Comments on: The Gentle Author’s Christmas

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 08:59:57 +0000

Our childhood upbringings make us who we are, hopefully kinder and more generous, or as generous in spirit than those who have gone before us. Your parents sound like they were both caring and understanding people. a trait which you have inherited.

By: Bob Ball

Bob Ball — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 12:19:52 +0000

Happy New Year GA. Your Christmas story is as familiar to me as a Christmas Carol. And yet I read every single word as if you wrote it yesterday. My own writing lately is full of nostalgia and in my case a family that existed before I was born. I too am the last of that family I grew up in.
You inspire me by bringing to life a bygone age . Discoveries about your family that you never knew when they were alive. It’s a masterpiece even by your standards.

By: Mike Marriott

Mike Marriott — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 20:20:56 +0000

Thank you for being there everyday GA.

You are very much appreciated…….

By: Peter Holford

Peter Holford — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 17:05:26 +0000

Thank you, GA, for your consistently high quality posts throughout another year which are always a pleasure to read.

Your family experiences really strike a chord with me. Like you I am an only child and grew up in a wildly dysfunctional and geographically dispersed, extended family. I also had a grandmother who lived 200 miles away in Yorkshire who I dreaded visiting. Although my father was acceptable to her, I was a problem child who had to be brought to God.

A lot of parallels with some variations but like you I learned to survive!

By: K Sherwood

K Sherwood — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 11:22:43 +0000

A lovely tale of memories, family and days gone by. I always feel Christmas above all other times is one for reflection, of people long gone and things we did or had to do. As children we would wake up open our presents, but no time to play, breakfast, then out to visit a friend of my Dad to whom Dad had promised to visit on Christmas Day each year, we did so for over 20 years. Then we’d drive home but no time for playing its time for lunch, so family would arrive and then food, the Queen, tea and before you knew it bed. No wonder even today with parents long gone Boxing Day still remains the day when there’s more time and freedom just to do what you want
Merry Christmas everyone

By: S. Oakley

S. Oakley — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 16:14:18 +0000

What a deeply moving remembrance of Christmas past! The older I get, the more aware I am that we don’t love our families (or, indeed, anyone) because they’re perfect. We love them because they’re ours.

By: Colin Allen

Colin Allen — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 13:09:02 +0000

Hiya GA
First and foremost, a huge thank you for keeping me sane through 2021!
Even though I have been subscribed to you since day one, and bought most of your books, I have NO IDEA who you are, or what you look like!
Having been born in Bethnal Green, and working in London all my working life, I know intimately most of the places you highlight.
I am now retired and spend my time between France and South Devon. We live on the coast and are only a few miles from Dartmoor.
But…. Oh my God!…. I am missing my London so much!
I try to come back at least twice a year and visit the old areas…..Pie and Mash…Beigel Bake…..
Wheelers for Oysters.
Then on to Spitalfields, and Smithfield Market….Brick Land…Covent Garden, and then all the personal areas of my youth.
My dream is to sell up and come home….if possible. But, in the meantime, sunshine, I have you and your fabulous blog.
Stay safe, and a Happy New Year to you.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 11:25:42 +0000

I am sure this account resonates with others who had difficult family Christmases. My husband’s were fraught as his younger brother was their mother’s blue eyed boy, he was extremely spoilt by her and everything had to revolve round him. Even watching TV on Christmas Day was a nightmare as it had to be tuned to what he wanted to watch or he’d have a massive tantrum and create a scene – it ended up with their father going to bed after dinner one year.
He’s still like that in his 50s, he also never moved out of his parents house and has never paid any rent or bills. My father in law is now widowed and was spending Christmas with my sister in law, but she refused to have her brother because he would ruin the day for everyone by being a middle aged brat.

By: Milo

Milo — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 04:10:41 +0000

Lying here on my bed in 42C heat in Perth, W.A. i am far far from home, family and friends back in Blighty. Believe me, homesickness IS a thing and manifests itself physically sometimes.

So it was nice to go back in your life and find the similarities – and the differences – to my childhood.

Thanks for that.Happy new year.

By: Suse

Suse — Sun, 26 Dec 2021 02:46:21 +0000

I’ve been reading your blog for years but never read this before. Being outside Britain (though having lived there in the past), the class dimension is so striking – the English used to be, perhaps still are, obsessed with the markers of class, always wanting to differentiate themselves and put others down (though some of those at the ‘bottom’ also wanted to fiercely reject the ones above, sometimes on a personal level for no very good reason except an accent.) I love the curiosity and acceptance that emanates from your blog, you have left the pettiness of your grandmother far behind. I wish your mother had been able to turn up with ‘disheveled’ hair in the first place!