The year 2015 fell into two distinct halves. Until May both of us were involved in the struggle to hold back the forces of mass populism led by Nigel Farage. He brought his narcissistic personality disorder and his gang of dodgy security guys and their far-right connections to Thanet for the duration of the election campaign (and some months before). I was co-chair of the local Stand up to UKIP branch and helped organise a demonstration against UKIP in February which was very peaceful, despite the best efforts of the English Defence League, the "Kent Patriots" and others to get at us.
The reward for all our efforts came when the loathesome Farage failed to win the seat, although at the time we were too cast down by the fact that UKIP won our council, and the Tories won a national majority. However, six months later, it is clear that UKIP has lost a lot of its momentum and the fact that NF doesn't have a Parliamentary seat will have contributed to that.. And here we see Nigel himself on election day, preparing for "one last push" down by Ramsgate Harbour. I took this from a considerable distance away - I tried to avoid contact with him during this period!
We took a break in the midst of the election campaign to go to Athens. We thought it might enthuse Finn for Classical Civilisation, which he was studying. I would be lying if I said it did, but he quite enjoyed it. I was really thrilled to see Athens for the first time, and to see hundreds of vase paintings and sculptures which I'd studied for two years at UCL - and visit some amazing places, both cliches like the Acropolis, and unexpectedly fabulous places like the ancient Agora with the Temple of Hephaistos (right) and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. And we went in spring, so there were flowers everywhere, and the grass was lush and green and heaving with tortoises. We are now desperate to go to Greece again.
After the elections there was a period of convalescence, and then the summer began, marked by an almost ritual trip to Norwich in late June to collect Ned and his possessions, via my father's birthday gathering, and including a lunch with John and Marge and Jeremy. . This was part of a series of small trips and family events that were dotted through the year. Mark also had trips away to conferences and for work. We visited Stella in Cardiff at Easter, and celebrated her 90th birthday in Berkshire in September. In July I went to Bath for a memorial party for my father's cousin Moyra Caldecott. Moyra was incredibly kind to me when I was in my teens, and it was lovely to see her again in the last few years, before the nightmarish aphasia set in (a terrifying disease for a writer to suffer, she must have been so frustrated). I let Pa drive me to Bath, thus making me officially the bravest member of my family, since all my siblings chorused "Don't let him drive!" Perhaps I have inherited his driving style, since I had my second speeding letter and had to do a speed awareness course (an exciting outing to far-flung Tonbridge Wells), so I now drive like an undertaker, instead of a minicab driver (despite which, I got stopped and "warned" by the police the other night. Horror!). We've also had a couple of day trips to France, but our summer holidays were strangely bitty, we had a lot of AirBnB guests - Ned went off a couple of times, including a trip to California, and then in August had a dreadful accident, and severely lacerated his face, falling through our French windows. I went to the hospital with him, while Mark swept up the copious amounts of blood. Ned was very good and brave, and the scars will fade in time, they hardly show in photos. He is busy with his band, The Shower Boys, writing music, doing essays, and having a good social life, to judge by Facebook, as well as a bit of politics.
Finn is half way through the A-levels, and he is not enjoying them much, apart from Media Studies. His current thought is to go and do a mechanics course at a local college next year, and then get into car repairing... This would obviously be tremendously useful, given our tendency to buy elderly cars. I am not convinced that this will be his final career choice, so watch this space. To compensate for unhappy experiences with Physics and Class Civ last year, he is doing the Government and Politics syllabus in one year, and thus initiating further political discussions in the house.
The second half of the year has been dominated by house repairs: first we had the roof repaired with a month of scaffolding. Then a ceiling fell in (unfortunately in our money-making AirBnB room, right in the middle of the hols), then the boiler broke down, then we had the ceiling repaired, and the room decorated and re-carpeted. Then, the much longed for bigger, warmer radiators were installed (together with a lavatory pan that had mysteriously cracked), this was too much for the boiler, which packed up and after 2 weeks with no heating or hot water (barring 2 days when the plumber did something temporary) we now have a new boiler, a really warm house and for the first time I have walked into our bedroom and found it warmer than the landing. Also packing up this autumn was the beloved VW Sharan - probably sulking since we'd bought a £300 brilliant Skoda (yes, the jokes are almost true - the insurance cost more than the car) for me and Finn to drive. So, despite the generous downsizing funding we received at the beginning of the year, we have had rather a wallet-mashing time recently, still, we have been able to pay off most of our debts.
Mark hasn't seen a leap in work this year, but there have been a few jobs in Cambridge, Brighton and .
London, with a few things in the pipeline too. He's also trying to get together a Heritage Lottery Fund bid which would provide him with some work, on the WW2 Defences of Thanet. Hannibal could have crossed the Alps a dozen times in the time it's taken to complete hisClaudius's Elephants book - but it really is nearly finished and he has plans to start writing fiction next. Here he is delivering a speech at his mother's 90th birthday party - sorry about poor quality, but everyone's laughing!
I started a novel in 2014 which was disrupted by politics. In May I resumed it, and by the end of July, the first draft of The Malice of Fairies was complete. I got really enthusiastic feedback from readers and some helpful advice on where to tighten it up, and felt ridiculously confident about it. A friend asked me to do a reading/tea party - they may have come for the cakes, but I was really touched that people genuinely enjoyed the readings! To date none of the agents I have submitted it to have shared the enthusiasm, so another year closes with more expectation and still nothing concrete. However, I've also had feedback from a publisher's editor on The Ash Grove, so I've begun a re-write of that, with a view to her showing it to her publishing house when I finish it. So, that's something. One last heave, nearly there, etc. (she said, through gritted teeth, for the nth time)..
Ned turned 21 this year and we celebrated with as many old friends and family as we could squash into the back garden. It was a lovely sunny day and very enjoyable. Finn turned 18, has a provisional driving licence and can now buy his own rolling tobacco and even be sent to the shop for gin (this eventuality has not yet arisen). Inevitably, when he finishes school this summer our life is going to be very different, not quite sure how yet! This picture shows Ned and Finn enjoying their grandmother's 90th birthday party. Ned's nose safely back in place after the accident! It was lovely to see so many of Mark's extended family there, a very jolly occasion. My sister Coellie turned 50 this year, and suggested we all sang Messiah at the Albert Hall on the day, which we did. It was stressful fun! Mark had sung it before, I thought I knew it, until I got the score and started practicing! It was going around my head for about 3 days afterwards. The final noteworthy event of the year was the sadly early death of my SA cousin, Antonella Greville. She was a warm, lovely person, who I got to know better through Facebook - no, social media isn't all bad, and I was always delighted to see her enthusiastic posts about green living and other congenial topics.
One of the best things about this year was that we managed to see a lot of people, so I haven't had to write "so sorry we haven't seen each other for so long" on ALL the cards this year. If we didn't see each other in 2015, let's hope 2016 will be a year for even more reunions.
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Happy christmas, LOVE and all good things for 2016
