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'Contacts' by Mark Watson

I chose to read this because on the summary on the back of the book grabbed my attention in a Library. A man considering suicide sends a goodbye message on his phone to his entire contacts and switches off his phone. What unfolds over his train journey is the events that took their toll on his mental health and led him there and the reactions of friends and family to his devastating message.

Incredibly sad in parts and funny in others, it highlights how easily we can all lose our way and sink into depression, but also the power we now have with social media to affect the lives of those we care about in a positive way. I won't spoil the ending but I did find 'Contacts' a resonant and worthwhile read.

By Mat Sheldrick

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In our last newsletter, we read that having plants at home has a positive influence on emotional mood and well-being during lockdown by reducing stress, anxiety and improving air quality.  

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In our last newsletter, we read that having plants at home has a positive influence on emotional mood and well-being during lockdown by reducing stress, anxiety and improving air quality.  

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We asked whether you keep house plants and found they help lift your mood or not. These are some of the lovely picture submissions we received in response:
They definitely lift ours!

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In the spirit of February being LGBT+ History Month, here are 21 books you need to add to your 2021 reading list:

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In the spirit of February being LGBT+ History Month, here are 21 books you need to add to your 2021 reading list:

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There’s a fantastic mixture of LGBTQ+ narratives, recommended anti-racism reads, and a few intriguing favourites.

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Reading is fundamental and we're to put that into practice. Many of us spend our time comfort watching the same TV shows, flicking through social media pages, or doom scrolling through Tik Tok. While the internet can offer some escapism from our daily online routines, reading can be a refreshing getaway from an overload of articles, live streams and tweets.

Seeking out a new skill is a great way to distract your mind from the chaos outside and picking up a new book is the perfect easy-going activity to get started on. It doesn't matter if you're a regular reader or a newbie, GAY TIMES has put together an accessible list of books that can give your brain a bit of a break.

So, whether you're looking for some mysterious queer dark academia or you've been on an It's A Sin binge and want to learn more about the AIDS crisis, we've got you covered. Check out the list below to find my top 21 randomly assorted recommendations. Selected from the realm of anti-racism reads to engaging LGBTQ+ stories, you'll be sure to find something to enjoy.

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21 iconic books you need to add to your reading list

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Reading is fundamental and we're to put that into practice. Many of us spend our time comfort watching the same TV shows, flicking through social media pages, or doom scrolling through Tik Tok. While the internet can offer some escapism from our daily online routines, reading can be a refreshing getaway from an overload of articles, live streams and tweets.

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Does the first glimpses of pink and white blossom this time of the year bring joy to your world. It does to mine. I take inspiration from the Japanese Custom of Hanami, the viewing and celebration of blossom. See the article below detailing this yearly event in more detail and a picture of one of my very strange Cherry Blossom trees... It has a dual personality... One half flowers in pink from now for approximately a month and the other half flowers in white from mid April...
https://jw-webmagazine.com/what-is-hanami/
Enjoy the beauty of Spring!

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The 4th of March 2021 is World Book Day!
We have a lovely collection of fiction in the Library for you to 'Click and Collect' and there are some wonderful ways to get involved on the day via this link.
https://www.worldbookday.com/

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Spring really feels like it has begun and I recently discovered some lovely activities you can do with the kids on the Woodland Trusts this Spring. Time to get outside and enjoy! 

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Spring really feels like it has begun and I recently discovered some lovely activities you can do with the kids on the Woodland Trusts this Spring. Time to get outside and enjoy! 

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https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2021/03/lockdown-activities-for-kids-6-ideas-for-spring/

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Whilst researching great female authors to highlight via social media on International Women's Day, I was reminded of this fabulous read. I was first introduced to this novel when studying for my A levels many moons ago, and like many books I read back then (The Rainbow by D H Lawrence and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee) I have re read in my older years with different eyes and to greater pleasure.
The book is set in the deep American South and tells the storey of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. She faces many shocking events in her childhood but then she meets a glamorous singer. Shug Avery is a woman who has taken charge of her life. This inspires and empowers Celie to discover the joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.'

The book initially shocked me back in the day with the topics it covered by I now celebrate it for covering so many themes including racism, sexism and oppression. Its funny, its sad and very moving. A powerful read.

By Emma Crack

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'This Lie Will Kill You' by Chelsea Pitcher.

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'This Lie Will Kill You' by Chelsea Pitcher.

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My 13 year old daughter has just finished this and insisted I brought copies for her friends as presents. That's a good review in itself from a teenager, I think!
The book is based on the moral, Tell the truth or face the consequences! That hooked my daughter from the start.

Basically, there was a party and at the party, someone died. Five teenagers all played a part but seemingly, no one is telling the truth. The five survivors of the party then get lured to an isolated mansion in the hope to win a cash prize in a contest, but some things are too good to be true!
Five arrived, but not all can leave. Will the truth set them free?

Now obviously, my teenager did not sit and explain that blurb to me, I got the gist off the back of the book... But it sounds like a great read even to me!
By Emma Crack Via Isla

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Supporting Apprenticeship students with online resources

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Supporting Apprenticeship students with online resources

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With National Apprenticeship Week 2021 in full swing - here's how we support our apprenticeship learners with access to online resources. Check out some of our ebooks supporting Plumbing, Carpentry & Electrical Installations.

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'My Garden World' by Monty Don                                                I was brought this book as a Christmas gift thinking it was going to be hints and tips on what to plant and propagate throughout the year but to my surprise and joy, My Garden World is Monty Don's personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him. Each month he describes beautifully, the season, the flora, the fauna and the wildlife in his garden. I have chosen to read each month in time with him, a small exert each night before I go to sleep. It settles my mind perfectly with images of the natural world around us. Perfect for my own personal wellbeing and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys gardens and the wildlife within. Review by Emma Crack

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'My Garden World' by Monty Don                                                I was brought this book as a Christmas gift thinking it was going to be hints and tips on what to plant and propagate throughout the year but to my surprise and joy, My Garden World is Monty Don's personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him. Each month he describes beautifully, the season, the flora, the fauna and the wildlife in his garden. I have chosen to read each month in time with him, a small exert each night before I go to sleep. It settles my mind perfectly with images of the natural world around us. Perfect for my own personal wellbeing and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys gardens and the wildlife within. Review by Emma Crack

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Emma's Activity of the Weekend! This weekend I helped my very 'Nerdy Birdy' Husband with the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch! To my surprise, It was a lovely hour spent. Our results included our common visitors....Long Tailed t1ts, Blue t1ts, Great t1ts, Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds and our resident Pheasant called Winston... But to my husbands delight...A Red Kite flew over and a Nuthatch flew in to feed. 

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Emma's Activity of the Weekend! This weekend I helped my very 'Nerdy Birdy' Husband with the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch! To my surprise, It was a lovely hour spent. Our results included our common visitors....Long Tailed t1ts, Blue t1ts, Great t1ts, Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds and our resident Pheasant called Winston... But to my husbands delight...A Red Kite flew over and a Nuthatch flew in to feed. 

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Canadian author of the award-winning Armand Gamache series of murder mysteries Louise Penny will be chatting and answering your questions in a live author interview.

This event will be taking place via Zoom.

Book your place

Mon 8 Feb 2021 , 18:30  Free entry

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Every Monday Halesworth Library  offers a creative writing group from 10:30 ‐ 12:00. The sessions are run by local writer and publisher Tom Corbett. Book in advance.

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Vocational Learning Resources Teaching: Monday 1st to Friday 5th February

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Vocational Learning Resources Teaching: Monday 1st to Friday 5th February

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JISC FE and Skills Content Team are running introductory webinars on Vocational Learning Resources. Includes a demonstration of resources, what areas they cover, how they can be used and what teaching practitioner support is available.
Each webinar will be around 30 minutes in total with an optional Q&A section at the end. No registration required.

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Vocational Learning Resources - Jisc FE and skills content

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Welcome to our VLR top users for September! As we mentioned in our previous newsletter, we are going to start sharing and celebrating our top users for the VLRs for Construction Training, Digital and IT Training, Education and Childcare Training and Health and Social Care Training.

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"Pushing wild swimming into coordination, meet the synchronised swimmers of Henleaze Lake"

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"Pushing wild swimming into coordination, meet the synchronised swimmers of Henleaze Lake"

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Henleaze Swimming Lake in Bristol – a space for wild swimming that even features a gigantic 1950s diving tower – celebrated its 100th birthday back in 2019. To commemorate the event, a group of synchronised swimmers formed to practice and perform in its waters, which now features around 80 people from as young as 11 to as old as 76. For recent photography graduate Eva Watkins, the group held everything she looks for in a series...

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On shoot days, Eva always tried to approach the group away from the conventional ways synchronised swimmers are posed together. "I didn't want to take photos of them performing in the water as, for me, that would be the obvious approach," she explains. "Individual portraits and group portraits were always a must, but it was working out the best way to approach it." Following a period of experimentation, "I started to understand what was working," opting for photographs which winked at the suggestion of synchronised swimming without the team directly striking a pose.

Direct examples of this are clear in Eva's group shots in the series, where the women neatly line up by the water's edge, with their matching swimming caps nodding to their craft. Elsewhere the team's love and respect for the conditions in which they practise are also presented. As Eva explains, "it felt right to pair their portraits with landscapes to show the beauty and ever-changing environment." And while the project is currently on pause due to the pandemic, the photographer's kept busy researching further context for the series, concentrating on the health benefits of cold water swimming and the bond team sports create. Although unable to photograph the group, Eva has remained in close contact, chatting further over email. "I even received a photo during lockdown of one of the members in her synchro cossie and hat, striking a leg pose in the bath! They all have such a great sense of humour."

In turn, Eva adds that one of her largest takeaways from the project is the bonding benefits of team sports, particularly something as difficult and cooperative as synchronised swimming. "I have a greater understanding about why they love the water and why I love the water now," she notes. "But, the biggest thing I've learned during this process is how important human connection is." Reflecting on this while on a frustrating pause from the project due to Covid-19 restrictions has given Eva further time to consider the beauty of the group's friendship most of all: "They have such an incredible bond with each other. They support each other, in sport and in life. Through lockdown, they've been able to keep each other's spirits high which has been a lovely thing to see. To think they were strangers not too long ago!"

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Pushing wild swimming into coordination, meet the synchronised swimmers of Henleaze Lake

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On shoot days, Eva always tried to approach the group away from the conventional ways synchronised swimmers are posed together. "I didn't want to take photos of them performing in the water as, for me, that would be the obvious approach," she explains.

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This lockdown I thought I would give mixed media a try and this is my first attempt

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This weekend I took a walk out in the frost. It was a bit chilly and Polly the dog wasn't keen on getting her paws cold and wet but we all enjoyed getting out in the fresh air.

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 Summer at the kindness cafe by Victoria Walters

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 Summer at the kindness cafe by Victoria Walters

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Chick lit at its best but I REALLY enjoyed reading this! Three main characters all brought together by a cafe in a small town, two of them being brought there by some drastic life changes. Kept on the edge throughout the story by unexpected changes and challenges. It tells the tale of joy, sorrow and love - with a happy ending!
Reviewed by Trudy

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Did you miss the announcement from The Reading Agency back in December? In partnership with Specsavers, the Reading Agency has announced the titles that will feature on the booklist for World Book Night 2021. The list is themed "Books To Make You Smile" in response to the impact of Covid-19 on mental health and wellbeing

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9 December 2020. The Reading Agency, in partnership with Specsavers, has today announced the titles that will feature on the booklist for World Book Night 2021. The list is themed "Books To Make You Smile" in response to the impact of Covid-19 on mental health and wellbeing.

World Book Night, the annual celebration of reading taking place on 23 April, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2021 by giving away 90,000 books in various formats - almost twice as many as last year. The Reading Agency's mission is to spread the joy of reading to those who don't regularly read for pleasure or have access to books, by distributing books to organisations such as prisons, hospitals, youth centres, care homes and mental health groups. Applications are open until January 29th for organisations to receive books to be given away on World Book Night. Last year books went to York City Football Club, The Disability Foundation, Rethink Mental Illness, and Crisis, among others.

This year's titles, from publishers including Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Pan Macmillan and Head of Zeus, include a diverse selection of books for adults and young people. From Elevation by master storyteller Stephen King to Pam Ayres' poetry collection Up in the Attic, and from Liverpool legend James Milner's Ask a Footballer to Good Food for Bad Days by prominent food writer and campaigner Jack Monroe - the WBN 2021 booklist promises to have something to make everyone smile. Good-humoured anthologies "I Will Not Be Erased": Our stories about growing up as people of colour by gal-dem, the award-winning magazine created by women and non-binary people of colour, and Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers edited by Kit de Waal are included. Non-fiction titles with a mental wellbeing focus are The Kindness Method by Shahroo Izadi; The Anxiety Survival Guide by Bridie Gallagher, Sue Knowles and Phoebe McEwan and the book of inspirational quotes published by Welbeck Balance, Pocket Book of Happiness.

Following the success of last year's digital offer, the World Book Night 2021 booklist will continue to feature audiobooks, as The Reading Agency seeks to make reading available to the widest possible audience. This year's audiobooks include Emma by Jane Austen, narrated by Tanya Reynolds and BBC Audio's Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, narrated by David Tennant and Samantha Spiro.

An exclusive addition to the 2021 booklist to mark the 10th anniversary is the specially commissioned book, Stories to Make You Smile, published by Simon & Schuster and in partnership with Specsavers. The collection will be edited by writer, former Costa Book Award judge and Quick Reads editor Fanny Blake, and features authors Richard Madeley, Jenny Éclair, Helen Lederer, Mark Watson, Dorothy Koomson, Eva Verde, Vaseem Khan, Veronica Henry and Rachel Hore among others.

World Book Night 2021 Titles

A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi (Vintage)

Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers by various authors, ed. by Kit de Waal (Unbound)

Ask a Footballer by James Milner (Quercus)

Elevation by Stephen King (Hodder)

Emma by Jane Austen, narrated by Tanya Reynolds (Penguin Random House Audio)

Faking Friends by Jane Fallon (Michael Joseph)

Good Food for Bad Days by Jack Monroe (Pan Macmillan)

"I Will Not Be Erased": Our Stories About Growing Up as People of Colour by gal-dem (Walker Books)

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, narrated by David Tennant and Samantha Spiro (BBC Audio)

Pocket Book of Happiness (Welbeck Balance)

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe (Penguin General)

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Penguin Random House Children's)

Sunshine and Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square by Heidi Swain (Simon & Schuster)

Stories to Make You Smile by various authors, ed. by Fanny Blake (Simon & Schuster)

Taking Up Space: The Black Girl's Manifesto for Change by Chelsea Kwakye and Ọrẹ Ogunbiyi (Cornerstone)

The Anxiety Survival Guide by Bridie Gallagher, Sue Knowles and Phoebe McEwen (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (Quercus)

The Kindness Method written and narrated by Shahroo Izadi (Pan Macmillan)

To Sir With Love by E.R. Braithwaite (Vintage)

Up in the Attic by Pam Ayres (Ebury)

We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen (Andersen Press)

Where Are We Now? By Glenn Patterson (Head of Zeus)

Debbie Hicks, Creative Director of the Reading Agency, said: "We're thrilled to be announcing our World Book Night 2021 booklist, and hugely grateful to all the wonderful publishers and authors contributing. This year, we saw first-hand how World Book Night and the #ReadingHour brought people together during a very challenging time - so it makes perfect sense for us to continue to build on this with our 2021 theme, alongside our brilliant partner Specsavers, sharing books to make the nation smile."

Dame Mary Perkins, co-founder of Specsavers, said: ''The Reading Agency always does a wonderful job of bringing people together through the love of reading, which continues to be one of our most popular past-times, increasingly so since we have had to spend more time at home. We are delighted to be working with them to support and encourage literacy and good vision so that people can continue to enjoy reading, and hope that this exciting new collection of stories will bring smiles to the faces of people across the UK."

Author Stephen King, said: "I'm very pleased that Elevation has been chosen for World Book Night. It's one of my favorites, probably because it suggests that good people can still bridge the divide between differing points of view and find a path to acceptance."

Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda said: "I've long admired from afar the fantastic work that World Book Night does each to year to encourage reading for pleasure and how it brings together people from all backgrounds by celebrating books that cater for anyone and everyone. Simon and his story, unsurprisingly, remains incredibly close to my heart and therefore I'm delighted to see him continue to be introduced and embraced by readers as part of such an important initiative."

