Grace Wynne-Jones

There was a great documentary about the artist David Hockney on the telly last night (BBC2 ‘Imagine’…’A Bigger Picture’). There is something about Hockney that makes me smile. I love his playfulness. His undiminished enthusiasm for creativity. There were many images of him up very early and painting landscapes near Bradford. He is from that area. This was in great contrast to his other home in Los Angeles…he was based there for decades. I regard him as a light-hearted and wise philosopher as well as a brilliant artist. There is something about him that is simply cheery. He’s an appreciator.

Many years ago, when I worked in a publishing house in London, I sometimes used to hear Hockney’s voice as I climbed the building’s many stairs. He had done a very long interview for a book and someone in the building was transcribing the tape recording. Since I was often a bit late for work back then…the building was in Bloomsbury and I lived near Wimbledon tennis courts…I didn’t dally to hear what he was saying.

I have one of his large books in my bookcase. He reminds me that I want to do more painting. I adore colour. His portraits contain deep affection and knowing. And his paintings of dachshunds are adorable. He finds great inspiration in nature. Thank you BBC for a great programme!

Lots of love,

Grace

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Like millions of others around the world I am very saddened by the death of Michael Jackson. He was such a complex genius. I wish him harmony, and much more. I adore the sweet soaring notes of ‘Human Nature’. His luminous music lives on.

Lots of love,

Grace

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Hi Folks,

I hope to give two one day writing workshops at The Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin on 16th and 17th July. I’d love to see you there!
Here’s some information about them:

WRITE NOW WORKSHOPS AT THE IRISH WRITERS’ CENTRE 16 and 17 July 10 a.m. - 4.30 a.m.

These are playful, fun workshops that will empower your Inner Author. The workshops include practical tips on handling your inner critic, experimenting with story ‘nudges’, plot and character development and how not to be intimidated by technique. Stories are also written during the sessions and shared in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere. You will also receive input on marketing your work. Writing is an adventure. If you enjoy a good story you can write one! Facilitator Grace Wynne-Jones, author of four critically acclaimed novels.

T: 01 872 1302
E: info@writerscentre.ie
W: www.writerscentre.ie

Lots of love,

Grace

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Hi Folks,

I recently asked Elaine O’Connor, manager of Eason’s in O’Connell Street, Limerick, to suggest some great summer reads. Here are the titles she suggests:

The Hour I First Believed- Wally Lamb
American Wife- Curtis Sittenfeld
A Fraction Of The Whole-Steve Toltz
The Believers- Zoe Heller
Breath- Tim Winton

Love,

Grace

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It is very warm here today. It was warm yesterday too. After I’d sent off an article I went for a walk later on in the day. The sea looked deep blue and sparkly. I bought strawberries at a shop stall.

My duvet is out in the sunshine getting an airing. When I was an au pair in Switzerland many years ago we hung our duvets out the window every day to sweeten in the sun. Last Saturday at a frolicsome little Italian shop/cafe in Bray one of the patrons…a chef from another Italian restaurant…let me sample one of the deeply delicious biscuits he was clearly savouring. When they are back in stock I want to buy them. They are a ‘find’. And so was the pink jumper, and soft cardigan I found in a charity shop yesterday. Two for the price of one! A bargain.

I loved a documentary on BBC television last night. In it Sheila Hancock shared some of poems she loves. I particularly loved
‘Try To Praise The Mutilated World’ by Adam Zagajewski

It includes the lines

You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

(From Without End, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Lots of love,

Grace

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Hi Folks,

If you want to read review extracts about my novels they are at the top of this homepage…click on the book titles. I didn’t bribe the reviewers with chocolate. Honest!

Sample first chapters are available on this homepage.

If you want to listen to a radio documentary I made click the Tara podcast…it is on the right hand side of this homepage.

Here are some reviews for The Truth Club:

‘…..Grace Wynne-Jones has written an entertaining, intelligent and genuinely funny story….this is a great read, especially for commuters…guaranteed to shorten any journey.’ The Irish Times

‘It (’The Truth Club’) manages to achieve something that most chick ‘lit’ doesn’t. it makes you want to read past the half-way point. And most unusually, you even find yourself wanting to read right to the end, as opposed to finishing it out of a sense of tidiness, as you would the last biscuit on the plate…there are shades on an intense Anne Tyler novel about it, especially in Sally’s intimate assessment of her relationship with her husband, which is mature and insightful…If ‘The Truth Club’ were a dessert, it would be a tiramisu: multi-layered, and definitely substantial, with some surprising elements to it. Ultimately satisfying….’ Evening Herald

‘The terrain of ‘The Truth Club’ …is the fragility of the human heart, the conflicting loyalties that relationships bring, the choices that we make or simply fail to….a delicate exploration of being human.’ The Irish Examiner

‘…a novel which by turns had me laughing (aloud) entranced and, by the end a little bit wiser than I was at the beginning. In ‘The Truth Club’ Grace Wynne-Jones has produced a book in which the eclectic characters almost leap from the pages…the book also contains a perfect man, Nathaniel, who ‘almost always’ says the right thing….’ Ireland on Sunday

‘In the latest crop of chick-lit beach reads…Grace Wynne-Jones comes out top with her quirky new novel ‘The Truth Club’. Her characterisation is always amusing and the plot is delivered with warmth and a healthy sense of the ridiculous…it’s Ms Wynne-Jones’s cutesy sense of humour that makes this book so tasty.’ The Sunday Independent
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The tinny music of an ice-cream van wafted into the house during late afternoon, even though it was raining at the time. I was in the process of doing various website thingys. Mainly adding some more articles to Grace’s articles. There are lots more to add.. Hope you may enjoy some of the jottings.

