:04:55.434+00:00Thank you so much, Linda and Becky - but I think s...Thank you so much, Linda and Becky - but I think some of the comments here are a lot more moving than the original post!<br /><br />Graham - Your comment is so beautifully written I wish we'd had it as a Guest Blog-Post of its own. Michelle is a very lucky History Girl - but then you already know you're lucky too. It must be quite magical to live in the circle with someone who has an imagination like hers.<br /><br />Anonymous #2 - You take the prize today. You wrote ONE sentence, and brought the tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing, and I only hope my post didn't evoke anything too painful.<br /><br />Harriet - Yes, yes, yes! The 'glazed look' is exactly what Paul complains about. It's the 'top brain' in this century, 'bottom layer' in another.<br />And the redundancy too. I have a worse confession, which is that when Paul says he's going to our place in Nottingham he knows perfectly well there's a bit of me that's actually GLAD. Not really, of course, and I miss him like mad when he's away, but there's something so wonderful about not needing to stop for trivia like meals....<br /><br />Theresa - what a brilliant idea. I'd suggest the 'H(a)G-ridden', but it's rather unwieldy. I doubt any of us would mind what it's really called, as long as it's not 'the Resistance'.alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-55339559785171889532011-11-20T17:15:15.127+00:002011-11-20T17:15:15.127+00:00Re previous posts and in particular Graham's P...Re previous posts and in particular Graham's POV + Rebecca's husband's suggestion of the Partners Going For A Pint - should we suggest they form some sort of Association? They could have meetings and a help line to phone if in imminent danger of being maimed by a medieval instrument. Any ideas for a suitable name?Theresa Breslinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02240135723649161949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-31729597673626793792011-11-20T17:01:35.358+00:002011-11-20T17:01:35.358+00:00What a wonderfully touching, bell-ringing and funn...What a wonderfully touching, bell-ringing and funny post (I love 'in imminent danger of doing the splits' especially!). Thank you so much, Louise. My husband's oft-repeated question to me 'Are you with us?' ('us' being him and the children) reminds me how many times I am with them in body but with glazed eyes and a mind elsewhere. They all put up with a great deal. My worst sin was poor concealment of my excitement when he was made redundant, poor thing, since this meant he could look after our youngest child (then 2) while I wrote (a book I was desperate to work on, which became 'VIII'). That's worse than the kneeing or the tent peg. By miles.H.M. Castorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08716936870601385683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-11830757833170344392011-11-20T16:03:24.237+00:002011-11-20T16:03:24.237+00:00Your post brought tears to my eyes and made me wis...Your post brought tears to my eyes and made me wish I had known my own father.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-26878042651597749852011-11-20T13:29:58.625+00:002011-11-20T13:29:58.625+00:00A reply on behalf on all those on the other side.
...A reply on behalf on all those on the other side.<br /><br />I found this very touching. Not just as the husband of a history girl, which makes it all seems very familiar, but I also enjoyed the admiration for a generation now gone.<br /><br />I would love to indulge even for a moment in the long-suffering role as companion to a writer of historical/fantasy fiction. There are so many times when I am meant to know what is going on and I don't, so many references I<br />couldn't possibly remember even if I took notes. Moreover, I have been<br />subliminally infected by so many curious expectations - such as the fact that cats and statues can talk, or that ghosts come at different temperatures, or that anorexic nuns in Peru might be expected to lick the<br />cobwebs off their cell walls. All these things are even now in my<br />subconscious.<br /><br />All that said, there is another side to this. That is the constant<br />privilege it is to be so close to someone with such imagination, with such an ability to be somewhere else and with such consummate skill in writing<br />the sentence in a minute that I would never be able to do if I had a year.<br /><br />Yes, there are frustrations. And yes, I know whatever it is, it will be my fault, but we who live with you just feel lucky that we were ones you picked to live with in your imagined pasts and imaginative presents. It is nice that you care but we have just as much to be grateful for. It is an<br />honour to be in your lives.<br /><br />Graham Morrison, husband of HG Michelle Lovric, who on Sunday in Venice, has just come back from<br />inspecting a very nice Lamb of God, a mysterious black coffin and a dozen reliquaries at the Frari Church, where the poor guard was also interrogated about the shape of the steps going up to the bell-tower.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-36178422711358529842011-11-20T13:17:33.443+00:002011-11-20T13:17:33.443+00:00I'm almost afraid to show this post to my husb...I'm almost afraid to show this post to my husband, Louise - he'd be nodding his head in emphatic agreement and asking me when he could take yours for a pint. <br /><br />What a lovely, moving tribute to your father - you had me tearing up.Rebeccahttp://rburrell.