Follow the latest developments on social media:

@WorldBookNight / @ReadingAgency / @Specsavers

#WorldBookNight / #ReadingHour / #BooksToMakeYouSmile

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Anna Zanetti: anna.zanetti@midas.co.uk

Georgina Moore: georgina.moore@midaspr.co.uk

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gal-dem, Stephen King, Jack Monroe and Pam Ayres to Feature on World Book Night 2021 Booklist

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9 December 2020. The Reading Agency, in partnership with Specsavers, has today announced the titles that will feature on the booklist for World Book Night 2021. The list is themed "Books To Make You Smile" in response to the impact of Covid-19 on mental health and wellbeing.

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Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

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Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

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Both my daughters have read this book in the early teenage years of their lives and both laughed out loud. Louise Rennison turns teenage angst in to comedy reminding me of Sue Townsend's 'Adrain Mole' from my teens. My eldest daughter states that it is 'Bridget Jones' for young adults. Both my girls highly recommend.
Review by Emma Crack

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After reading 'Shell Seekers' by the same author and enjoying it immensely, I was keen to read another by Pilcher. I love books set in Cornwall ,so 'Coming Home' became the obvious choice. Pilcher's novels are very much based around family life set in beautiful scenery, which she describes well. They tend to bimble along with predictable events occurring, but they are a charming easy escape from maybe ones own world. A nice easy, satisfying read.
Review by Emma Crack

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"Having plants at home has a positive influence on emotional well-being during lockdown"

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"Having plants at home has a positive influence on emotional well-being during lockdown"

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Lots of reports suggest that houseplants can improve wellbeing by reducing stress and anxiety and improving air quality. Especially, when we can only get out of the house for our daily exercise, houseplants can be a great solution to bringing the joys of the outdoors inside. They definitely can bring a metaphorical breath of fresh air to our homes, bringing a splash of colour, and perhaps a new hobby for us to enjoy, which might promote the release some of those all-important feel-good endorphins, helping to bring about a sense of positivity and joy.

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An international study coordinated by the Research Group for Urban Nature and Biosystems Engineering (NATURIB) from the University of Seville's Escuela Técnica Superior of Agricultural Engineering emphasizes that having plants at home had a positive influence on the psychological well-being of the dwelling's inhabitants during COVID-19 lockdown.

Researchers from the Hellenic Mediterranean University (Greece), the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (Brazil) and the University of Genoa (Italy) participated in the study along with representatives from the University of Seville.

This study, published in the scientific journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, evaluated the role played by plants at home during the first COVID-19 lockdown. The situation between the months of March and June deprived the public of the chance to enjoy open spaces and nature, and forced them to spend extended periods of time indoors.

Its results have confirmed that having plants at home had a positive influence on emotional well-being during lockdown. This was agreed by 74% of the more than 4,200 respondents in 46 countries. In fact, more than half of them (55.8%) stated that they would have preferred to have more plants in their house during that difficult period.

The frequency with which study participants experienced negative emotions was higher in those who stated they had no indoor plants. Those living in small or poorly lit dwellings and those who did not visit green spaces frequently before lockdown also experienced more negative emotions.

Moreover, just over half of respondents (52%) reported spending more time on plant care at home during lockdown and almost two thirds (62.5%) expressed a desire to do so once normality was restored. As a result, 40% of the participants indicated that they were motivated to have more plants at home in future.

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Having plants at home had a positive influence on emotional well-being during lockdown

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An international study coordinated by the Research Group for Urban Nature and Biosystems Engineering (NATURIB) from the University of Seville's Escuela Técnica Superior of Agricultural Engineering emphasizes that having plants at home had a positive influence on the psychological well-being of the dwelling's inhabitants during COVID-19 lockdown.

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In lockdown, many of the routines that surround our working day have evaporated. Sarah Ledger suggests a way to bring order and – maybe – joy to the tedium...(www.tes.com)

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I love a list. Would Sunday morning even be Sunday morning if I didn't have a handwritten set of bulletpoints next to my laptop, with items ranging from "Take chicken out of freezer" to " Mark Year 10 assessments ", via "Find out about early 19th-century naval ranks"?

Some lists are more precise than others. My shopping list, for instance, is in order of the aisles in Morrison's. Mind you, that's risky, particularly if someone at Morrison's HQ takes it into their head to swap "Rice & Pasta" for "Condiments"; I'll end up retracing my steps in search of tabasco and being distracted by the possibilities of orzo.

I need to point out that my list-making has nothing to do with being super-organised - quite the reverse. After 30-odd years in teaching, I've become institutionalised: over-reliant on school timetables on term-time weekdays and completely unmoored at weekends and holidays.

Creating order in non-timetabled chaos

At school, there's a time to teach, a time to have a cup of tea and a time to hurtle from one end of the building to the other with a dangerously full bladder. We have schemes of work, assessment calendars, deadlines and five-minute appointment slots at parents' evening.

It's no wonder that, by the time Saturday arrives, I've gone into freefall, watching reruns of Line of Duty at 6am in yesterday's leggings, and going to the toilet whenever I feel like it.

That's why lists help. They create order in my non-timetabled chaos - and not just day to day. Almost seven years ago, horrified by the unstoppable onslaught of time, I made myself a list of 50 things to do before I turned 50.

It kept me occupied for a year. While I never made it to number 50 - drive through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in my hair - I did a whole variety of other amusing things with only a single brush with death (19: Swim in the sea at the full moon at midnight. There was a fundamental misconception about the relationship between the full moon and the tide: I thought if the moon was full, the tide was in - like a plug in the bath. I had to wade practically all the way to France, and there were cross currents and sinking sands and darkness...)

The list meant that I was never bored, and the simple act of ticking off an accomplishment - no matter how trivial (28: Go for a day without swearing) - gave me an enormous sense of satisfaction.

Lockdown III: pushing the boundaries, within limits

Now we're in Lockdown III, there's still a timetable for work - we're all glued to Teams - but the rhythm of the day has shifted, and the routines that surround the working day have evaporated. We can't go anywhere or see anyone, and there's only so many online familial quizzes before I start Googling "entire family clean break divorce".

So it occurred to me at the start of the year that what I needed to cheer myself up was another list.

Not 50; maybe 12. That's doable. The aim - unlike those Sunday-morning lists - is to have fun, push the boundaries yet keep it realistic. I'm aiming for somewhere between the extremes of "Tidy out the cupboard under the stairs" and "Train as a sommelier".

Back in 2014, there were few limitations, apart from cash, the law and my visceral fear of heights. In 2021, anything outside the immediate vicinity of my house is likely to be impossible, at least until - fingers crossed - Easter. So I've taken this into account.

Yes, I know this is indulgent, but while you're skimming through my list, fizzing with irritation and muttering, "Who the hell does this woman think she is ... ?" there's a possibility that somewhere, deep down, you have a list, too - that what you need to bring joy into your frantic lockdown life is a schedule of 12 distractions. Or just something to look forward to.

My list: 12 things to do by 31 December 2021

Anyway, here's my list. I realise it exposes me as the most shallow of dilettantes, but that won't be a surprise to anyone.

They're in no particular order, but they should be completed by 31 December 2021, lockdown or no lockdown.

1. Prepare for knee replacement surgery - making myself new-knee ready.

2. Learn and perform a magic trick.

3. Create a Bake Off showstopper.

4. Develop the content of my menopausal home-baker Instagram.

5. Read the rest of a novel I've claimed to have already read in its entirety.

6. Learn to play bridge.

7. Get to grips with TS Eliot.

8. Teach the dog to roll over.

9. Make edible pasta.

10. Mix the perfect martini.

11. Plan and organise a celebration for my Year 11s.

12. Write a book.

As you can see, all harmless fun. Wish me luck!
Sarah Ledger is an English teacher and director of learning for Year 11 at William Howard School in Brampton, Cumbria. She has been teaching for 34 years

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Why every teacher needs a list right now

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I love a list. Would Sunday morning even be Sunday morning if I didn't have a handwritten set of bulletpoints next to my laptop, with items ranging from "Take chicken out of freezer" to " Mark Year 10 assessments ", via "Find out about early 19th-century naval ranks"?

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Everything you need to support research at your fingertips!

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Everything you need to support research at your fingertips!

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All our digital online resources from e-books and academic journals to magazines and newspapers...

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'Fun Beside the Sea' - the British Seaside holiday

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'Fun Beside the Sea' - the British Seaside holiday

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Week beginning 13/07/2020

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Few holidays evoke the same nostalgia for so many people as the British seaside getaway. Listen to the sounds of this beloved institution, and explore the history of how this classic trip became a golden standard for generations of people.

The sight of colourful beach huts, the feeling of sand between the toes or the smell and taste of the salty sea breeze - these are enduring memories that many conjure up when thinking of holidays by the sea. The soundscape too, from the screech of hovering seagulls to the crashing of waves on the beach, holds a powerful place in memory. Though many have experienced the classic seaside trip, its origins some 300 years ago are a little less well known.

Rise of the seaside resorts

The traditional British seaside holiday actually has its origins in health rather than pleasure. The restorative properties of seawater were promoted during the mid 18th century, during which the upper echelons of British society packed their cases for the coast. Dr Richard Russell, a British physician, praised the virtues of sea-bathing in A Dissertation on the Use of Sea-Water in the Diseases of the Glands (1752) as a cure for everything from scurvy and jaundice to so-called 'king's evil' (scrofula) and leprosy.

Sea-bathing and spas continued to rise to prominence. In the early 19th century, Sake Dean Mohamed, an Indian surgeon, introduced shampoo baths to Britain. Setting up his own bath in Brighton, he offered therapeutic massage to some very powerful people, and was even appointed King George IV's personal 'shampooing surgeon'.

The Benefits of Shampooing by Sake Dean Mahomed

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Mahomed's Steam and Vapour Sea Water Medicated Baths, where patients were treated for muscular ailments with champi and steaming baths.

As the reputation of sea-bathing increased, it wasn't long before theatres, libraries, assembly rooms and smart hotels began to pop up along the coastline. After all, visitors needed something to do between those essential sea-bathing sessions. So splendid were towns such as Brighton, Margate and Scarborough, that the sea soon became just a single facet of a much larger, multi-sensory experience. The seaside resort, with all its draws, was born.

In the 19th century, numerous developments opened up the seaside holiday to the masses. One of these was a booming economy resulting from industrial growth, bringing about higher wages and disposable income for a large section of the population. The other critical factor was the development of the railway, which revolutionised our nation's relationship with the coast. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened as the first inter-city passenger railway in September of 1830, and in the following decades rail travel further expanded. Just over a decade later, the Railway Regulation Act of 1844 ensured that affordable travel would be available to people of all classes.

So what had initially begun as a place of restorative comfort for the wealthy was now open to everyone. As long as they could afford a train ticket, people could use the coast as a place of pleasure, relaxation and a break from everyday life. The British seaside holiday had finally arrived.

The golden age of the seaside resort

The interwar years saw much investment in seaside resorts, and the government lent financial support to ambitious seaside development projects in towns such as Hove and Blackpool. Further developments during this time included the building of new modernist buildings, such as the Casino in Blackpool, and the opening of Butlin's Skegness, Britain's first holiday camp, in 1936. By the late 1940s, millions of holidaymakers were gracing Britain's seaside each year; for decades tourism was the foundation of the economy in many coastal towns.

But by the 1960s the popularity of seaside holidays in Britain had begun to wane. The introduction of budget airfares and travel packages meant that British holidaymakers could continue to hit the beach, just outside of Britain, at destinations further afield. This decade also saw a reduction of the rail network following pressures for profitability; less economically valuable lines were closed or reduced, impacting access to smaller coastal towns.

This waning popularity and falling visitor numbers meant that some resorts began to see less investment. No longer filled with the same joyful noises, the golden era of the classic seaside holiday had passed.

The seaside holiday returns

In recent years, however, there have been efforts to revitalise the economy of some seaside towns.[1] Nationwide grant programmes, investment initiatives and the work of various grass-roots movements have seen a revival in tourism for some seaside towns. Places such as Brighton have remade their image and are now magnets for a trendy subculture, whilst others, such as Margate, in its revived Dreamland, have recaptured the nostalgia of the mid 20th century.

Although not with quite the same intensity as in its heyday, fun beside the sea lives on, and on a hot sunny day in the British Isles there's no doubt that there will be always be people jostling for space on the beach.

Footnotes

[1] House of Lords, Select Committee on Regenerating Seaside Towns and Communities: Report of Session 2017-19 (Authority of the House of Lords, 2019), < https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldseaside/320/320.pdf>.

Banner image © Jonny Hannah

Cheryl Tipp is the British Library's Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. With a background in zoology and library services, Cheryl has spent the past 15 years looking after the Library's world- renowned collection of over 250,000 species and habitat recordings. She has worked extensively on projects that encourage the creative reuse of archival content, from student videogames to short films from emerging filmmakers. She is currently Secretary of the International Bioacoustics Council which seeks to promote discussion and the exchange of ideas between scientists, engineers, sound archivists and field recordists working with natural history sound recordings.

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Fun beside the sea | The British Library

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Few holidays evoke the same nostalgia for so many people as the British seaside getaway. Listen to the sounds of this beloved institution, and explore the history of how this classic trip became a golden standard for generations of people.

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Our WSC subscription enables you to take your students on a journey of discovery through curated educational videos, on-demand TV (for the previous 28 days), documentaries and movies. Inspire CURIOSITY as ClickView provides world-class video content for inspirational teaching and learning. You can flip lessons by creating, sharing and editing videos and using the formative and summative assessment tools provided. User friendly and plenty of support available. Here's an introductory video to get you started. Just use your WSC sign in details to begin.

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A very brief introduction to ClickView. This video gives a short overview of ClickView and some of the features available.

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'The Light Between Oceans' by M.L. Stedman

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'The Light Between Oceans' by M.L. Stedman

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Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel live on Janus Island, off the southwest coast of Australia, where Tom is the lighthouse keeper. They have a happy and content life, but following three miscarriages, Isabel is grief-stricken and increasingly desperate for a child. Two weeks after her most recent loss, a small row-boat washes up on the shore, and inside are two people - a man and a young baby. The man is dead, but the child is alive. Tom is bound by professional duty and moral responsibility to report the boat and alert the authorities, but Isabel pleads for them to keep the baby. And Tom would do anything for his wife. There follows a decision that will have devastating consequences , for Tom and Isabel, but for many other people too.
This is a story about decisions and consequences, of love, loss, grief and of right and wrong.
This book is beautifully written, the descriptions of the seascape and the lighthouse are alive with detail, and the characters are complex and genuine. The story is so compelling, from the very start right through to the heartbreaking end. I couldn't put this book down, I absolutely loved it.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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Lifelong Benefits of Joining a Book Club

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Lifelong Benefits of Joining a Book Club

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Week beginning 06/07/2020

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By: Hsin-Yi Cohen BSc, MA, MSt - Updated: 7 Aug 2015 | *Discuss

You might think that reading groups are simply an arena for book worms to indulge in their favourite passion or for you to have enjoyable argument about your favourite story or characters with like-minded individuals...but book clubs actually offer more lifelong benefits than you realise:

Everyone knows that reading expands your horizons and book clubs help to do this at an even greater level, with the in-depth discussions and assimilations of different viewpoints all contributing to increasing your knowledge and appreciation of the world around you.

Joining a reading group can also help to extend your reading, as you'll be tempted to try different types of books that you might not otherwise have chosen by yourself. Many people can become accustomed to the comfort of reading in a favourite genre and may not realise how much they might actually enjoy an altogether different type of book, until they are persuaded to try by other members of the reading group.

Despite not having a formalised classroom structure, reading groups are actually a fantastic place to promote learning. Discussing books helps to reinforce things in your mind and enable you to retain information better. In addition, the informal learning environment means that there is less fear of "failing" or humiliation before classmates, whilst the urge to participate means that people will be more motivated to read the book and gain the information.

Each new book allows you the opportunity to "start afresh" and "do better" - whether it is with more participation, improved leadership of discussions, more commitment to reading or simply better retention of the information learnt.

Book clubs enable you to appreciate otherwise "dry" topics within the context of an involving story - for example, reading books set in certain periods allow you to learn more about history, without the dread of boring facts and dates.

