What a year the world has had! For Marc and me here in Wales is has been perfectly bearable because we are lucky enough to live in a beautiful place, with our own land around us and plenty of walks from the door. Our local shops have all risen to the occasion by delivering food, and so we have hardly had to leave our own terrain. In an odd way we have almost enjoyed the enforced idleness and peace and quiet. without the usual run of visitors, But although on the surface we have been ok, for us as for so many, underneath there has been sadness and anxiety and a horrible grief as various friends and family members have passed away during the year, some from Covid and some from other causes.
I don’t quite know why but the whole situation, the total mismanagement of Covid by the UK government, my distress about the prospect of leaving the EU and the awful xenophobia that Brexit has brought to the surface in this country, has sapped my creativity and although I do have a nice idea for a new wartime series, I just haven’t so far felt like putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard!)
But now here we are at the end of the year, with 2021 just over the horizon. I wonder what it will bring. For now the situation in the UK is dire, the infections rate has got out of control, the deaths are rocketing again, the vast majority of people (including us) are locked down, and although the vaccines are becoming available it is going to take a lot of time for them to be rolled out successfully. But at least there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
One of the lovely things that has happened for me this year is that I have received more than usual numbers of messages from readers saying that they have found reassurance and comfort from my books, that even in the darkest times people can find the strength and resilience to persevere and overcome.
Perhaps in 2021 the world will settle down again, the US elections have already brought some sanity, and there has been an upsurge of kindness in local communities worldwide. As was shown during the Second World War the situation has brought out the best in many people (although sadly not all!), and once again perhaps, if the good forces can prevail over the bad, we might be on the way towards building a kinder, more tolerant society. That at least would be my fervent hope. That is certainly what Winston Churchill hoped when he laid the foundations for a united Europe.
In the meantime I thank you all for your continued support, and wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year.
Stay safe ….
Helen x
Thank you for the Lavender Road series of books. I say I love the one I am reading more than the previous ( I am on the fifth) but no…..I love them all.
Fascinating interesting and fun to follow the characters. I am very much into World War 2 and I know they are fiction but I love reading the true behind what these people have lived through. I know this Covid thing and isolation is hampering us and understand you not wanting to put pen to paper. I also feel like sitting back and watching life go by. This thing makes you want to do this. But please do some day (pen to paper). I have so enjoyed your novels and look forward to the sixth when I finish the fifth.
Hi Susan, thank you so much for getting in touch. I am delighted that you are enjoying my Lavender Road books. I hope you continue to enjoy Book Five, and that Book Six, Victory Girls, will finish off the series nicely for you.
Do tell your friends, and if you have time to pop a review onto Amazon or Goodreads that would be great. It all helps.
Many thanks again for your lovely comments. I will certainly let you know if and when I write another book! All best wishes, Helen
Here in Ireland we too are in lock down again. It is depressing. Our numbers are flying up. My eldest girl lives in London and is really feeling it. She couldn’t come home for Christmas and has actually not been home for a full year now. It’s all so damn frustrating.
However, good wishes to you and your husband for the New Year and hopefully we’ll have some hope of normality in the near future.
Yes indeed. All fingers crossed for a better year. Stay safe.
Thank you… what is it that is sapping the creative energy in us? I am an artist…. drawing constantly as a child, went through a time when I wanted to be a dress designer, but simple didn’t have the guts!
Got married and then with me in tow my husband who is far more adventurous than I, suggest emigration… so we did … and now live in Canada.
Our marriage was one where I was allowed ..no encouraged to become my own person…children … then just so quickly it seemed ,faced with them off to school…. now what? What about me? That’s when I realized I could do whatever I wanted… do things I had wanted to try… went to University.. Fine arts focus.. but my degree would be education. Drama, Music, Art classes….
Fast forward, yes I taught….but on retirement , besides travel and exploring the world with my husband… art kept my interested… which I explored….workshops ,classes… never a dull moment…plus I design all my own clothes and when in Mexico have a very good seamstress.
Then suddenly in 2000 had a very , very sick husband who was knocking at the “ pearly gates “ I couldn’t do my art as I would go too far into right side of my brain… I simple didn’t hear him if he needed me, so I started writing as it was a way to express all that I was feeling.
During my husbands long journey to better health that’s when I started my interest in genealogy…which then sparked my first novel…
I had read a couple of your books and thought it would be cool to write and add to my list of I wish I could… it was perfect timing as I could research..write and still be aware of my husbands needs and what went on around me.
Your writing sparked that interest.. but it was there as a teacher I loved my students and taught creative writing…
What caused me to write to you is how you wrote today’s situations and you not writing! I seem to be able to write but not draw or paint! I understand perfectly.. However , you were my inspiration for my first novel … Everlasting Lies…so thank you. Barbara Warren…Canada.
Sent from my iPad
Thank you so much for your fascinating note. I am delighted to feel that I (albeit inadvertently) helped you become a writer. It is a very cathartic process. Although oddly enough when I was caring for my mother I found painting easier than writing, in that it was easier to stop suddenly if she needed me!
Anyway I am delighted to hear of your success, and wish you all the best for your creativity (in whatever form) in 2021, and a very Happy New Year, Helen
Thank you for your interesting summary of what 2020 has meant to you. My husband and I have been locked down in Johannesburg since March – we had one outing to the vet a few months ago so that Chappie could get her inoculations. Everything was undertaken wearing masks and with the correct social distancing. I wish you both well for 2021 and sincerely hope that next year will bring some relief to everyone.
Thank you. All best wishes to you and your husband for 2021! Helen