So many fantastic books to choose from and so much indecision, with a lot of starting and stopping and setting books aside as ‘not quite right’ or ‘right book, wrong moment’ until I eventually settled on some contenders.
I’ve had a small nibble at the Man Booker longlist but in the end I wasn’t in the mood for that either, so I plumped for dedicating my endless and relaxed August reading days to a real chunkster. Before I knew it I was on my third attempt at A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I have it in book, Kindle and audio so no excuses, if I’m sewing I can put my headphones on, if I’m out I’ve got my Kindle, if I’m home I can settle down with the plump paperback.
Things were going swimmingly well, better, much much better than previous attempts until a phone call from the Gamekeeper at 8am last Sunday...
’I don’t want to worry you but I think I’ve broken my leg...and I’m in the middle of the woods...on my own ...miles from anywhere...’
I didn’t hear this bit, all I could hear was Bookhound saying,
’Right...now stay calm.... where exactly are you... you’re going to need an ambulance...nobody must move you...’
And in that moment I could have been sick. I’m sure some of you will have been through something similar and know this feeling.
We talked to him on the phone while the rescue was rallying knowing he’d be going into shock.
Ambulance control were excellent and very calming. ‘Help is on its way’ is what you need to hear isn’t it.
We must be thankful for many other things on Sunday not least a mobile phone signal, because that is never guaranteed around here, and also for his team who went out and found him and the four-wheel drive ambulance that got as near as it could, and very quickly too, so that the paramedics could walk out.
It was a mercifully swift passage through A&E and an anaesthetic to at least get his ankle looking more normal, but needless to say it’s been a round of hospital appointments and plaster and X rays for the dislocated ankle and broken bone, and decisions ever since. Hopefully screws and plate and a couple of months of immobility will see him on his way to mending, and his lovely GF is on the case. It happens to others every day and could have been much much worse so we are all very thankful.
But I still feel a bit sick if I’m honest...
Do you feel your children’s pain even more acutely the older they and you get I wonder.
I think so because all you can do is offer consolation, food and support when required. We’ve been nipping over each day with lunch and to walk his dogs (eight of them...that’s Bookhound’s department) and keep spirits up and extra pillows for leg-propping and things, because really this son of ours won’t have spent this much time sitting indoors since he learned to crawl.
Anyway, I fully expected A Place of Greater Safety to fall by the wayside. I’ve had long gaps, short bursts of reading and felt sure confusion would beckon as it has twice before, but no, to my surprise the book is working. The French Revolution is a marvellous distraction from all things orthopaedic and I’m hopeful of progress at last. I’m involved and relishing Hilary Mantel’s superb writing.
So that’s me and my disorganised August (the August that was going to be so calm and quiet) and my reading, how about you...
I hope you are all enjoying a restful time if that is what you had planned, and please do share your summer (or winter for those in the Southern Hemisphere) reads, we might all get a list of good books out of it if you do.
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