London Lives

On Woman’s Hour today they were speaking about writing about places and conveying that sense of place in your writing. They mentioned Nell Dunn, who I haven’t thought about for ages. She writes so well about London and the occupiers of various areas (Fulham, Battersea). I saw the film of Poor Cow at the Hampstead Everyman cinema years ago.

Also, my new Granta magazine has arrived (No 108, Autumn 2009). It is a special edition all about Chicago. Must remember to mention this to my pal, as her sister lives there. It lies fat, unread and full of potential on my living room table. I must sort out all this autumn/winter reading and viewing as it’s piling up now. Pleasantly piling up, though.

I’m very much enjoying Jen Morrison’s Realia blog. Its rationale is Pay attention – there’s a story everywhere you go, something which chimes very closely with me and this London Lives blog.

I saw Mr Shah on the Tube today. He didn’t see me. Mr Shah and his wife used to run the newsagent’s near where I used to work. They used to bicker constantly and complain if you walked in with a newspaper that you’d purchased elsewhere. I think the shop is a chicken place now. Mr Shah had strange hair and dry hands and was an odd local character along the road.

Great interview with Beth Ditto on Woman’s Hour, which I listened to on the way home. Interesting woman with things to say about her home town, her look and the debate about flat stomachs.

Earlier, I listened to some Front Row interviews with Marc Almond as well as William Trevor. Marc Almond is making some unusual Russian music (good to hear that he is  recovering well). William Trevor sounded slightly grand (as perhaps he should). The Independent once called him ‘The quiet chronicler of the lost and the damned‘ – a superb description. His Ballroom of Romance is one of my favourite short stories.

And Bloomsbury looked like this in the evening sunshine earlier. Serene.

Being off work is wonderful. There is something sumptuous about laying in the bath at 4pm, listening to Woman’s Hour on iPlayer. I’m a recent convert to the programme and usually listen to the podcasts on my way to work in the mornings.

Yesterday, they were discussing Operation Pied Piper as it is the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of children at the outbreak of World War II. My father grew up in London at this time and my grandmother refused to allow him and his brothers to be sent to the countryside. I was chatting to a researcher about this recently and he told me that this was quite a common thing at the time. Two of the women on the radio spoke of their memories of being an evacuated child. They seemed to have been relatively happy, but there was an underlying sense of lack during that time, and I don’t think that was only because of the war.

And now it’s one of the Beautiful Evenings here. Sunny, if a bit blustery, the Gherkin gleams in the distance and the sun reaches across all the rooftops around as it falls into shadow on the streets. It’s still sunny over on Highgate Hill. The quality of light here is beautiful.