Weather

The weather is so beautiful it’s almost an accusation. The phrase ‘Queen’s Weather ‘ kept coming into my head while I was out walking – the phrase for the beautiful weather that was said to mark Queen Victoria’s appearances in public. I’ve kept it in my head since I first heard Alan Bennett’s play ‘Forty Years On’ which I greatly admire.

I’ve been thinking in the last few days about Vera Brittain’s ‘Testament of Youth.’ I read it first when I was much younger not far from Vera’s age during the First World War and I’ve read it again quite recently. It’s quality is extraordinary but when I read it for the second time I was almost overwhelmed by how terrible it must have been to live in a constant state of anticipation of bad news arriving. The sense of certainty that it must come, may have happened but has yet to arrive. It makes the courage that underpins the book so remarkable.

Yesterday I listened to a reading of Antonia Barber’s wonderful children’s story ‘The Mousehole Cat’ on the radio. It was hugely reassuring.