Book clubs can also be great ways to travel and appreciate other cultures - not only through the books themselves but also through any members with different backgrounds. And discussing these differences helps everyone to understand them by placing them within a larger context.

Participating in reading group discussions does wonders for your communication skills, teaching you to listen to different points of view and different ways of expression, as well as "discuss and disagree" without resorting to emotional arguments. It teaches you to be both honest and yet tactful, which is a difficult but extremely valuable skill. It provides great experience for use in other arenas, such as work and business - and even family events - so that you learn to express yourself appropriately and accept disagreements without taking it personally.

For those shy of public speaking, book clubs are a great way to start practising expressing your opinions to an audience or summarising information and presenting it in a coherent and engaging way.

Reading groups with a rotating roster of leaders means that everyone has a chance to practise their leadership skills and the management of a group of people, with different backgrounds and opinions.

Book clubs can help you appreciate books that you had rejected in your childhood or within the confines of your school curriculum, as the imminent discussion motivates you to read with more purpose and attention. In particular, having to present a book to the group helps you to crystallise your crystallise and categorise the information so that it can be conveyed easily and efficiently.

For those with writing aspirations, book clubs can be a wonderful breeding ground for ideas as well as provide the motivation for you to pen your own literary masterpiece. Listening to other people's assessment of a book and their discussion of likes and dislikes about plot, character and style, can help enormously in your quest to become a better, more successful writer.

Last but not least, book clubs are great social forums and provide many opportunities to meet and befriend new people from all walks of life, as well as providing an enjoyable and meaningful addition to your social calendar.

You might also like...

@solozny. We hope this website helps you.

TheReadingClub - 8-May-15 @ 11:33 AM

want to start a reading club kindly suggest name slogan and give me directives on how to run it.

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Lifelong Benefits of Joining a Book Club

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By: Hsin-Yi Cohen BSc, MA, MSt - Updated: 7 Aug 2015 | *Discuss You might think that reading groups are simply an arena for book worms to indulge in their favourite passion or for you to have enjoyable argument about your favourite story or characters with like-minded individuals...but book clubs actually offer more lifelong benefits than you realise: Everyone knows that reading expands your horizons and book clubs help to do this at an even greater level, with the in-depth discussions and assimilations of different viewpoints all contributing to increasing your knowledge and appreciation of the world around you.

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Action for Happiness - Resilience Calendar for July

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Action for Happiness - Resilience Calendar for July

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This month the theme is Jump Back July, focusing on how we can be more resilient in challenging times!

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The story line of this book begins very mundanely but then takes an interesting twist. It's this twist that keeps you hooked. The story of a young woman waiting for a heart transplant. An agonising wait during which has to change her lifestyle completely from a high flying lawyer to go and live with her mum. Here she falls in love, has a baby after which her heart grows even weaker. One of the characters is based on a true story and the remainder fiction but intertwined they work well with a rather unexpected ending. I really enjoyed reading this :-).

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TED Talk: The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Adichie.

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TED Talk: The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Adichie.

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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'Girl, Woman, Other' by Bernardine Evaristo

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'Girl, Woman, Other' by Bernardine Evaristo

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Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and stories of twelve very different characters. Mostly Black British woman, the stories are of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
I really enjoyed this book, a lot of the characters overlap stories in places, which I particularly liked. I felt a stronger connection with some characters than others, but all were fascinating. Definitely an enjoyable read.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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'There's more to birdsong than meets the ears'

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'There's more to birdsong than meets the ears'

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Week beginning 29/06/2020

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This colourful bird is native to Europe and parts of Asia. But in the 1860s and 1870s, yellowhammers were introduced to New Zealand. They spread widely.

Male yellowhammers have a distinctive song. Some think it sounds like they're saying 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' ( listen to a recording on the xeno-canto website). Individuals living in different areas have clearly distinguishable dialects where the final phrase of their song is different.

Researchers detected European dialects in the birds living in New Zealand, but not those in the UK. It appears the birds from the UK took European dialects with them to New Zealand, while the populations that remained in the UK gradually lost these dialects.

Dr Alex Bond, senior curator in charge of the Museum bird collection, says:

'Interestingly, yellowhammers that were introduced to New Zealand from Britain still sound like they're from the UK, while the birds in the UK have lost their old dialect.

'It's an intriguing parallel to what has happened with people. I lived in Newfoundland in Canada for nearly 10 years. Many of the local words and accents there arrived with British and Irish immigrants in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, but the words are no longer used in Britain and Ireland.'

Benefits of sounding different

As humans we often find it quite a pleasure to listen to an unfamiliar lilt, but it can sometimes make communication more difficult.

The same may be true of birds, but regional differences may offer benefits in addition to how well they can be heard in different environments.

Research suggests that birds tend to respond better to familiar accents.

In the USA, researchers found that particular cells in the brains of swamp sparrows from Pennsylvania and New York, which have regional song differences, only responded to songs sung in their own accent.

Scientists think female birds may use dialects to their advantage. Regional song differences could help the females distinguish local males from outsiders.

This could be beneficial when deciding who to mate with as local males may be better adapted to the neighbourhood, making their offspring more likely to survive than any fathered by intruders.

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There's more to birdsong than meets the ears

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This colourful bird is native to Europe and parts of Asia. But in the 1860s and 1870s, yellowhammers were introduced to New Zealand. They spread widely. Male yellowhammers have a distinctive song. Some think it sounds like they're saying 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' ( listen to a recording on the xeno-canto website).

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For ages 14-18, why not sign up for a summer writing workshop from Ink Festival, starting 10th July! Work alongside others to create a short script which will then be performed by INK Actors online

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JOIN OUR TEENAGE SUMMER WRITING PROGRAMME ON ZOOM Starting 10th July

Over 8 weeks,work alongside others to create a short script which will then be performed by INK Actors online.

See your work brought to life and learn about the collaborative world of theatre.

No previous experience required. Just a genuine enthusiasm to learn.

Suitable for ages: 14-18.
Limited Places: Maximum 16
Session Time: Fridays 3:30pm -5:00pm
There is NO CHARGE for this unique learning opportunity

Email: griff22@me.com or call: 07908 221060
to reserve a place / any further questions

Topics covered will include:
Why people write. Dialogue, Characterisation, Writer's Block, Monologues, Plot Structure, Music and Theatre.

Course Leaders
Griff Scott
Griff's radio and stage plays have been performed at previous INK Festivals, and at several theatres in Essex. She leads INK's Golden Years writing workshops at Halesworth Library and is regularly commissioned to write scripts for young people's drama workshops.

Martha Loader
Martha is a playwright, actor, producer and co-director of theatre company tusk. She is a graduate of the High Tide's writers group and the SohoTheatre's Writer's Lab. Last year at INK Festival she won the award for Most Promising Playwright.
We will ask for parent/carer permission before the start of the course.

The 2021 INK Festival will be 8th/9th/10th/11th April.

Workshop dates and times will be confirmed soon.
WHAT RADIO CAN AND CANNOT DO: AN INTRODUCTION TO WRITING FOR RADIO
Radio Workshop with Professor Richard Hand

Richard Hand is Professor of Media Practice at the University of East Anglia with extensive experience in radio, and more importantly how to write and adapt drama for radio. Participants will be given valuable advice on how to meet the challenges involved in getting their work fit for broadcast.
Richard J. Hand A TIME & PLACE: BUILDING STORIES OUT OF THE PAST is lead scriptwriter on the National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre on the Air (2019 onwards) which broadcasts on WYPR and NPR in the USA. He has won radio drama competitions at the Penfro Festival, INK Festival and Chatterbox Audio Theatre.
Writing Workshop with Greg Mosse
THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN BEFORE BECOMING A WRITER
A fascinating workshop about taking inspiration from the past in the writing of new plays, including multiple opportunities for collaboration and sharing new ideas. Following last year's sold out workshop, Greg Mosse, a 'writer & encourager of writers', returns with reflections on the success of Lady of Jazz, set in 1920s Louisiana and premiered at Ink, and the origin of his new Gleadall & Mosse play with songs, The Unquiet Grave. He will invite the participants to contribute their own ideas and help to structure them in powerful sequences of dramatic scenes.

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JOIN OUR TEENAGE SUMMER WRITING PROGRAMME ON ZOOM Starting 10th July Over 8 weeks,work alongside others to create a short script which will then be performed by INK Actors online. See your work brought to life and learn about the collaborative world of theatre. No previous experience required.

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You can listen to the entire first book in the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy, plus activities and quizzes:

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The competition is open to anyone aged 11-17. The deadline to enter your poem is midnight 31 July 2020

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Our two judges, Jonathan Edwards and Jane Yeh, are busy at work reading your poems. The Foyle Young Poets Award accepts poems on any theme, of any length and of any style. Winners receive a range of fantastic prizes, including further mentoring and development opportunities from The Poetry Society, and former winners are among the most successful poets writing today.

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First Words: 10 Great Opening Lines From Literature

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First Words: 10 Great Opening Lines From Literature

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You can have the perfect story plotted out, but starting the writing process can be the hardest part. After all, the opening sentence of a story is often seen as the most important. It can invite the reader into a different world and entice them to explore further.

To celebrate the return of 500 Words, the Radio 2 Breakfast Show's story-writing competition for 5-13 year-olds, we take a look below at some of the most exciting, evocative and just plain brilliant opening sentences of all-time - some of which have been handpicked by the Breakfast team and our 500 Words judges.

Here's a selection of unforgettable opening lines, some of which have been handpicked by Radio 2 presenters and our 500 Words judges...

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BBC Radio 2 - 500 Words - First Words: 10 Great Opening Lines From Literature

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To celebrate the return of 500 Words, the Radio 2 Breakfast Show's story-writing competition for 5-13 year-olds, we take a look below at some of the most exciting, evocative and just plain brilliant opening sentences of all-time - some of which have been handpicked by the Breakfast team and our 500 Words judges.

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The Mental Health Foundation and WWF have joined forces to bring you Thriving With Nature; a free guidebook which explores the relationship between nature, wellbeing and mental health.

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The Mental Health Foundation and WWF have joined forces to bring you Thriving With Nature; a free guidebook which explores the relationship between nature, wellbeing and mental health.

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The Mental Health Foundation and WWF have come together to produce a guide for you. We want you to thrive and for nature to thrive around you. We think the two are mutually supportive.

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'Summer solstice traditions and sun worship'

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'Summer solstice traditions and sun worship'

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Week beginning 22/06/2020

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Sunrise at Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire Paul Kingston

The summer solstice is when the sun is its furthest away from the equator, making it the longest day of the year. It has been marked as the high point of summer - or midsummer - since the Neolithic era.

Curator Catherine Troiano looks at the traditions and folklore of this ancient festival and explores how the longest day of the year was observed at the places we care for in days gone by.

This year there won't be any solstice events at our places. This is to comply with the government guidelines around social distancing and to ensure safety in response to coronavirus.
In Northern and Central European Neolithic cultures, the summer solstice may have been related to timings of crop cycles. It was typically marked by Celtic, Slavic and Germanic people by lighting bonfires, intended to boost the sun's strength for the remainder of the crop season and ensure a healthy harvest.

Numerous Neolithic stone circles also appear to have been built around the movement of the sun at solstices, although, as there are no written accounts from the time, it is difficult to be definitive about the exact purposes of these rock edifices. However stones appear to be carefully positioned to align with the sun's movements, framing solar motion on summer and winter solstices, and stones at particular solstice axes were even shaped with hammerstones to frame the sunrise for those standing at the centre of the circle.

Though it might seem that the middle of summer would naturally fall on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice and Midsummer's Day are actually distinct events, normally a few days apart between 20 and 24 June. The difference is thought to stem from variations in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

The longest day has been marked in different ways over the years and has its own set of customs. Some are based on practical needs. Others originate from spiritual and superstitious beliefs.

Mysticism and magic are a common theme in midsummer folklore across the world. Magic was thought to be strongest during the summer solstice and myths told stories of the world turning upside down or the sun standing still at midsummer.

As Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at the University of Bristol, put it, it was seen as 'a time when the normal laws of nature or divinity could be suspended, when spirits and fairies could contact humans, when humans could exceed the usual limitations of their world.'

In an 1855 oil painting from Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire, Scottish painter William Bell Scott depicts pixies dancing by firelight. In a letter that Scott himself wrote in 1886, he spoke of the painting as showing 'fairies dancing before a great dying kitchen fire ... at a Haunted House on Midsummer's Eve.'

Pixies Dancing in a Ring by the Firelight by William Bell Scott, Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire

Pixies Dancing in a Ring by the Firelight by William Bell Scott, Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire

Observing the longest day is not limited to the Western world. Many ancient cultures and communities had unique traditions centred around midsummer.

Sun worship took on particular significance in Ancient Egyptian religions. The summer solstice aligned with the rise of the river Nile and the deity of the sun, Ra (known later during the New Kingdom as Amun-Ra), became one of Ancient Egypt's most important gods. Ra was considered creator of life and ruler of the sun, the sky and kings, and was widely commemorated in monuments and artefacts.

Before the invention of clocks, the position of the sun not only indicated the changing of the seasons; it was also used for telling the time. Sundials were used to show the hours of the day, based on the movement of the shadow of the sun as it moves across the sky each day. Sundials, both large and small, can be found in many of the collections we look after.

Many of the places we look after have a special significance to the history of the summer solstice and the traditions and customs surrounding it.

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Summer solstice traditions and sun worship

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The longest day has been marked as the high point of summer - or midsummer - since the Neolithic era. Curator Catherine Troiano looks at the traditions and folklore of this ancient festival and explores how the it was observed at the places we care for in days gone by.

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A selection of UK BAME History Resources from University College London

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The Newsam Library and Archives at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, holds extensive collections of current and historical materials on education and related areas of social science.

IOE LibGuides content has moved: Please follow the links below to access:

LibrarySkills@UCL: training and support enable you to make the best use of UCL's libraries and resources.

Education Subject Guides: a helpful starting point for identifying library collections and resources to support your discipline of study.

Archives and Special Collections: further details on our world class Archives and Special Collections.

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E-resources@UCL: Guidance on accessing the huge range of electronic resources available via UCL Library Services.

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The Newsam Library and Archives holds extensive collections of current and historical materials on education and related areas of social science. In addition to supporting the work of staff and students at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, the library welcomes enquiries from scholars, researchers and others in the community with an interest in education.

Key Resources

The Main Education Collection contains an extensive range of materials related to education published in the UK and a wide range from around the world.

The Journals Collection holds thousands of titles electronically.

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A wide range of electronic resources such as databases, electronic books, documents and websites can be accessed by UCL students and staff.

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The Newsam Library and Archives at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, holds extensive collections of current and historical materials on education and related areas of social science. IOE LibGuides content has moved: Please follow the links below to access: LibrarySkills@UCL: training and support enable you to make the best use of UCL's libraries and resources.

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Behind the Cover is for all women and non-binary readers aged 16 and over.  Throughout the summer a new FREE audiobook will be available to download each month, and you can join discussions about the book on Instagram.
This month, the book is 'Ordinary People' by Diana Evans.

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South London, 2008. Two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Melissa has a new baby and doesn't want to let it change her, but in the crooked walls of a narrow Victorian terrace, she begins to disappear. Michael, growing daily more accustomed to his commute, still loves Melissa but can't quite get close enough to her to stay faithful.

Meanwhile, out in the suburbs, Stephanie is happy with Damian and their three children, but the death of Damian's father has thrown him into crisis - or is it something, or someone, else? Are they all just in the wrong place? Are any of them prepared to take the leap?

Set against the backdrop of Barack Obama's election victory, Ordinary People is an intimate study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, friendship and aging, and the fragility of love. With its distinctive prose and irresistible soundtrack, it is the story of our lives and those moments that threaten to unravel us.

This book deals with themes including love, sex, and grief. Appropriate for 16+ readers.

Watch Diana Evans discuss Ordinary People, published by Chatto & Windus.