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-18011138484321020902011-11-20T10:52:07.805+00:002011-11-20T10:52:07.805+00:00I found your post very moving and true. Ditto Kat...I found your post very moving and true. Ditto Katherine's comment, above. Thank you.Linda B-Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01599899073420595717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-36413787895634635082011-11-20T10:48:20.822+00:002011-11-20T10:48:20.822+00:00Thanks for a lovely comment, Theresa - but being d...Thanks for a lovely comment, Theresa - but being dragged into the Cistern is going to take some beating. I'm ashamed to say I had to google that in order to eliminate some very bizarre images from my mind...<br /><br />Adele - That's so awful. 62 is tragically young, and it must have been a dreadful thing for you to deal with.<br />And handwriting - yes. It's logical, I suppose, as everyone of a certain age was taught to write in that particular way, but it still has the power to sock you in the solar plexus. An old lady in my road gave me some home-made jam a couple of years ago, and the handwritten label could have been my mother's...alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-41616330740305482832011-11-20T10:41:11.030+00:002011-11-20T10:41:11.030+00:00Katherine - Of course, the mood swings! That's...Katherine - Of course, the mood swings! That's absolutely the worst thing, and I can't believe I forgot to mention it. Snarly-grumpy is spot-on right too. Thank you for completing the picture!<br /><br />Katie - Yes. That's it exactly. It was the same here, and I never even thought of writing until after both my parents had died. That yearning to share our achievements never quite loses its grip, does it?<br />Thank you so much for sharing this - that image of your mother holding a copy of your book in her hand is going to haunt me for a long time.alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-6700221058471361462011-11-20T10:40:36.763+00:002011-11-20T10:40:36.763+00:00This is a most moving and lovely post and makes me...This is a most moving and lovely post and makes me miss MY dad who was very young (62) when he died and who never knew I was going to be a writer. The thing that really made me shiver was your father's handwriting which was so like my own father's. Quite, quite spooky! But a really super post, Louise.adelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15826710558292792068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-20361645435417283572011-11-20T10:35:02.337+00:002011-11-20T10:35:02.337+00:00SA: The tent-peg - now THAT's class. I feel I&...SA: The tent-peg - now THAT's class. I feel I'm not in your league! Thank you so much for posting and reassuring me I'm not the only weird one...<br />And you met my dad! The odd thing is I never really saw him in his academic setting, so I envy you that. He'll have been very pompous (bless him, but hopefully entertaining as well.alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-62416808610308120642011-11-20T10:32:42.092+00:002011-11-20T10:32:42.092+00:00What a lovely tribute to your dad and honest ackno...What a lovely tribute to your dad and honest acknowledgment of the debt we owe to our families - although it was my husband who dragged me down into the Cistern in Istanbul.Theresa Breslinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02240135723649161949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-9069611745993474062011-11-20T10:21:07.960+00:002011-11-20T10:21:07.960+00:00This blog sang on so many levels, Louise. The dou...This blog sang on so many levels, Louise. The double life, and very poignantly of the loss of a parent before your own work began. I sometimes find myself almost (not always almost) in tears at the kitchen sink, rather selfishly wishing I could see my mother with a copy of Blood Red Horse in her hand. She died before I even thought of writing it. Apropos the double life, my son, aged 10 or so, asked why, if I needed to spend so much time with Richard the Lionheart, he couldn't come to tea.K. M. Granthttp://www.kmgrant.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-60697748779327848912011-11-20T10:14:47.659+00:002011-11-20T10:14:47.659+00:00I so relate to this - and the mood swings, too: un...I so relate to this - and the mood swings, too: unrelated to anything going on in the real world, all to do with what's going on the writing (and HOW the writing is going) so one's poor spouse comes home to snarly, grumpy, don't-want-to-talk-about-it-leave-me-alone - and mine too is remarkably tolerant of the whole thing.Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-64580147316501862112011-11-20T09:59:43.540+00:002011-11-20T09:59:43.540+00:00And, and.... I think I had dinner or lunch with yo...And, and.... I think I had dinner or lunch with your dad at Emmanuel when my PhD supervisor was the Master of Emma :-)Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-62104174816825635632011-11-20T09:56:19.112+00:002011-11-20T09:56:19.112+00:00I'm so glad Paul is still supportive and long-...I'm so glad Paul is still supportive and long-suffering. I know what you mean about inflicting your research on other people. Been there, done that. Dragged someone round Venice in the rain to see how long it takes to run from one place to another, exposed self and other to plague bacillus, and - more recently - asked someone to lie on the floor to see if it's possible to drive a tent peg through his chest into the ground (didn't do it, just measuring!)Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.com