Oh my, see where a blog leads me.
I started by looking up Angela Thirkell (1896-1961), English-Austrailan novelist, whose 30-some books were more popular in North America than in England or Australia, with their picture of middle-upper-class English surburbia. I read a number of them when I was nursing one of my children, probably Kate (b. 1956) and probably because they gave me a glimpse of a lifestyle I would never have. My one memory is the one that set me on this research.
A child has fallen into a mud puddle and her mother says, “Wicked one, wicked one. Go see Nanny.” I remember at the time I read it thinking how much more I would say, mainly because there was no Nanny. I was it. I was the one who would clean up the mess. It was a girl, by the way; girls weren’t supposed to get dirty. That’s my memory of Angela Thirkell—and it might be inaccurate due to my wishful thinking—and that’s how , 64 years later, I learned more about her than I had ever bothered to know.
Because I’ve been thinking about my grandchildren caring for their respective toddlers while both are working at home during the massive Covid-19 lock-down. They’ve been asking me how did I do it, with more than one (try four, one of them challenged), and trying (always) to write, but note this: there are two of them, to spell each other off. . That’s when (a little later) I started to go away to write—retreats, seminars, workshops, etc: Banff, McDowell Colony,a friend’s home in Bermuda where I looked after the dogs and wrote, plus grants and advances, etc.—buying time and space to work.
BIG INTERRUPTION. IT’S NOW TOMORROW. WE BOTH (LAPTOP AND I) needed recharging. I still do.My other bit of research led me to something I didn’t know about at all. The Patience of Angels. Like many well-known phrases, it became the title and subject of a song. (I have often thought that to write a good song one just needs a book of clichés. Of course, one would need talent too.) “The Patience of Angels” was written and sung by Eddi (Sedonia) Reader (b. 1959), a Scottish singer-songwriter, awarded an MBE in 2006, and who has four honorary doctorates in letters and music.
Wow.
Maybe you knew that already.
Research takes patience.
It keeps me very humble.