Reviews

"Evans excels, bringing to vivid life a capacious social world while simultaneously commenting on it." New York Times

"I am shouting from the rooftops to anyone who will listen about this book. It's so so good - realistic and funny and so truthful it almost winded me." Dolly Alderton

"Diana Evans is a lyrical and glorious writer; a precise poet of the human heart." Naomi Alderman

"Evans writes with great humour and insight... a deftly observed, elegiac portrayal of modern marriage, and the private - often painful - quest for identity and fulfilment in all its various guises." The Observer

Get to know Diana Evans

Diana Evans is a British author of Nigerian and English descent. Her third novel, Ordinary People was a New Yorker, New Statesman and Financial Times book of the year. It was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Rathebones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Politicial Fiction. It also won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature.

Evans is a former dancer. As a journalist she has contributed to Time Magazine, Marie Claire, The Independent, The Guardian, Harper Bazaar and The New York Review of Books.

Recommended reads

Did you enjoy Ordinary People? Here are some similar books you might like:

1. Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams (Tinder Press)

2. Circe, Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury)

3. Heartburn, Nora Ephron (Viking)

4. My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic Books)

5. The Colour Purple, Alice Walker (Orion Publishing)

6. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (Oneworld Publications)

7. Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber)

Book club questions

1. The book opens with Obama's election and closes with Michael Jackson's death. How important are these historical moments to the novel?

2. How does the author show the importance of race to the characters' identities?

3. The house takes on a character of its own. How does it reflect the conflict within the family?

4. How important is the theme of being a mother in the novel?

5. Throughout the course of the novel, how does the relationship between Conrad and his father change?

6. Was it the right decision for Beth to leave Calvin and Conrad? Were the reactions of the other characters surprising? If so, why?

Writing advice from Diana Evans

1. Write according to your own strengths and instincts.
If it suits you to write at night, do it that way. If you're more of an office-hours writer, adopt that structure instead. Some writers can only work on one thing at a time while others need to work on several. Some work in cafes and libraries and others in solitude. There is no right or wrong way to write. Only consistency and commitment are the common prerequisites.

2. Follow scenes through to completion or exhaustion.
Don't hold back when you're writing. Let out every intriguing idea or image that wants to come out and avoid the limitations of neatness in the early stages. There's lots of time for neatness and perfecting during revisions.

3. Try not to write like Tolstoy/Yates/Rhys/Dickens/Morrison or whoever it is that you adore.
Take inspiration without imitation. No one can write like you can because everyone has a different and particular voice. Write the kinds of books you'd like to read. Fill the gaps. Always aim for something new that does not yet exist.

4. Lots of writing happens in not writing.
Sometimes more can be achieved in half an hour of driving/shopping/walking/dancing than during an entire day at the desk. The mind loosens and the work marinates, and when you go back to it some problem or barrier has been solved all by itself.

5. Read copiously, every day. Writers need words to make worlds.
The words are food. Reading keeps us in touch with rhythm and pace, voice, image and how stories work. Read a variety of genres and forms: plays, novels, short stories, nonfiction. Keep a notebook by your side and always take the note when it asks to be taken.

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South London, 2008. Two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Melissa has a new baby and doesn't want to let it change her, but in the crooked walls of a narrow Victorian terrace, she begins to disappear. Michael, growing daily more accustomed to his commute, still loves Melissa but can't quite get close enough to her to stay faithful.

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'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven

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'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven

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This is the story of Violet and Finch, who, for different reasons find themselves on the ledge of the bell-tower at their high school at the very same time.
This chance encounter sparks the development of a relationship, which aches with genuine tenderness. But while Violet is struggling to cope with the death of her sister and Finch is able to help her to heal, Finch is battling a darker force inside himself, and for him, staying alive is the hardest part.
This story was beautiful and moving and heartfelt. I loved the character development and the wonderfully electric connection between Violet and Finch. It does tackle themes of suicide, which could prove difficult for some readers, so I would add a trigger warning to this review, and suggest a 14+ reading age.
Otherwise, I would thoroughly recommend, I couldn't put it down.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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Set in Ireland in the 2000s, Normal People follows the stories of Marianne and Connell as they navigate the evolution of their teenage relationship into adulthood.

Marianne is a loner, intellectual, and from an affluent family. Connell is popular, clever, and from a working-class, single parent family. Both attend a high school in rural ireland, and in their final year.  Marianne and Connell begin a intense but private relationship. When Connell behaves insensitively and hurts Marianne,  the relationship ends, but months later they meet again at Trinty College in Dublin, and the intense emotional connection is reignited.

Normal People seems to be a very straightforward love story, but underneath the more obvious storyline of first love, is a deeper study of family, love, mental health, and finding one's way in the world.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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'An A to Z of old words to calm and inspire hope'

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'An A to Z of old words to calm and inspire hope'

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Week beginning 15/06/2020

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ike language, our emotions are universal and whatever fears and anxieties we are now experiencing, someone else in centuries gone by has felt the same way. Here is an A-Z of archaic and forgotten words that at some point in the past exactly described an elusive sense of peace, calm and delight. So, if you want to know your agathism from your euneirophrenia, read on and draw comfort from these linguistic oddities

Agathism It's hard to be an optimist knowing that there are tough times ahead. But in lieu of optimism, there's always agathism - a word coined in 1830 for the belief that all things eventually get better, though the means by which they do is not always easy. It is a word to remind us that though we may be in for hard times, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Bummel Our daily constitutional needn't be an exhausting run around the block. Derived from a German word for "strolling", a bummel is nothing more than a relaxing leisurely walk or wander.

Concubium Adopted into English from Latin in the 1600s, the concubium is the soundest, calmest, deepest part of your sleep. "That time of night when all men are at rest", as one 17th-century dictionary put it.

Dolorifuge Whatever it is that makes you happy, that is your dolorifuge: this 19th-century term describes anything or anyone that alleviates feelings of pain or sadness.

Euneirophrenia One of the strangest side-effects of our curtailed routines at the moment is that our brains are working overtime while we sleep, so the word "euneirophrenia" might come in useful. It describes the wholly pleasing feeling you have on waking from an equally pleasant dream.

Focillation Derived from the Latin for "nourish", a focillation is a momentary act of comfort or refreshment. Take it as a reminder that it is perfectly fine to take some time out, whenever you need it.

Glee-dream If you find solace in films or music, or find that you're dearly missing the theatre or cinema, the word you are looking for is glee-dream. The modern form of the Old English "gleodream", the Oxford English Dictionary defines this as "delight of minstrelsy" - that is, the pleasure that comes from a musical performance or similar entertainment.

Heterocentric How we all should - and, thankfully, how a great many of us currently are - living our lives: if you're heterocentric then you're more concerned with other people than you are yourself.

Interfulgent A fitting metaphor for the triumph of light in dark times. Derived from the Latin word for "shining", something that is interfulgent shines through or between that which would otherwise obscure it - as sunshine through clouds or the leaves of trees.

Jamb-friend A jamb is a supporting timber, of course, which makes a jamb-friend an early 19th-century word for a friend with whom you could quite happily sit by a fireside talking and relaxing well into the early hours.

Kaffeeklatsch Borrowed from German in the 1800s, a kaffeeklatsch is a chattering catch-up with friends and family over endless cups of coffee. It's a lot more poetic than the Victorian alternative: according to one contemporary dictionary, "scandal-loving women" who like to "meet over a cup of tea" were once known as muffin-wallopers.

Back in the 1600s, laetificate meant to lift someone's spirits

Laetificate It's a word not much used since the 1600s, but it's one you might need today - or might be called on to offer to someone else. Quite simply, to laetificate is to lift someone's spirits.

Meliorism George Eliot coined the word "meliorism" to define her outlook on life, once writing to the psychologist James Sully to explain that: "I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist' except myself." Operating halfway between optimism and realism, meliorism is the belief that the world - no matter what shape it may be in - can always be improved by the concerted effort of mankind.

Nikhedonia Nike was the Greek goddess of victory. Hedone (as in hedonism) was a Greek word for pleasure. Put those two together and you have nikhedonia - a term from psychology for the inspiring, adrenalin-raising excitement of anticipating a future success.

Omnibenevolence Just as an omnipotent person has power over everything, an omnibenevolent person exhibits kindness to everything and everyone. That endless, all-encompassing compassion is omnibenevolence.

Peeled-egg We're all guilty of worrying that the worst could suddenly befall us, but rarely imagine that something just as unexpectedly wonderful could take place. JRR Tolkien coined the word "eucatastrophe" to describe an unforeseen event of sheer good fortune, but the Scots beat him to it. First recorded in Scottish proverbs dating from the 1800s, a peeled-egg is: "A stroke of good fortune which one has not had to strive for." It was once a popular name given to farms established on land with unanticipated natural advantages.

Queem Something described as queem is perfectly calm or serene - or by extension, perfectly smooth and level. Queemness, likewise, can be used to describe perfect serenity, or perfect smoothness and levelness, while two things that work queemly with one another are either perfectly harmonious, or, like two parts of a joint, snug and well adapted to one another.

Adopted from French, retrouvailles literally means 'refinding'

Retrouvailles Adopted from French, retrouvailles literally means "refinding" - but it's more usually understood as the French equivalent of what we might call a reunion or homecoming. Recently the word came to be used more imaginatively to describe the utter happiness or joy sparked by reuniting or catching up with someone you haven't seen in a long time. A word well worth recalling in the months ahead.

Supernaculum It might be a fine glass of wine or whisky - or nothing more than a perfectly brewed and timed cup of tea. A supernaculum is a drink so appreciated that it is savoured to its very last drop.

Traumatropism A tree partly felled by gales or lightning can often continue growing - albeit in some ever more unwieldy or implausible shape. That undeterred response to earlier damage is an example of a phenomenon called traumatropism. Taken literally, it reminds us that nature is stronger and more resilient than we could ever imagine; metaphorically, it tells us that harsh setbacks need not end our progress.

Unsoulclogged It's not the most handsome of words, but we're all striving to be unsoulclogged. It is total contentment, peace of mind, and freedom from sadness and dejection - or, as one 1881 dictionary defined it, the state of "not being weighed down in spirit".

Villeggiatura When you're tired of the city or your usual routine, it's time for a villeggiatura. Adopted into English from Italian in the 18th century, a villeggiatura is a restorative trip or holiday to the countryside, taken to lift the spirits and unwind the mind.

Worldcraft Ageing is hardly the most welcome of life's certainties. But for every word to remind us of its drawbacks (to be eildencumbered is to be held back by age), there is one for its seldom considered positives. Worldcraft is an 18th-century word for the unmatched cumulative wisdom of an aged person whose long life has given them unique and much venerated insight - far beyond anything a younger, less experienced person could ever imagine.

Xenodochy Hospitality offered to strangers. The prefix xeno comes from the Greek word for "strange" or "foreign", but we only tend to encounter it today in xenophobia. Now seems an apt time to highlight one of its overlooked opposites.

Yahrsider We are all looking out for our yahrsiders at the moment. A dialect term from the 18th century, a yahrsider is someone from the same family or town as you, or who shares the same community spirit.

Zenobia A courageous and effective third-century queen of Palmyra, Zenobia expanded her kingdom into the almighty Palmyrene Empire, stretching from Ankara to Aswan. Her name has been adopted as a term for a powerful, unstoppably determined woman.
The Cabinet of Calm: Soothing Words for Troubled Times by Paul Anthony Jones (Elliott & Thompson, £12.99) is out now

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An A to Z of old words to calm and inspire hope

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ike language, our emotions are universal and whatever fears and anxieties we are now experiencing, someone else in centuries gone by has felt the same way. Here is an A-Z of archaic and forgotten words that at some point in the past exactly described an elusive sense of peace, calm and delight.

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Another Lockdown Dress - a real challenge as the material was very slippery and frayed a lot. Quite pleased with the results though I'd do it differently next time!

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Another Lockdown Dress - a real challenge as the material was very slippery and frayed a lot. Quite pleased with the results though I'd do it differently next time!

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In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

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'What is empathy and why it's important'

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'What is empathy and why it's important'

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Week beginning 08/06/2020

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Empathy is the ability to emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their place. Essentially, it is putting yourself in someone else's position and feeling what they are feeling.

Empathy means that when you see another person suffering, such as after they've lost a loved one, you are able to instantly envision yourself going through that same experience and feel what they are going through.

While people can be well-attuned to their own feelings and emotions, getting into someone else's head can be a bit more difficult. The ability to feel empathy allows people to "walk a mile in another's shoes," so to speak. It permits people to understand the emotions that others are feeling.

Press Play for Advice on Empathy

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Signs of Empathy

For many, seeing another person in pain and responding with indifference or even outright hostility seems utterly incomprehensible. But the fact that some people do respond in such a way clearly demonstrates that empathy is not necessarily a universal response to the suffering of others.

If you are wondering whether you are an empathetic person, here are some signs that show that you have this tendency:

You are good at really listening to what others have to say.

People often tell you about their problems.

You are good at picking up on how other people are feeling.

You often think about how other people feel.

Other people come to you for advice.

You often feel overwhelmed by tragic events.

You try to help others who are suffering.

You are good at telling when people aren't being honest.

You sometimes feel drained or overwhelmed in social situations.

You care deeply about other people.

You find it difficult to set boundaries in your relationships.

Types of Empathy

There are several types of empathy that a person may experience. The three types of empathy are:

Affective empathy involves the ability to understand another person's emotions and respond appropriately. Such emotional understanding may lead to someone feeling concerned for another person's well-being, or it may lead to feelings of personal distress.

Somatic empathy involves having a physical reaction in response to what someone else is experiencing. People sometimes physically experience what another person is feeling. When you see someone else feeling embarrassed, for example, you might start to blush or have an upset stomach.

Cognitive empathy involves being able to understand another person's mental state and what they might be thinking in response to the situation. This is related to what psychologists refer to as the theory of mind or thinking about what other people are thinking.

Empathy vs. Sympathy vs. Compassion

Uses for Empathy

Being able to experience empathy has many beneficial uses.

Empathy allows you to build social connections with others. By understanding what people are thinking and feeling, you are able to respond appropriately in social situations. Research has shown that having social connections is important for both physical and psychological well-being.

Empathizing with others helps you learn to regulate your own emotions. Emotional regulation is important in that it allows you to manage what you are feeling, even in times of great stress, without becoming overwhelmed.

Empathy promotes helping behaviors. Not only are you more likely to engage in helpful behaviors when you feel empathy for other people, but other people are also more likely to help you when they experience empathy.

Potential Pitfalls of Empathy

Having a great deal of empathy makes you concerned for the well-being and happiness of others. It also means, however, that you can sometimes get overwhelmed, burned out, or even overstimulated from always thinking about other people's emotions. This can lead to empathy fatigue.

Empathy fatigue refers to the exhaustion you might feel both emotionally and physically after repeatedly being exposed to stressful or traumatic events. You might also feel numb or powerless, isolate yourself, and have a lack of energy.

Empathy fatigue is a concern in certain situations, such as when acting as a caregiver. Studies also show that if healthcare workers can't balance their feelings of empathy (affective empathy, in particular), it can result in compassion fatigue as well.

Other research has linked higher levels of empathy with a tendency toward emotional negativity, potentially increasing your risk of empathic distress. It can even affect your judgment, causing you to go against your morals based on the empathy you feel for someone else.

Impact of Empathy

Your ability to experience empathy can impact your relationships. Studies involving siblings have found that when empathy is high, siblings have less conflict and more warmth toward each other. In romantic relationships, having empathy increases your ability to extend forgiveness.

Not everyone experiences empathy in every situation. Some people may be more naturally empathetic in general, but people also tend to feel more empathetic toward some people and less so toward others. Some of the factors that play a role in this tendency include:

How you perceive the other person

How you attribute the other individual's behaviors

What you blame for the other person's predicament

Your past experiences and expectations

At the most basic level, there appear to be two main factors that contribute to the ability to experience empathy: genetics and socialization. Essentially, it boils down to the age-old relative contributions of nature and nurture.

Parents pass down genes that contribute to overall personality, including the propensity toward sympathy, empathy, and compassion. On the other hand, people are also socialized by their parents, peers, communities, and society. How people treat others, as well as how they feel about others, is often a reflection of the beliefs and values that were instilled at a very young age.

Barriers to Empathy

Some people lack empathy and, therefore, aren't able to understand what another person may be experiencing or feeling. This can result in behaviors that seem uncaring or sometimes even hurtful. For instance, people with low affective empathy have higher rates of cyberbullying.

A lack of empathy is also one of the defining characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder. Though, it is unclear whether this is due to a person with this disorder having no empathy at all or having more of a dysfunctional response to others.

