Comments on: The Gentle Author’s Christmas

By: Krissy Underdown

Krissy Underdown — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 09:35:57 +0000

What superb writing – I was transported to another time and place so effectively. I love this Gentle Author – the subtle humour, the poignancy of the situation. The opening parents’ concerns about driving reminded me of my parents’ wrangling over timings and whether the turkey was cooked or not in an era when the huge bird seemed to go into the oven at the crack of dawn and the smell of brussels being boiled to death filled the air. Thank you so much – Dickens couldn’t have made it any more evocative.

By: mlaiuppa

mlaiuppa — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 02:04:56 +0000

Now that you have no genetic family left, you are free to create your own with the friends around you. Share the stories and pass on some of the family heirlooms and traditions.

What ever became of that rosebush?

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 19:30:16 +0000

Thanks, as always.

By: Ron Bunting

Ron Bunting — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:09:08 +0000

That reminds me a lot of Christmases sometimes with our family ,except my family is enormous . Mums mother had 17 kids, Dad had four sibling’s. Now the family is so big it requires a Gedcom file to keep track of who is related to whom.
But the old enemy time has revealed so much of where we come from, ggg grand parents who were freed African slaves, Some were descended from Huguenot refugees and lived in Spitalfields, Hackney and Clerkenwell, And mums mother, Married to one of the last full blood Maoris in New Zealand but who lineage can be traced directly back to Nobility, who were deeply involved with the Tudors.
Have you ever explored your Grandmothers life story? My own grandmother died in 1943 from TB as did one of her sisters and a younger brother. Your grandmothers letter mirrors my own Grans experience in her last days at a sanitorium in New Zealand. Even sleeping outside on the verandas .Yey an uncle,arrived home from being a POW during WW2 in the late 40’s having been cured by the then New drugs available back then.
Happy new Year!

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 17:05:46 +0000

I am sad for that young child, and all that your mother suffered.

You have faithfully spoken her story so well.

By: Jenny Newall

Jenny Newall — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 11:24:29 +0000

Thank you so much for this beautiful private story.

By: Geoff Frewin

Geoff Frewin — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 10:27:41 +0000

Beautiful writing, as I sit here on the 27th December reading this, it brings back so many Xmas memories for me of family,relatives and of a time and place …like my family now long gone.
Thank you so much.

By: Christina Gregoriou

Christina Gregoriou — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 09:51:28 +0000

A beautifully told story that I felt I was walking in every space with you.
Thank you
Christina

By: Isabel Flynn

Isabel Flynn — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 04:22:14 +0000

PS: Loved the germane wood carvings too

By: Isabel Flynn

Isabel Flynn — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 04:18:46 +0000

Thank you, GA, for your real Christmas reminiscence. So bittersweet it brings tears to my eyes. I am hurtled back in time to my family’s festive and unfestive functions here in Australia.

I do enjoy all your stories and meeting or farewelling the Spitalfields characters.
Long may you reign and fight for Spitalfields.