On the recommendation of a writer friend of mine, I have been reading Alan Bennett’s “Writing Home,” lately. I peck away at it here and there, reading a few entries and then I let it rest on my bedside table for a while. It’s like having a box of chocolates (semisweet, please) at the ready.
Bennett is a remarkable person, and it occurs to me that this book of his is a kind of printed Blog. There are entries that are full-fledged stories, but sometimes it is just an anecdote, or his often-random thoughts of the day.
I guess they used to call them journals.
His stories of The Lady in the Van, the homeless woman who came to live outside his house in a derelict van, are funny, intelligent, and ultimately heart rending. In one entry he discusses her funeral in depth and it is not until then that he fully learns of her past.
He also threw items into the book he had seen written on bathroom walls, in the underground, or something someone said. I enjoy reading these little tidbits. So, in honor of Bennett, and because I don’t want to lose this, here is a bumper sticker I saw in the U.S. the last time I was there:
If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.
My sentiments exactly!