A few reasons why people sometimes lack empathy include cognitive biases, dehumanization, and victim-blaming.

Cognitive Biases

Sometimes the way people perceive the world around them is influenced by cognitive biases. For example, people often attribute other people's failures to internal characteristics, while blaming their own shortcomings on external factors.

These biases can make it difficult to see all the factors that contribute to a situation. They also make it less likely that people will be able to see a situation from the perspective of another.

Dehumanization

Many also fall victim to the trap of thinking that people who are different from them don't feel and behave the same as they do. This is particularly common in cases when other people are physically distant.

For example, when they watch reports of a disaster or conflict in a foreign land, people might be less likely to feel empathy if they think that those who are suffering are fundamentally different from themselves.

Victim Blaming

Sometimes, when another person has suffered a terrible experience, people make the mistake of blaming the victim for their circumstances. This is the reason that victims of crimes are often asked what they might have done differently to prevent the crime.

This tendency stems from the need to believe that the world is a fair and just place. It is the desire to believe that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get-and it can fool you into thinking that such terrible things could never happen to you.

Causes of Empathy

Human beings are certainly capable of selfish, even cruel, behavior. A quick scan of the news quickly reveals numerous unkind, selfish, and heinous actions. The question, then, is why don't we all engage in such self-serving behavior all the time? What is it that causes us to feel another's pain and respond with kindness?

The term empathy was first introduced in 1909 by psychologist Edward B. Titchener as a translation of the German term einfühlung (meaning "feeling into"). Several different theories have been proposed to explain empathy.

Neuroscientific Explanations

Studies have shown that specific areas of the brain play a role in how empathy is experienced. More recent approaches focus on the cognitive and neurological processes that lie behind empathy. Researchers have found that different regions of the brain play an important role in empathy, including the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula.

Functional MRI research also indicates that an area of the brain known as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) plays a critical role in the experience of empathy. Studies have found that people who have damage to this area of the brain often have difficulty recognizing emotions conveyed through facial expressions.

Emotional Explanations

Some of the earliest explorations into the topic of empathy centered on how feeling what others feel allows people to have a variety of emotional experiences. The philosopher Adam Smith suggested that it allows us to experience things that we might never otherwise be able to fully feel.

This can involve feeling empathy for both real people and imaginary characters. Experiencing empathy for fictional characters, for example, allows people to have a range of emotional experiences that might otherwise be impossible.

Prosocial Explanations

Sociologist Herbert Spencer proposed that empathy served an adaptive function and aided in the survival of the species. Empathy leads to helping behavior, which benefits social relationships. Humans are naturally social creatures. Things that aid in our relationships with other people benefit us as well.

When people experience empathy, they are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors that benefit other people. Things such as altruism and heroism are also connected to feeling empathy for others.

Tips for Practicing Empathy

Fortunately, empathy is a skill that you can learn and strengthen. If you would like to build your empathy skills, there are a few things that you can do:

Work on listening to people without interrupting

Pay attention to body language and other types of nonverbal communication

Try to understand people, even when you don't agree with them

Ask people questions to learn more about them and their lives

Imagine yourself in another person's shoes

Strengthen your connection with others to learn more about how they feel

Seek to identify biases you may have and how they affect your empathy for others

Look for ways in which you are similar to others versus focusing on differences

Be willing to be vulnerable, opening up about how you feel

Engage in new experiences, giving you better insight into how others in that situation may feel

Get involved in organizations that push for social change

A Word From Verywell

While empathy might be lacking in some, most people are able to empathize with others in a variety of situations. This ability to see things from another person's perspective and empathize with another's emotions plays an important role in our social lives. Empathy allows us to understand others and, quite often, compels us to take action to relieve another person's suffering.

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Empathy allows us to understand and share the feelings of others. Learn why we feel empathy in some situations and not others, different types of empathy, and more.

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Bike Week (6-14 June), is an annual celebration of cycling.
Click the link to find out more!

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Bike Week will be kicking off 10-16 June 2024

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Seventeen year old Maddy lives in a sterile environment, where the air is filtered every 20 minutes. Her mother and her nurse are her only companions and the outside world is a place that she reads about in books and online. Maddy has Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), which means that the outside world could kill her.
Maddy watches from her window as new neighbours move in, and immediately notices Olly, the teenage son who is around her age.  Maddy and Olly begin communicating online, and Maddy begins to realise how much she is missing out on. Her sterile environment keeps her alive and safe, but as Maddy and Olly's feelings deepen, she begins to question whether it is better to be alive but totally isolated from the world, or to risk everything to experience what it is to really live.

I read this book in one day, as I just couldn't put it down. It's a really enjoyable read, fully engaging right from the first page, I loved Maddy's little notations scattered throughout, and the portrayal of first love was brilliant.
A great exploration of relationships, family, love, loss, and what it means to be alive; It brought to mind the famous quote from Henry David Thoreau:
"I wished to live deliberately... and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Review by Cheryl Standring

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This is the story of Anna, a teenage girl who moves from Birmingham to a small village in Scotland, with a new identity, to begin a new life. We don't know what Anna is trying to forget, but her past soon begins to catch up with her and her new life and friendships quickly start to unravel.
Meanwhile, the discovery of a necklace and a school history project lead Anna to uncover the story of Maggie, a young woman from the village who was accused of witchcraft 400 years ago.
I really enjoyed this book, the story was fast paced and I loved the dual storylines of Anna and Maggie. This book covers important themes of social media, peer pressure, and online bullying. A book for teens 14+, due to the language and subject matter.

From the WSC Library Young Adult collection.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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'Who Runs the World?' by Virginia Bergin

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'Who Runs the World?' by Virginia Bergin

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This story is set 60 years in the future, in a world where men have been wiped out by a virus. The main character, a teenage girl named River, lives in a community based on peace, honesty, fairness and communication. Wars and violence are a thing of the past. But one day River comes across an injured person, who turns out to be a boy, an 'XY' called Mason. And River's whole world is about to be shaken to it's core.
I liked the idea of this story. Set in a dystopian (or utopian?) future, where females rule the world. Sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. The story lacked pace, and I didn't ever really feel very emotionally invested in any of the characters. And some of the actions of the characters seemed a little hard to fathom or to believe. I didn't dislike the book, but if I was going to recommend a book about a world inhabited by women, it would be 'Herland' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

From the WSC Library Young Adult collection.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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'Where the World Ends' by Geraldine McCaughrean

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'Where the World Ends' by Geraldine McCaughrean

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110 miles from the Scottish mainland, is the St Kilda archipelago, a remote cluster of three small islands in the North Atlantic.

In August 1727, Quilliam is one of 9 boys and 3 men, who are taken out by boat, to Warrior Stac (a massive rock, 196 metres tall) to hunt and collect sea-birds. This is highly dangerous and difficult work, but for the people of St Kilda, it is their way of life. The boat will return in three weeks to take them home to their families.
But three weeks pass, and the boat doesn't come. As the weeks go on, and the year turns from Summer to Autumn to Winter, still no boat arrives. With the conditions becoming harsher, and supplies becoming scarce, Quilliam and the rest of the fowling party on the Stac must wait for rescue or death.
This is an absolutely brilliant book, based on the astonishing true story of the 3 men and 8 boys who were marooned for nine months on Warrior Stac in 1727. Narrated by Quilliam, this story is beautiful and touching, and all the characters are wonderfully memorable. It is definitely worth reading up a little on St Kilda after reading this, it is a fascinating place and the events this story is based on are terrifying and astounding in equal measure.

From WSC Library's Young Adult collection.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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'The Other Side of the World' by Stephanie Bishop

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'The Other Side of the World' by Stephanie Bishop

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Set during the 1960's, this is the story of Charlotte, an artist and new mother,  struggling with the demands and isolation of motherhood. When her husband Henry suggests a move to Australia (as part of the 'Ten Pound Poms' migration), she finds herself agreeing to the move, even though she doesn't want to go.
Once in Australia, Charlotte struggles to settle, the landscape is unfamiliar, she is lonely, and she becomes increasingly distant from Henry. Her homesickness becomes overwhelming, and Charlotte must make a decision that could alter everything.
I really enjoyed this book; I loved how the language used to describe the contrasting landscapes seemed to mirror Charlotte's emotional states, somehow. The exploration of what home means, what it means to belong, as well as the examination of post-natal mental health, combined with the parallel story of Henry's own sense of self and home, made this story fascinating and shocking and absolutely brilliant.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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Action for Happiness coping Calendar - Joyful June

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Action for Happiness coping Calendar - Joyful June

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Here is this month's coping calendar. Print it out and put it somewhere you will see it each day!

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Empathy Day is coming up next week. Here's a list of some of the brilliant events that will be taking place online to celebrate and promote empathy through books and reading.

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Crown Shyness: are trees social distancing too?

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Crown Shyness: are trees social distancing too?

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Week beginning 01/06/2020

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Crown shyness: are trees social distancing too?

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Some trees keep their distance from one another, but why do they do it?

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In London, in 1754, six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter, Clara, at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to collect her, only to discover that Clara has already been collected. To Bess's horror, she is told that Clara was collected by a woman who identified herself as Bess Bright, knew her address and details of the secret token she left with her baby that night.
In another part of London, wealthy widow Alexandra and her daughter Charlotte live an isolated existence, never leaving the house; but Alexandra is cold and detached. When her friend Dr Mead - a doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades Alexandra to hire a nursemaid for Charlotte, Alexandra finds herself even more isolated from her daughter. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and soon cracks begin to show in her carefully constructed world, and  long-buried secrets are in danger of being revealed.
I was really keen to read this book, having read 'The Familiars' by the same author, and also having an interest in the history of The Foundling Hospital. However, I found that this story lacked something, and while I was keen to keep reading to the end, I didn't find it particularly believable. The ending was pleasing in a happy-ever-after sense, but I felt it was a little contrived; However, it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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Set in the watery and remote Fens of Edwardian Suffolk, Wakenhyrst tells the story of Maud, an intelligent young girl who grows up under the rule of her strict and emotionally distant father.
One day her father discovers a medieval painting of a devil in the local churchyard, and a series of unsettling events begin to occur.
The narrative of this book is told partly by Maud, but also through the diary entries of her father, Edmund Stearne. As the sinister goings on escalate, and Edmund begins to unravel, Maud begins discovers secrets from his past, and must learn to take control of a world inhabited by supersition, witchcraft and folklore, as well as a world where prejudice and suppression of women are commonplace.
I really enjoyed the gloomy descriptions of the landscape of the fens. This book has a definite gothic element, but on the whole, I was a little disappointed. I liked Maud's character, but I found her father's diary entries rather repetitive and rambling, and the conclusion was rather less satisfying than I had anticipated.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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Latest make, a little dress for a two year old and a matching dress for her dolly.

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Another favourite pastime of mine is decoupage the art of transferring designs most often from paper napkins onto wood or glass.  Here are a few items I have decorated during the last few weeks.

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As someone with a music degree, music of all genres is a huge interest to me. During lockdown I have been listening to all sorts of music not only to relax to, but also to work to as I find it helps me concentrate and focus. In particular I listen to the music of Hans Zimmer who is a German  film score composer and producer.  Beautifully and cleverly scored, his music is incredibly emotive and conjures up many different images and feelings.

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The oldest and most visited website on Hans Zimmer and film music.

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Mental Health Awareness Week (18-24 May)

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Mental Health Awareness Week (18-24 May)

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Kindness is the theme of this year's Mental Health Awareness Week. Here's a lovely video explaining exactly why #KindnessMatters

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Kindness Matters - Mental Health Foundation - Mental Health Awareness Week 2020

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Week beginning 18/05/2020
It was World Baking Day on 17th May, and it's Mental Health Awareness Week this week - here's a great article that looks at the wellbeing benefits of baking bread!

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Call it mindful baking, therapeutic baking or, well, just baking, many people find that doing the doughy deed gives them a boost. Maybe you are (or will be) one of them...

We first published this page in the UK Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 and plan to keep adding to and developing it. If you have relevant tips/advice to share, please email realbread@sustainweb.org

Bready benefits

Making bread offers you something positive on which to focus. Many people find it gives them a sense of purpose and achievement. It may also help you to:

Relax

Feel calmer

Unknot those knotty bits - in mind, body or both

Take out frustrations on (or gently massage) a lump of dough

Switch off and escape from whatever else is going on inside or out

...oh and you get to eat it, too!

"It's not just about baking to eat and feed, it's the process that is equally powerful and satisfying. It's about nourishing ourselves in both body and mind." Simon Cobb, Stoneham Bakehouse

While we know making bread can be beneficial and work towards the activity being made available through social prescription, we know it isn't a cure all. Everyone's way to okay is different and baking might not be part of yours, but we encourage you to give it a go to find out.

Top tips

Before rolling up your sleeves consider the following. These are even more important if you are keeping them rolled down because you're unsure about whether or not this baking malarkey is a good idea.

1. The only thing you need to prove is dough: You're not an artisan baker or making bread to win, or even enter, Bake Off, so give yourself a break. People won't be judging your results and nor should you.

2. This is about eating, not art: Your bread might have a crust only a parent could love, but you made it for the pleasure of baking and to stuff in your mouth, not to post on Instagram. It'll taste great, so read the first tip again.

3. Focus on process, not product: It's good to have an idea of how the bread you're making should end up, but you're not baking it to sell, so if it turns out differently, roll with it. As the cliché goes: Try to enjoy the journey, rather than just focussing on the destination.

4. Dough your own way: One size doesn't fit all. Rather than one 'correct' way to mix, knead, prove, shape, bake or eat bread, bakers use endless combinations of ingredients, recipes and methods that result in a whole world of different breads. Some people follow recipes to the minute, degree and gram, others riff around a theme.

5. Go flat out: If things really aren't heading the direction you'd planned, roll your dough out and make a pizza, or roll it even thinner to cook on a dry frying pan as a flatbread/wrap.

If at any point you're feeling stressed, anxious, or any other negative emotion, just stop and walk away. You can carry on after a while or clear down and do something else.

Bake well start: Preparation

Some things to think about before you begin baking.

Time
Try to give yourself and the dough plenty of time: Neither of you will benefit from being rushed. Real Bread takes time but most of it isn't your time. A quick recipe that demands you return to the dough after only about 45 minutes of rising, and then again another half hour later, can leave you feeling anxious and unable to leave the house.

By contrast, a long'n'slow method allows you to do five or ten minutes' here and there, then get on with your life in between. Use these breaks to read, play music, garden, iron, go for a walk, watch telly, do some shopping, have a nap, play sport, cook, meditate or whatever else you do to relax. Find a recipe that will fit in and around your day.

When making bread, watch the dough, not the clock. Almost all recipes include timings but take these as guidelines, rather than rules. If the dough hasn't risen or baked fully in the time suggested, give it a bit longer.

Ingredients
All you need to make a whole world of breads is flour, water yeast and salt. If you're making sourdough bread, the yeast comes free with the flour, and some flatbreads don't involve yeast at all. You can either get hold of the ingredients listed in your chosen recipe, or cut your coat according to your cloth and find a recipe to make with the ingredient you have.

Healthy body and mind are inextricably linked, so you might choose to use wholemeal/grain flours and/or bake savoury breads that don't involve adding sugars and fats.

Equipment
Yes, you can buy all sorts of stuff, but the only kit you really need is a hand or two, plus about four things:

Scales (ideally digital for accuracy) to measure ingredients

Bowl and/or or worksurface to mix, work and prove the dough

Loaf tin, baking tray or banneton/brotform to prove the dough in or on

Oven or (for flatbread) frying pan / griddle for cooking

A plastic dough scraper is also really useful for dividing dough and for getting the stuff out of, and off, things - including you. From there, it's up to you in what gear you do and don't invest.

What to bake

Particularly if you're making bread to help reduce stress or anxiety, KISS (keep it simple, stupid) applies, and also remember our tips above. There are many free recipes on our website, of which these are amongst the most straightforward:

If working dough is something you want, or need, to avoid, here are some no-knead recipes:

Campaign ambassador, and Bread Angels founder, Jane Mason said: "There is nothing nicer than handing rye dough. It's fun, funny, slimy, sticky and, ultimately, delicious."

