Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Sunday, 28 October 2012

marking finished, lie-in, warmer, blue trailer, mst blog, edward thomas' oxford, wio 20th



















Finals marking finished for another year. A rewarding experience.

Had a lie-in this morning and have felt a good deal less awake than on previous Sundays when I've got up at 6 am...

Enjoyed cycling, though. Rather warmer than yesterday (top photo), which was freezing. There wasn't much of a frost but the wind was extraordinarily bitter.

The countryside was grey and fairly nondescript this morning, apart from the blue trailer.

Btw the MSt in Creative Writing now has a blog, which is exciting: http://blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk/mstcw.

And talking of blogs, Margaret Keeping's post on Friday featured the wonderful book on Oxford that Edward Thomas wrote. Published in 1903 by A & C Black, it has illustrations by John Fulleylove and the fee for the book apparently saved Thomas and his family from the 'gutter and bankruptcy'. Seeing the post made me want to reach for my first edition, only to find it not on the shelf. I have a feeling it's in the attic. I'll have to get the ladder down.

Meanwhile, looking forward to the Writers in Oxford 20th anniversary party at Worcester College in a couple of weeks' time. As the invitation says, it will be held in the room 'where it all began'. I'm wondering how many past chairs of the society will be there.
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1 comment:

  1. Margaret Keeping28 October 2012 at 17:42

    Well Frank, if yours is a first edition of 'Oxford' as mine is too, I hope your attic is good and dry.
    Must admit I find it a curate's egg of a book for me, - good in parts. My favourite section is The Oxford Country, when you can feel him getting into his stride, literally and writerly,like,
    'One such footpath I remember,that could be seen falling among woods and rising over hills, faint and winding, and disappearing at last,- like a vision of a perfect, quiet life.'
    And ,
    For the most part we saw only the great hawthorn hedge,which gave us the sense of a companion always abreast of us, yet always cool and fresh as if just setting out.'

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