Julia Ponsonby, author of The Art of Mindful Baking suggested to us that: "The making of your own sourdough starter over a week could also be a nice mindfulness practice. This is something we used to do when we ran one week bread courses at Schumacher College. We use Andrew Whitley's rye starter method - very simple as it only involves flour and water, no yoghurt or raisins!"

Method

Making many types of bread basically boils down to: Mix, prove, shape, prove, bake. How you do each step depends on what type of bread you are making but also personal choice. Even when making the same type, every baker has a slightly (or very) different way of creating it.
To knead or not to knead
How and how much you work your dough, and whether you do it much at all, is partly down to what you're making and partly down to personal choice. Some people love to punch and tug, or slap and stretch their dough like a stress ball. Others prefer rhythmically massaging or working dough like a concertina.

What many people don't realise is that there is no knead to knead. Given enough water and time, the proteins in wheat flour will form gluten networks by themselves. Kneading is simply a mechanical means of banging the molecules together so that more of the bonds form more quickly. If you don't want to (or can't) sign up for the workout, our options include:

Choosing a no-knead recipe (see above)

The stretch and fold method (see below)

Using a food mixer with a dough attachment

Similar to the third of these is using a bread machine. You can simply use it as a mixer or for the whole process, and you'll still enjoy many of the benefits of making your own Real Bread.
Stretch and fold
Choose a long ferment recipe. Scoop the dough out of the bowl with a wetted dough scraper, or your hand, stretch it and fold it in half, then repeat this action. Do this at intervals (eg every hour) through the proving. You can find videos demonstrating how on the internet.
Sticky fingers
While many people are comfortable with, and even love, the feel of dough stuck to their hands, not everyone is. Campaign ambassador Dilly Boase says: "Let dough pull itself together. If it is getting difficult and sticky at any stage of the process, put it back in the bowl, cover it with a lid, plate or bag and leave it for 15 minutes. The dough will become less likely to stick to you and more relaxing to work with."

She goes on to say that: "Clean hands stick to dough less: Put a scraper/blunt table knife ready when you start mixing. Use this at any point to get all the dough off your hands, rubbing hands with a pinch of flour to get the last off. Repeat as needed."

Give and gain

If you bake for someone else, the act of giving can add to the basket of bready benefits by providing an extra boost to your feeling of wellness. As Campaign ambassador, and Bread Angels founder, Jane Mason puts it: "When you bake a loaf you may as well bake two." Not only is it more energy efficient than turning the oven on for just one, you can "give some to a neighbour or suggest a trade so they can give you something in return and everyone feels good."

Ways to okay

Stoneham Bakehouse founder Simon Cobb says: "Baking has been at the heart of my own journey towards living with my mental health difficulties. The physical process is a therapeutic act in itself, but it's more than that. For me the whole process supports my wellbeing."

He goes on to note that the New Economic Foundation's 5 Ways to Wellbeing can all be taken through baking:

CONNECT: Whether this is connecting with the dough and feeling it on your skin, or connecting with others (face-to-face or remotely) as you bake and then give bread to others. You also connect as you learn with and from other people.

BE ACTIVE: Kneading can be a full work out sometimes. The dough allows you to really get going and work up a sweat.

TAKE NOTICE: Noticing the aromas of the ingredients, feeling the changes in the dough's elasticity, listening to the crackles of the loaf as it comes out of the hot oven; these all allow us to connect with more than it being just a loaf of bread we're making.

KEEP LEARNING: We're all always learning about the process and how we could do things differently. There are so many people out there who are more than willing to offer guidance.

GIVE: The act of giving something you've made to someone else is incredibly powerful and uplifting for the soul. The same goes for sharing your baking skills and knowledge.

Mindful baking

Philip Muskin, a psychiatry professor at Columbia University and the secretary of the American Psychiatry Association, is quoted in The Atlantic as saying: "Baking is mindful. Mindfulness means paying attention to yourself in the moment and not being in the past or the future, but really being there."

Some people find that they get the most benefit out of making bread when they really concentrate on the details, not just of what and how they are baking, but also what is going on in and around themselves in the moment.

The choice of things on which you can focus while you're making bread include:

How the ingredients feel, taste and smell. Their different colours, textures, flavours and aromas.

If you are making sourdough bread, look at the bubbling starter and think about your billions of co-workers in it that will help you bake.

Weighing the ingredients, measuring to the exact weight in a recipe.

The feel of the ingredients in your fingers as you mix them

The changes in feel and appearance as the dough starts to form and then develops, from shaggy and sticky to smooth and tacky, or even silky

If you are using wheat, the tension as the gluten develops. Feeling it get elastic and resisting, then relaxing after you have rested the dough, before 'fighting' back when you next work it.

Feeling the tension that builds up in the dough as you shape it.

Shifting scraps off the bowl or worksurface with your dough scraper, rubbing them off your fingers with a little extra flour.

The sounds of baking: Ringing mixing bowl, clanking tin or tray, squelching and slapping dough, the fan of the oven, the 'singing' of the crust as the baked loaf cools, the crackling as you slice or tear it.

How your body is part of the process - your breathing, the feel in your muscles and joints.

The aromas of the baked loaf, the different tastes and textures of the crust and crumb as you enjoy eating it.

Call it art, science or magic, the alchemy of transforming three or four boring ingredients into Real Bread. The powders and liquid that become a mess then an inert mass, before coming alive as a vital entity, which grows and matures, before you bake it into a delicious and nutritious food to enjoy and prhaps share.

Everything in between the active steps - maybe birds singing or dogs barking outside, the weather, a radio playing, sitting down for a cuppa, going for a walk - each of which in itself offers you the opportunity of exercises in mindfulness

There are many more. They key thing is to be 'present' in the moment, in the now, focussing your thoughts and feelings on making bread, rather than anything from the past, anything that might happen in the future, and anything in the present not directly and immediately connected with what you're doing.

As you go, you might choose to ask yourself questions, and/or keep a record of your observations, perhaps in the form of notes, a diary, sketches or photos.

Real Bread Campaign ambassador Ian Waterland says: "Making bread is a fundamentally mindful process. It is tactile and incorporates all of the senses. It is productive and satisfying. In short, it can make people feel better." Ian wrote this article on mindful baking.
More thoughts on mindful baking
"Baking bread literally connects us to the ground; from the soil, through the hands of the farmers and millers to the flour. Metaphorically we need grounding more than ever at a time of fear and uncertainty. Making bread gives ample opportunities for us to be fully present and connected to the physicality of the bread-making process and to have the satisfaction and reassurance of seeing something through from start to golden-crusted finish." Pauline Beaumont, author of Bread Therapy: The Mindful Art of Making Bread

"The physical act of baking, the way that you knead bread for example, takes your mind out of the intellectual and connects you to your body. For example when you're baking sourdough, you're letting things develop at their own pace and you're observing them. I think not trying to control everything and accepting that things will happen when they're ready is a useful tool to have in life," she says. "We're always afraid of missing out on opportunities, but when we slow down, we often become more successful in life because we gain a heightened sense of awareness." Julia Ponsonby, author of The Art of Mindful Baking, quoted by HuffPost

"I always try to focus on the aroma of the ingredients as they go in. The smell of malthouse flour as I open the sack is my favourite thing about baking those loaves. It doesn't need to be every time you put every ingredient in that you stop to take notice, but if there's one thing it can really help to ground yourself." Simon Cobb, Stoneham Bakehouse

"Take time to feel the dough change as you knead it, smelling your flour and yeast when you start keeps you focused on your ingredients. Notice how they come together and change through each process to eventually become a beautiful handmade loaf that you can admire with pride." Mike and Lesley, One Mile Bakery Pontardawe

"Just enjoy the magic of flour, water and salt. Get to know the rhythm of your [sourdough] starter and use it at its peak" Simon & Rachel @upto20words

"Mixing doughs by hand as the sun comes up. Perfect." Liz Wilson, Ma Baker

Learn more

Through our ongoing Together We Rise initiative, we're showing how baking can, and does, help to change people's lives for the better. Other places to find out more include:

If you run frequent/regular mindful/therapeutic bread making classes, or have been on one that you'd recommend, please drop a short line to realbread@sustainweb.org
See also
Personal stories written by:

If you would like to share your own experience of how you benefit from making bread, or baking in general, please drop a short line to realbread@sustainweb.org

Big ups for baking

The only way of finding out if bread making is beneficial to you is trying it for yourself, but here are a bunch of comments from baking fans in case any of them help nudge you towards giving it a go.

Find more evidence of the benefits of bread making on our Together We Rise page.

In his foreword to the Real Bread Campaign's Rising Up report, GBBO 2012 winner John Whaite called baking "A form of pill-less Prozac." He also told us that "There is something about the meditative process of bread making, that is to say the contemplation of what to do with the dough after the proving processes, that enables me to lift my mood and take control: one of the many powers that I lack when feeling glum."

In an exclusive interview, GBBO 2019 winner David Atherton told us: "I've been making bread since I was smaller than I remember and have always thought it's really important my mental health. It's very meditative but maybe the main thing is that you've accomplishing something."

The Guardian quoted Mary Berry as saying: "If you're feeling a little bit down, a little bit of kneading helps."

"People are afraid to spend money, and they're feeling like shit. Baking is cheap, it's easy, and it's visceral. You're digging your hands into something pliable, and with an immediate result to it." Kat Kinsman, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, quoted in The Atlantic

"Baking is a unique activity that has potential to combine both creative expression and social connection. The act of baking can have an almost meditative effect, allowing people to lose themselves in a creative activity that can positively impact our sense of well-being and connection with those around us." Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos, quoted by Love Food

"But when it comes to baking, I am always in charge. It takes care, precision and concentration, so I can lose myself in it, and keep the negativity and numbness at bay. Making something beautiful that I'm proud of also helps me get back some of the sense of self-worth that depression eats away at. Baking helped to bring me back; it made me a better mum, wife, daughter and friend." Laura Jane, quoted by Mind

"I write this now, as someone who has been off any kind of mood enhancers for two years and is out the other side of what felt like a dark and treacherous tunnel. Baking has been the best antidepressant for me. I am now an award-winning businesswoman with everything to live for. If I hadn't found baking, if I hadn't found blogging, I honestly don't know where I would have ended up." Britt, quoted by the Mental Health Foundation

"I realised that making bread helped me feel a real sense of achievement when I was in the grip of panic - something to still my mind while I got myself together. The repetitive kneading of dough was really soothing, like meditation or mindfulness. It gave me time to just focus on putting my energy into this one thing. Of course, baking didn't cure my panic attacks - therapy and medication had a huge part to play in that - but it did give me space and a sense of control that helped me process the things I needed to." Laura Abernethy, writing for The Metro

"This week we almost lost a child to an intentional overdose. He will be okay. This has been a parent's worst nightmare. When I woke up this morning my body and brain were numb. I shuffled into the kitchen made some coffee and then made a loaf of country sourdough bread. Doing so helped me count my blessings." JoMama, posting on The Fresh Loaf

"I hadn't been baking at home for a while. Then one of my best friends died from an illness he didn't think was as bad as it was. I didn't know what to do with myself. I decided to keep myself busy. The way bread or preparing any food can make you feel is the purest most primal form of creation and therapy in our bodies IMO." Tom Georgias, posting on The Fresh Loaf

Support our charity

Your donation will help support the spread of baking skills and access to real bread.

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Breadsticks and chill. #RealBread #baking #bakingtherapy #mindfulbaking | Real Bread Campaign

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Call it mindful baking, therapeutic baking or, well, just baking, many people find that doing the doughy deed gives them a boost. Maybe you are (or will be) one of them... We first published this page in the UK Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 and plan to keep adding to and developing it.

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Working from home? Try building the following exercises into your working day to help avoid aches and pains associated with being sedentary.

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Make sure you move regularly throughout the day to help reduce stress.

Break up prolonged periods of sitting with short bursts of activity to improve your mental health and circulation. This can be small amounts of light walking, moving around the house, cleaning, gardening or going up and down the stairs every 30 minutes.

Increasing your daily activity and doing some more structured exercise such as a brisk walk outside, yoga or weight training can reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression.

Simple stretches, designed by expert physiotherapists, can help ease the aches and pains associated with sitting for long periods at home:

The chest stretch

Sit forward from the back of your chair

With your thumbs pointing towards the ceiling, open your arms out to the side until you feel a stretch in the front of your chest. Ensure your shoulders are back and down

Aim to switch on the muscles between your shoulder blades by gently drawing them together. You should not feel pain or tingling in your arms

Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and repeat three times.

The leg stretch

Try the following to stretch out your quads:

Stand in front of your desk and place your left hand on it for balance

Standing on your left leg, raise your right heel towards your right buttock

Grab hold of your right foot with your right hand. You should feel a stretch along the front of your thigh

Hold the stretch for 20 seconds, repeat three times and then switch legs.

The sit stretch

Address this problem with the following stretch:

Perch on the edge of your seat and stretch your right leg out in front of you

Rest your heel on the floor with your foot pointing up

Lean forward slightly from your hips and look straight ahead. You should feel a gentle stretch but no pain along the back of your right leg

Hold the stretch for 20 seconds, repeat three times and then swap legs.

'Perfect' posture?

Sitting desk? Standing desk? There is no perfect posture or right or wrong desk set up:

You may experience aches and pains as the body is not used to being in a particular position for prolonged periods of time.

The key is to keep moving. Your best posture is your next posture!

Take regular breaks for movement, try setting an alarm to remind you to get up and move. You will also find breaks beneficial for your mental health.

If you need to make a phone call, try and get away from your desk. Stand up and walk around the room.

Wall press

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Stretch out your arms and rest your palms against the wall at shoulder-height and slightly wider than shoulder-width apart

Take a couple of tiny steps back, engage your tummy muscles, and slowly bend your arms at the elbows. Keep your back and neck straight and look at the wall in front of you

Lower yourself until you are a couple of inches away from the wall, then push yourself back up to your starting position

Make sure you lead with your chest so your arms are doing the work. Do not allow your back to arch

Aim for three sets of ten press-ups. To make this exercise more challenging, move your legs further back.

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Make sure you move regularly throughout the day to help reduce stress. Break up prolonged periods of sitting with short bursts of activity to improve your mental health and circulation. This can be small amounts of light walking, moving around the house, cleaning, gardening or going up and down the stairs every 30 minutes.

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SILLY SQUAD - Summer Reading Challenge for kids!

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SILLY SQUAD - Summer Reading Challenge for kids!

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The Summer Reading Challenge is a great initiative from The Reading Agency! It's run in public libraries every summer, and is designed to keep children reading over the summer holidays. This year it's going online, and the theme is SILLY SQUAD. It's suitable for children up to around 12 years of age, and features lots of incentives and rewards to keep it fun and engaging. Click the link to find out more...

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The Summer Reading Challenge is back with Silly Squad!

It's almost time for this year's Summer Reading Challenge, and for 2020 it's all about funny books, happiness and having a laugh!

The Silly Squad is a team of animal friends who love to go on adventures and get stuck in to all different kinds of funny books. This year, our Challenge features extra special characters designed by the award-winning author and illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson, who you'll know from amazing reads like Amelia Fang and Evil Emperor Penguin!

You can join the Silly Squad on a new adventure by setting your own personal reading challenge to complete this summer. Our new online platform will help you keep track of your books, reviews and the rewards you unlock along the way.

As always, we'll have loads of brilliant book suggestions to get you started, and tips on how you can keep reading even while schools and libraries are closed. We'll also have heaps of super silly activities, quizzes, videos, games and more to keep you entertained at home!

Silly Squad officially begins here on Friday 5 June 2020.

Keep an eye on this website for the latest Summer Reading Challenge news, including details of our fantastically fun launch party!

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It's almost time for this year's Summer Reading Challenge, and for 2020 it's all about funny books, happiness and having a laugh! The Silly Squad is a team of animal friends who love to go on adventures and get stuck in to all different kinds of funny books.

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I've been making masks using this really easy instruction video on Youtube, it even has a filter pocket! https://youtu.be/iIuQMZ1Iw5M

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I've been making masks using this really easy instruction video on Youtube, it even has a filter pocket! https://youtu.be/iIuQMZ1Iw5M

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Salted Caramel Millionaire Shortbread (Vegan)

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Salted Caramel Millionaire Shortbread (Vegan)

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Thankfully I still have enough flour to let me enjoy one of my favourite hobbies - baking! Not sure why I've never made these sweet & salty, sticky, crunchy bars of deliciousness before, but I'm definitely going to be making them again!

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Why not listen to this podcast from the All in the Mind series on BBC Sounds.

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All in the Mind - How You Can Feel Less Lonely - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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Set in Amsterdam in 1686, we meet eighteen year old Nella, newly married  to the rich and handsome Johannes Brandt, who she has barely met. In her new home, she rarely sees her husband, and when she does he is emotionally and physically distant. Her sister-in-law Marin is cold and unfriendly. Johannes gifts Nella a miniature cabinet which is a replica of their house, and Nella seeks out a local 'miniaturist' to furnish the house with tiny figures of the family and furnishings. But the miniaturist sends eerily accurate figures of people and objects in the house that Nella has not ordered, and seems to be able to foretell events that are to occur.
As Nella uncovers secrets about Johannes, and secrets about Marin., the whole family is put into a dangerous situation, and as everyone's lives begin to unravel, Nella needs to find out if the miniaturist is the person able to change their fates -  to save them or destroy them.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved the development of the characters and the pace of the story, and it certainly took a turn that I didn't expect. But by the end, I did think that the main question of the book would be answered, which it wasn't, which was a little disappointing. On the whole, though, this was a great story and I would definitely read more books by this author.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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'Not just weeds': how rebel botanists are using graffiti to name forgotten flora

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'Not just weeds': how rebel botanists are using graffiti to name forgotten flora

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Week beginning 11/05/2020

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A rising international force of rebel botanists armed with chalk has taken up street graffiti to highlight the names and importance of the diverse but downtrodden flora growing in the cracks of paths and walls in towns and cities across Europe.

The idea of naming wild plants wherever they go - which began in France - has gone viral, with people chalking and sharing their images on social media. More than 127,000 people have liked a photo of chalked-up tree names in a London suburb, while a video of botanist Boris Presseq of Toulouse Museum of Natural History chalking up names to highlight street flowers in the French city has had 7m views.

Boris Presseq and fellow botanists write chalk plant names on the pavement in Toulouse, France. Photograph: Claire Van Beek/Handout

Presseq told the Guardian: "I wanted to raise awareness of the presence, knowledge and respect of these wild plants on sidewalks. People who had never taken the time to observe these plants now tell me their view has changed. Schools have contacted me since to work with students on nature in the city."

France banned pesticide use in parks, streets and other public spaces in 2017 and in gardens from 2019, leading to a surge in awareness of urban wild flowers in the country.

French botanist and campaigner Sophie Leguil, who lives in London, set up the More Than Weeds campaign to change perceptions of urban plants in the UK after helping to spread the Sauvages de ma rue ("wild things of my street") chalking campaign in France led by Tela Botanica. She has won permission to chalk up Hackney's highways and make chalk trails to highlight the forgotten flora at our feet and is asking other councils to allow the same.

This week, the Guardian's Age of Extinction site is looking at biodiversity in cities and urban areas around the world, shining a spotlight on the under-appreciated world of nature hidden among the highrises and busy roads.

Around 55% of the world's population live in urban areas and that number is projected to rise to 68% by 2050. Nature's role in the wellbeing and happiness of billions of people will be more important than ever. While urbanisation is a major driver of biodiversity loss, many conservationists and town planners are trying to make built-up areas more nature-friendly. The role of green spaces in urban areas has even been formalised in a draft UN agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, often referred to as the Paris agreement for nature.

The Covid-19 outbreak has seen cities and towns across the world go into lockdown which has enabled wildlife such as wild boar, deer, monkeys, foxes and even lions to venture into territory previously dominated by humans. It has also offered us the chance to notice and appreciate the natural world in cities in an unprecedented way.

In this special series of reports we'll be looking at how animals and plants adapt to city life, what to look out for right now and how we can encourage more wild cities in the future.

Thank you for your feedback.

"The pesticide ban in France has played a major role as it has forced local authorities and mentalities to change, and raised awareness," said Leguil.

"I've been wanting to do it on a larger scale, with permission, and I hope to get more authorities interested in creating trails. We talk a lot about plant blindness - what if putting names on plants could make people look at them in a different way? I despair at how sanitised London has become. Plants can be managed differently, with benefits - cost-saving, biodiversity, education."

Sophie Leguil chalking chalks plant names on a pavement in Hackney. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

In the UK it is illegal to chalk anything - hopscotch, art or botanical names - on paths or highways without permission, even if it educates, celebrates and fosters interest and knowledge in nature.

One anonymous London tree name chalker said: "I'll keep labelling as I go on my daily walks. I think it's really tapped into where people are right now.

"Botanical chalking gives a quick blast of nature connection, as the words encourage you to look up and notice the tree above you, the leaves, the bark, the insects, the sky. And that's all good for mental health. None of us can manage that much - living through a global pandemic is quite enough to be getting on with. But it's brought me a great amount of joy."

Chalkers say their work encourages connection with the natural world around us. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian and Handout

UK Plantlife spokesman Trevor Dines said the charity could not condone breaking the law, but added: "The incredible response to graffiti plant names is astonishing and I think it's part of something profound. It's as if the plant is declaring its own place in our world.

"In a recent YouGov poll, just 6% of 16- to 24-year-olds were able to correctly name a picture of a wild violet. The same poll showed nearly 70% of respondents would like to be able to identify more wild flowers."

Photograph: Courtesy of @edarcherthinks

With less spraying and weeding, we might expect to see up to 400 plant species on walls and paths, he suggests. That is 10% of our wild flora richness.

"One survey of pavements in Sheffield found 183 different plants, another in Cambridge found 186 species on walls. All these little micro niches build up to a wonderfully complex tapestry," Dines said.

"Every flower counts and will be targeted by pollinators - a patch of nettles can be swamped with caterpillars. And bird's-foot-trefoil, a not uncommon urban verge plant, is a food plant for more than 160 different invertebrates. If we change our perceptions and see the dandelion flower for what it is - an absolute lifeline to our bees in early spring - we might learn to love them more."

A study by pollinator researchers revealed that many wild urban "weeds" rank very highly for the quantity of nectar and pollen each flower provides, often much higher than a variety of garden plants. The top trumps among the plants they measured included dandelions and their lookalikes - rough hawkbit, cat's-ear and sow-thistles - plus ragwort, viper's bugloss, mallows, self-heal, scentless mayweed, love-in-a-mist, wild mignonette, rosebay willowherb, thistles, creeping buttercup and poppies.

Sophie Leguil holds a fragment of lesser swine-cress. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Andrew Whitehouse, of conservation trust Buglife, said path and wall plants are also important as winter food sources when there is less blossom available for insects such as bumblebees. "Below the concrete, the roots create tiny microhabitats that support woodlice, worms, harvestmen, spiders, baby slugs and snails, which in turn become the food for birds and hedgehogs," he added.

Cllr Jon Burke, of Hackney Council, which has gone pesticide-free in some areas and halved its use overall to increase wild flowers and boost insect biodiversity following public concern, said: "It is absurd that this chalking of plant names is criminal. It is something we welcome as an important and inspiring teaching tool for adults and children. How else will a kid ever know these names? The vocabulary of the natural world helps us access it, love it and desire to protect it."

Criminal law expert James Gray of Drystone Chambers confirmed that chalking plant names in the UK is illegal without permission or "lawful excuse" and a rebel botanist could be fined up to £2,500 for painting or inscribing any picture, letter, sign, or other mark on a path, highway surface, tree or other structure.

The presence of a poppy is highlighted by a London chalker. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Referring to Victor Hugo's famous fictional police inspector, Gray added: "The Javerts of this world will see great harm in the scribbles of rogue botanists and call for prosecutions, others will see it as entirely harmless and perhaps even a refreshing diversion in our streets."

He added: "Where the threshold lies will depend on the attitude of those charged with enforcing the law; beauty (or derangement) is in the eye of the magistrate."
Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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'Not just weeds': how rebel botanists are using graffiti to name forgotten flora

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Pavement chalking to draw attention to wild flowers and plants in urban areas has gone viral across Europe - but UK chalkers could face legal action

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As someone whose parents lived through the war and who had a grandfather who served in the Royal Artillery, I felt it important to celebrate VE day. Given the lockdown this took place in my back garden. The girls made paperchains and I baked traditional goods like a Victoria Sandwich, Scones and Fairy cakes. We listened to Vera Lynn and toasted those who fought, were lost and returned from the war.

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I have read all bar one of Peter Robinsons books, they are all excellent and many may know of the character DCI Banks through the tv series. Well structured, well written and the author also includes numerous references to music so this also adds to the experience if you want to expand your Spotify lists too. If you like this then go seek out Peter James books too..happy reading

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Connect

Be Active

Give

Learn

Take Notice.

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On my walk yesterday evening I saw the sun setting and the moon rising. 

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On my walk yesterday evening I saw the sun setting and the moon rising. 

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It was a lovely walk through the fields in Needham Market.

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'Firefly Lane' by Kristin Hannah - from WSC Library's Fiction Collection

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'Firefly Lane' by Kristin Hannah - from WSC Library's Fiction Collection

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A beautifully written book about a 30 year friendship of two women from teenage years through to their mid forties. Written through the eyes of Katie and Tully across the decades, documenting the twists, turns and tribulations of their very different lives. A betrayal by one of the women towards the end of the book leads to a sad and moving ending and one that I have to say moved me very much. Well worth a read and a book that I really enjoyed :-)
Review by Trudy W-D.

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Week beginning 04/05/2020

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Your screen freezes. There's a weird echo. A dozen heads stare at you. There are the work huddles, the one-on-one meetings and then, once you're done for the day, the hangouts with friends and family.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we're on video calls more than ever before - and many are finding it exhausting.

But what, exactly, is tiring us out? BBC Worklife spoke to Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, and Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University, who studies workplace wellbeing and teamwork effectiveness, to hear their views.
Is video chat harder? What's different compared to face-to-face communication?
Being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat, says Petriglieri. Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. "Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally," he says.

Silence is another challenge, he adds. "Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology." It also makes people uncomfortable. One 2014 study by German academics showed that delays on phone or conferencing systems shaped our views of people negatively: even delays of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused.
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An added factor, says Shuffler, is that if we are physically on camera, we are very aware of being watched. "When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful." It's also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.

Yet if video chats come with extra stressors, our Zoom fatigue can't be attributed solely to that. Our current circumstances - whether lockdown, quarantine, working from home or otherwise - are also feeding in.

A 2014 study found that delays on phone or conferencing systems shaped our views of people negatively (Credit: Getty Images)

Petriglieri believes that fact we feel forced into these calls may be a contributory factor. "The video call is our reminder of the people we have lost temporarily. It is the distress that every time you see someone online, such as your colleagues, that reminds you we should really be in the workplace together," he says. "What I'm finding is, we're all exhausted; It doesn't matter whether they are introverts or extroverts. We are experiencing the same disruption of the familiar context during the pandemic."

Then there's the fact that aspects of our lives that used to be separate - work, friends, family - are all now happening in the same space. The self-complexity theory posits that individuals have multiple aspects - context-dependent social roles, relationships, activities and goals - and we find the variety healthy, says Petriglieri. When these aspects are reduced, we become more vulnerable to negative feelings.

"Most of our social roles happen in different places, but now the context has collapsed," says Petriglieri. "Imagine if you go to a bar, and in the same bar you talk with your professors, meet your parents or date someone, isn't it weird? That's what we're doing now... We are confined in our own space, in the context of a very anxiety-provoking crisis, and our only space for interaction is a computer window."

Shuffler says a lack of downtime after we've fulfilled work and family commitments may be another factor in our tiredness, while some of us may be putting higher expectations on ourselves due to worries over the economy, furloughs and job losses. "There's also that heightened sense of 'I need to be performing at my top level in a situation'... Some of us are kind of over-performing to secure our jobs."
But when I'm Zooming my friends, for example, shouldn't that relax me?
Lots of us are doing big group chats for the first time, whether it's cooking and eating a virtual Easter dinner, attending a university catch-up or holding a birthday party for a friend. If the call is meant to be fun, why might it feel tiring?

Part of it, says Shuffler, is whether you're joining in because you want to or because you feel you ought to - like a virtual happy hour with colleagues from work. If you see it as an obligation, that means more time that you're 'on' as opposed to getting a break. A proper chat with friends will feel more social and there will be less 'Zoom fatigue' from conversations where you've had a chance to be yourself.

Big group calls can feel particularly performative, Petriglieri warns. People like watching television because you can allow your mind to wander - but a large video call "is like you're watching television and television is watching you". Large group chats can also feel depersonalising, he adds, because your power as an individual is diminished. And despite the branding, it may not feel like leisure time. "It doesn't matter whether you call it a virtual happy hour, it's a meeting, because mostly we are used to using these tools for work."
So how can we alleviate Zoom fatigue?

Both experts suggest limiting video calls to those that are necessary. Turning on the camera should be optional and in general there should be more understanding that cameras do not always have to be on throughout each meeting. Having your screen off to the side, instead of straight ahead, could also help your concentration, particularly in group meetings, says Petriglieri. It makes you feel like you're in an adjoining room, so may be less tiring.

In some cases it's worth considering if video chats are really the most efficient option. When it comes to work, Shuffler suggests shared files with clear notes can be a better option that avoids information overload. She also suggests taking time during meetings to catch up before diving into business. "Spend some time to actually check into people's wellbeing," she urges. "It's a way to reconnect us with the world, and to maintain trust and reduce fatigue and concern."

Building transition periods in between video meetings can also help refresh us - try stretching, having a drink or doing a bit of exercise, our experts say. Boundaries and transitions are important; we need to create buffers which allow us to put one identity aside and then go to another as we move between work and private personas.

And maybe, says Petriglieri, if you want to reach out, go old-school. "Write a letter to someone instead of meeting them on Zoom. Tell them you really care about them."

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Your screen freezes. There's a weird echo. A dozen heads stare at you. There are the work huddles, the one-on-one meetings and then, once you're done for the day, the hangouts with friends and family. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we're on video calls more than ever before - and many are finding it exhausting.

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Early morning walks are keeping me healthy and sane!

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Early morning walks are keeping me healthy and sane!

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Free eLibrary resources from Suffolk Libraries

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Free eLibrary resources from Suffolk Libraries

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Are you missing browsing for books in your Library (we definitely are). Fear not! Suffolk Libraries have an amazing range of free eBooks, eAudiobooks, Magazines and lots more! You just need a library card, which you can also sign up for for FREE just by clicking the link!

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Find popular eBooks, audiobooks, music, films and more from the comfort of home with our free eLibrary service.

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May is National Walking Month - here are some great tips for getting out and walking to improve wellbeing, while maintaining social distancing!

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For all those keen to live a healthier life.

Walking is free, flexible and fun, and proven to have a huge impact on your wellbeing.

We've put together 20 tips to help you fit 20 minutes of walking into your day.

Download your #Try20 check list

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For all those keen to live a healthier life. Walking is free, flexible and fun, and proven to have a huge impact on your wellbeing. We've put together 20 tips to help you fit 20 minutes of walking into your day. Download your #Try20 check list

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Action for Happiness - Meaningful May calendar

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Action for Happiness - Meaningful May calendar

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The monthly calendar from Action for Happiness, with a daily mindfulness suggestion to help us stay positive and calm as lockdown continues.

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'The Librarian of Auschwitz' by Antonio Iturbe

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'The Librarian of Auschwitz' by Antonio Iturbe

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Despite the harrowing subject of this book, it’s written in a beautiful heart warming way. I would recommend to anyone whether you have any prior knowledge of the holocaust or not. What’s even more amazing is how it’s based on the true story of Dita Adler. I thought to myself, how fitting for world book night, the story of prisoners keeping a secret library to keep their spirits alive!
Review by Laura Lockwood

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Here are some cards I have made during lockdown

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My latest lockdown make, a dressing gown for my dog Polly. Made out of an old towel, great for when she has had a bath or been on a muddy walk!

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I made this batch of scones yesterday. We had them with vegan whipped cream and raspberry jam, and they were delicious!

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'Where the Crawdads Sing' by Delia Owens

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'Where the Crawdads Sing' by Delia Owens

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Set between 1930s - 1970s, this is the story of Kya, the 'Marsh Girl', raised in the swamps of North Carolina, and abandoned by her family at a young age. Kya is illiterate and poor, an outcast in the local community, and she learns to how to keep hidden, moving easily among the waterways marshes she knows so well.
She has very few friends, but begins a relationship with a local young man named Chase. When Chase is found dead, the local people are quick to point the blame at Kya.
I loved this story, the descriptions of the natural world, and the wildness of Kya and her connections to the marsh, set against themes of loneliness, isolation, and abandonment, alongside the prejudices and discrimination of small town life in 1960's America, combined with the gradual revelation of exactly what did happen to Chase.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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How many of these 'must read' classics have you read?

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How many of these 'must read' classics have you read?

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They broke boundaries and challenged conceptions. We asked you for your must-read classics; from iconic bestsellers to lesser-known gems, these are your essential recommends.

They broke boundaries and challenged conceptions. We asked you for your must-read classics; from iconic bestsellers to lesser-known gems, these are your essential recommends.

Everyone loves a classic novel, but where to start? From Jane Austen to Charles Dickens, Toni Morrison to Fyodor Dostoevsky, the fiction canon is so vast you can easily get lost in it.

So we asked our readers to tell us about their favourite classic books. The resulting list of must-reads is a perfect way to find inspiration to start your classics adventure. There's something for everyone, from family sagas and dystopian fiction to romances and historical fiction.
23. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)
And if you enjoy this, you can also learn about our reader's favourite books by female authors, most loved children's books and the best memoirs they've ever read.

We said: A psychiatric ward in Oregon is ruled by a tyrannical head nurse, but when a rebellious patient arrives her regime is thrown into disarray. A story of the imprisoned battling the establishment.

You said: A story that shows there is more to life than following rules. Having joy and being spontaneous are as important as anything else in life.
24. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
Darren B, Twitter

We said: The definitive dystopian novel, George Orwell 's vision of a high surveillance society is gripping from the first page to the last.

You said: I first read this book years ago, and was glad I would never have to be a part of that kind of society. Yet, here I am in 2018, and so much of that novel has come true.

Donna J, Twitter
91. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (1916)

84. The Castle by Franz Kafka (1926)

We said: Taking the word 'Kafkaesque' to new levels, The Castle is a nightmarish reach into an autocratic world. Bamboozling from start to the very unfinished end (the novel ends mid-sentence), this is Franz Kafka 's finest commentary on oppression and bureaucracy.

We said: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was James Joyce's first novel and details the young artist discovering his voice, craft and identity through his literary alter ego, Stephen Dedalus. There are echoes of his techniques here before they are refined in his later works such as Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.
What's your favourite classic read? Let us know at @penguinukbooks.
You said: Joyce is not only the greatest stylist in English, but the novel contains one of the most complex discussions of aesthetics in the 20th century.

Donald K, Twitter

We said: A novel of two halves, Suite Francaise is about life and death in occupied France, and finding love and hope in the most unexpected of places.

We said: This deeply personal and unforgettable account of a day in the life at a Soviet labour camp in the 1950s is highly considered to be one of the greats of contemporary literature.

We said: One of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's underrated works, this short story is divided into six sections. With themes of loneliness and unrequited love told by a nameless narrator - it's quintessential Dostoyevsky.
100. Hard Times by Charles Dickens (1854)
We said: Dickens uses the fictional town of Coketown and its inhabitants to explore the harsh realities of the Industrial Age and the importance of imagination in a world driven by fact.

You said: Pathos, humour, social comment, politic and incredibly well-drawn, believable characters.

Angela, Twitter
What's your favourite classic read? Let us know at @penguinukbooks. Books ranked in no particular order. Some answers have been edited for clarity and style. Image at top: Flynn Shore / Penguin
You said: This is an incredibly beautiful and uplifting book. Everyone should read it!

Melly, Twitter

You said: Solzhenitsyn's writing from personal experience of life/existence in a forced labour camp under Stalin's communist regime is a stark, brutal, masterpiece.

Brian T, Twitter

You said: This is my favourite book. It is an extremely moving account of the kinds of things that actually happened in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. It presents the dilemmas, fears and choices that were felt and had to be made by ordinary people.

Jim H, Twitter

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100 must-read classics, as chosen by our readers

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They broke boundaries and challenged conceptions. We asked you for your must-read classics; from iconic bestsellers to lesser-known gems, these are your essential recommends. They broke boundaries and challenged conceptions. We asked you for your must-read classics; from iconic bestsellers to lesser-known gems, these are your essential recommends.

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Week beginning 27/04/2020

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Coronavirus will overshadow Earth Day's golden anniversary, but the movement's successes are worth celebrating, says Gary Paul Nabhan

Earth Day, when people around the world come together to support the protection of the environment, is commemorating its 50th anniversary this year. The covid-19 pandemic will mean celebrations are muted, but it is worth looking back at its achievements and seeing if it can still make a difference in today's world.

I was there at the beginning. In 1970, I was a 17-year-old intern, part of a roughly 80-person team running Earth Day from its headquarters in Washington DC. The event was described as a national day of environmental teach-ins. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson turned much of the event planning over to youth activists. This gave the movement a feeling of playful exuberance as well as passionate commitment, much like the climate school strikes movement launched by Greta Thunberg decades later.

We couldn't have imagined that Earth Day would be the largest public event in US history.

Collectively, the events in spring 1970 were 80 times as big as the Woodstock music festival in the summer of 1969. On 22 April 1970, 20 million US citizens took part in local events, from teach-ins at 1500 colleges and universities to environmental clean-ups. For example, 300 scuba divers collected debris lying on the coastal shelf of the Pacific.

Earth Day soon went global. In less than two decades, 200 million people were taking part in at least 140 countries. Although sheer numbers in and of themselves don't tell us much about Earth Day's impact, it also spawned a new intensity of environmental activism across the world.

Momentum from the first Earth Day undoubtedly helped the passing of legislation in the US around endangered species and clean water and air, as well as the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency to deal with health challenges from industry.

This momentum carried forward into the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which involved delegations from 114 governments as well as dozens of ethnic minority groups, including Hopi Native American farmers from the US Southwest, fishers from the Shuswap Nation in Canada and Sami herders from Norway. The conference's final declaration was perhaps the first to spell out the fundamental human right to environmental justice: "Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being."

This year, the covid-19 pandemic will overshadow Earth Day. Gatherings will be cancelled and, articles and social media posts aside, the event will be meek compared with previous years.

And yet the fiery spirit of Earth Day has been rekindled in recent years by people involved with organisations such as 350.org. The young people at the heart of these movements are as committed to halting climate change as my generation was to halting segregation and the Vietnam war. So that their own lives won't be diminished by climate catastrophes, dead oceans and food rationing, they want to overhaul the ways we access our food and energy - two of the most significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

More than that, this generation of activists has grown up thinking of themselves as truly global citizens, and covid-19 is but one more indication that we are all in this together, and must row in the same direction. My friend, environmental biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, summed it up well when she said: "When times are easy and there's plenty to go around, individual species can go it alone. But when conditions are harsh and life is tenuous, it takes a team sworn to reciprocity to keep life going forward."
Sign up to our free Fix the Planet newsletter to get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday

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Earth Day at 50: How an idea changed the world and still inspires now

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Coronavirus will overshadow Earth Day's golden anniversary, but the movement's successes are worth celebrating, says Gary Paul Nabhan Earth Day, when people around the world come together to support the protection of the environment, is commemorating its 50th anniversary this year.

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As many of you know I am a caravanner (though not recently :-(). So I made some caravan themed cushions for the caravan.

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'The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown' edited by Katherine Rundell

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'The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown' edited by Katherine Rundell

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It can be difficult to feel hopeful during lockdown; adults and children will be no doubt missing friends and family, feeling lonely and unsure of the future.
This fantastic collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures is completely free, and has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon, Jacqueline Wilson – and Katherine Rundell herself.
It's aimed at children, but is perfect for all ages!

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Award-winning children's author, Katherine Rundell, has today launched The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown, which we are thrilled to be hosting exclusively on Family Zone.

Completely free for all children and families, the extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children's writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon, Jacqueline Wilson - and Katherine herself.

The Book of Hopes aims to comfort, inspire and encourage children during lockdown through delight, new ideas, ridiculous jokes and heroic tales. There are true accounts of cats and hares and plastic-devouring caterpillars; there are doodles and flowers; revolting poems and beautiful poems; and there are stories of space travel and new shoes and dragons.

The collection is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone currently working in hospitals. Bloomsbury intends to publish a gift book based on the project to be published in the autumn in support of NHS Charities Together.

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Katherine Rundell launches 'The Book of Hopes': a free children's book by over 110 authors and illustrators | National Literacy Trust

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Award-winning children's author, Katherine Rundell, has today launched The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown, which we are thrilled to be hosting exclusively on Family Zone.

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'The Personal History of Rachel Dupree' by Ann Weisgarber

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'The Personal History of Rachel Dupree' by Ann Weisgarber

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This is the story of Rachel, the wife of Isaac Dupree, a landowner in the South Dakota Badlands, during 1917.  In this unforgiving landscape, after a hot summer with little rain, the Duprees remain one of the few families who haven't left the Badlands, and the only black family in the region.
As supplies become scarce, and her children become hungrier, and with another baby on the way, Rachel becomes increasingly isolated. Knowing that Isaac will never leave the ranch, Rachel must make difficult decisions for the future of her family.
I really enjoyed this book; it's the third book I've read by this author, and I always love her descriptions of the natural world, the difficulties facing women who are living in hostile environments, and the glimmers of courage, tenderness and humanity that shine through the stories.

This book was from Suffolk Libraries.

Review by Cheryl Standring

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These are the books that I read last night for #ReadingHour.
'Infernal Devices' by Philip Reeve and 'Brightstorm' by Vashti Hardy,  I read aloud to my children.
'The Personal History of Rachel Dupree' by Ann Weisgarber was a great book which I actually finished last night!

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What I read for World Book Night (23rd April)

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What I read for World Book Night (23rd April)

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For world book night I read Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, a story of two friends and their life stories throughout teenage and adulthood.

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If you are a fan of ‘Poldark’ and love a book set in Cornwall, then these two books by Rosamunde Pilcher are absolute crackers! I read Shell Seekers first and whilst being totally immersed in the storyline, I found Pilcher’s deliciously descriptive text makes you savour every word. They are not books which have you rapidly turning the pages to find out what happens next but they are so beautifully descriptive, that they take you to a completely different world from your own. Perfect for gentle escapism.

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Putting the 'social' into social distancing!

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Putting the 'social' into social distancing!

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Here are some useful tips from CALM about maintaining connection while staying physically distant!

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Stuff's weird right now . And while football, gigs, going to the pub, and [insert your favourite activity here] might be cancelled or postponed, having a laugh with your mates certainly isn't.

Social distancing might sound like you have to avoid all human interaction for the foreseeable, but that's not the case. Social distancing is about avoiding physical contact. There are loads of ways to connect with your friends, family and colleagues without seeing them IRL - heck, some people even prefer it that way!

Here at CALM we're always banging on about everyone having mental health to take care of. While a lot is changing in the world right now, our advice for looking after yourself remains the same. You may need to be more creative with how you do it though. Here's some great ideas on how to keep connected during this period of social distancing from across the WWW.

Get your game on

Some of you will be no stranger to online gaming, others will have left the unparalleled joys of "pwning " a mate at COD back in 2009. With many of us gaining a whole lotta extra time thanks to shorter or less-busy commutes, self isolation and, let's be honest, this whole situation, why not take the opportunity to dust off that Playstation or log on to that laptop to play your mates over the internet.

Not into computer gaming? No problem. There's loads of ways to do analogue games online too. From crosswords and board games to Dungeons and Dragons , there's something for everyone - the Guardian have pulled together some gems

And don't forget, not everything has to be digital. Self-isolating with your family, partner or housemates? Get that monopoly set out and advance straight to Go.
Got a gaming idea or donation to help fund our services? Head here.
Catch a gig in your PJs

At CALM we're no stranger to a good gig or twelve, and if, like us, some of your most-anticipated gigs have been cancelled or postponed, there's some novel ways to get your fix. Take a look , including Coldplay, Christine and the Queens, Charlie XCX , Bono, and John Legend, who took to the internet by storm by livestreaming from their living rooms to combat boredom and isolation during the Coronavirus outbreak.

HEY EVERYONE! Micah, Jess, Vanessa and I are playing a LIVE SHOW here on Facebook TOMORROW NIGHT! Tune in on this page, going live at 8.30pm (UK time; 4.30pm East Coast, 1.30pm West Coast, 7.30am Australia), 3 sets, same as I would be playing at a regular solo show. pic.twitter.com/svNmZjhBXF

- Frank Turner (@frankturner) March 16, 2020

Our very own ambassador Frank Turner even did his own livestream to support his touring family, while also shouting out CALM's life-saving services. It was watched by over a quarter of a million people.

Exhibitions and art more your thing?

There's a whole host of ways to get your art on during isolation. From CALM's own Art Collective, to starting a book club , or the BBC's announcement of BBC Culture in Quarantine - a way to see exhibitions and shows that are currently closed to the public due to the Covid-19 outbreak - don't let the virus stop you being the cultured human you were born to be.

Watch TV together.

Back in the times before Netflix, yup that did exist, people used to watch the same shows at the same time. A phenomenon you can recreate with new-spangled tech - Netflix Party , or, in a less tech-savvy version, all press play at the same time from your respective houses. Choose what to watch, chat about it over your Whatsapp group or social media, and have a grand old time while you chomp crisps and drink beer (other snacks available, probably.)

Want an example. Of course you do. Take our pals Mundial - they shared a really, really old game of football over on Twitter this week. Everyone pressed play at the same time and it was like being back in 2006 in all its World Cup glory. Like the sound of that? Keep your eyes on CALM and our partners for some exciting updates soon.

We're going to be posting a full game of football to watch this evening.

Like Monday Night Football.

Teams announced at 7pm. pic.twitter.com/fOMTftU7G1

- MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) March 16, 2020

Time for a plug... we all need a laugh right now and on Tuesday, 24 March at 9pm, that's exactly what you'll get. Join Joel Dommet and guests for Comedy Against Living Miserably, an evening dedicated to having a bloody good time.

A stand-up event in aid of CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably. Watch on Dave Tuesday 24th March at 9pm. pic.twitter.com/7TV3GLjdVg

- Dave (@davechannel) March 18, 2020

Fancy throwing a gig in your living room? Throwing an arty internet party? Do it for CALM
Join a Collective

CALM Collectives are all about getting together, doing what you love and feeling better for it. And although we can't get together face to face right now, our Collectives have active online communities. You might not be able to run with other people, make art collectively, or play for your football team for a while, but you can chat, share encouragement, experiences, stories, laughs, failures and successes. Sound good? Find out more about them here.
Get together online over the things you love here
Give 'em a call

Yeh ok, this one is not that exciting, but it's effective. Although we can't all be together in the ways we'd like right now, a good ole phone call, Facetime, Whatsapp chat, can keep us together. So pick up the phone and reach out to all those people you care about (or haven't spoken to in yonks). You've probably got similar worries and issues - like having no toilet paper - to chat about. Hearing that other people have similar concerns as you, and just generally having a chance to offload and enjoy someone else's company, is a great way to stay social in this period of social distancing.

And if you're struggling...

There's lots to think about right now. From financial worries, to anxiety around you and your loved ones' health - it's easy for thoughts to become overwhelming.

Whatever's getting you down, o ur free, anonymous and confidential webchat and helpline services are open from 5pm to midnight for anyone who needs to talk.

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Putting the social into social distancing - Campaign Against Living Miserably

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Social distancing might sound like you have to avoid all human interaction for the foreseeable, but that's not the case. Social distancing is about avoiding physical contact. There are loads of ways to connect with your friends, family and colleagues without seeing them IRL - heck, some people even prefer it that way!

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It's World Book Night!
Today is all about celebrating books and promoting and sharing the benefits that reading for pleasure has on our lives.

Everyone is invited to join in with #ReadingHour from 7-8pm tonight. This is a time for you to dedicate specifically to books; you can read alone, aloud to others, or listen to an audiobook! Share how you’re spending the hour on social media using #ReadingHour.

Happy reading!

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To while away an hour or two during lockdown and to keep my mind busy on something other than the news, among other things I have completed 3 x
1000 piece jig saw puzzles.  This is one of them