Here’s part of one of them. It’s about ways to pretend it’s summer (though of course we may need our sarongs again soon). I have updated the info about the cicadas!

* The right soundtrack is indispensable. Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers is perfect and you can even get great tips from the lyrics. For example the line: ’summer breeze/makes me feel fine/blowing through the jasmine in my mind’ can be re-enacted by putting jasmine oil in the aromatherapy burner and sitting five feet away from a fan heater.

* Visit clothes stores which, bless their cotton socks, are awash with sarongs and teensy weensy tops in summery colours which is proof that summer exists even if it’s currently elsewhere.

* Walk faster it induces a feeling of warmth.

* Taste summer by buying feta cheese and olives in the supermarket and always ask for a bit of flake in your ice-cream.

* Occasionally light the barbecue and burn a bit of meat out of nostalgia.

* Some adventurous outlets sell tin cicadas that ‘chirp’…
a sunny sound!

* Remember that the glass is either half empty or half full and after a bottle of red wine grown somewhere that may be too hot the climate improves almost instantly.

Lots of love,

Grace

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I’ve been reading ‘The Seeker’s Guide’ by Elizabeth Lesser and it’s great! She is very honest and refreshing. And she most insightful re. the very human side of spirituality. Somehow it reminds me of the M. Scott Peck quote: ‘Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life…to appreciate the fact that life is complex.’

On another topic entirely, I love free samples. And I got loads of free samples of skin cream today. After I’d bought some suntan type face powder I was given a little bag. It even included two pens!

Planted some Dahlia bulbs the other day. My little patio garden had lots of plants in it. And the robin who vists now seems to have a mate. (They may even have a nest in the honesuckle bush.) He loves tasty food. He sometimes chirps pretty loudly when he’s hungry.

Lots of love,

Grace

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Hi Folks,

I went to Dublin Zoo recently. I haven’t been there for decades. I had an appointment in Dublin and after it I wondered if I ’should’ go home because I had various things to do. But no…I wanted to go to the zoo! I had fond childhood memories of it. I love animals and would far prefer them to be free. But the zoo has been transformed since I last visited it. Many of the animals now have large outdoor spaces to roam in and their homes look like tracts of countryside.

One of the sweetest zoo moments was sitting under a tree with a cappuccino and a Snickers bar. I just sat there and enjoyed the sunshine. I really needed that mini picnic! It was a lovely spring day. I didn’t feel under any obligation to visit all the animals. I visited the zoo in a light playful way. The penguins looked so cute. And some of them were cavorting. A lion was sitting in the sun looking rather majestic.

I love watching wildlife programmes about people who are helping to save the habitat of creatures great and small. To let them be wild and free. Some of them are so playful. Even when they are in a zoo.

If you want to watch some dolphins play Google

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCf7SNUb-Q

Lots of love,

Grace

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Hi there!

I visited Limerick recently to give a talk at Limerick City Library…a most impressive library in a beautiful old building called The Granary. I hadn’t visited Limerick for quite a while. I was brought up near Limerick and went to boarding school there. I was very pleased to find the station hadn’t changed much. I used to catch a bus from there when I was at national school and a ‘day pupil’. The bus took me back to the country rectory that was home. It was somehow comforting to find that the old building was not that different after many years, though of course it has been renovated in places and looks more ‘modern’.

The talk I gave included information about a grand old house in a big country estate called Curragh Chase in County Limerick. My mother was the last child to be brought up there. Sadly the house itself burned down many years ago. But the beautiful grounds are now a Forest Park. And they are very cherished locally. Eighty people came to the talk. Thank goodness I had Mum’s lovely book to refer to. It’s called ‘In Ruin Reconciled: A Memoir of Anglo Ireland’ (Lilliput Press). I also read a wee bit from my novel ‘Ready Or Not?’ I was very grateful for the invitation to give the talk. And the Limerick visit was a real trip down memory road. I could, for example, remember being a teenager scouting for bargains in some of its shops…I sometimes went to dances and was thrilled when I found an attractive and cheap skirt! I also occasionally sold ‘gonks’ in one of the shops. ‘Sold a gonk’ appears occasionally in my teenage diary.

‘O’Mahony’s bookshop kindly ordered a number of my novels. I went in to sign them and had a great chat with a lovely lady who went to Villiers School many years after I left it. We even discussed a great teacher called Mr Griffin. I often used to quote him. “Mr Griffin says…” added an air of authority to teenage pronouncements. Easons in Limerick also very kindly ordered some copies of the books and I signed them too. Thanks Elaine! It was very special to visit Limerick.

Lots of love,

Grace

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Hi there!

It’s Saint Valentine’s Day and that means many different things to different people. For some there will be cards and flowers and romantic meals. A gorgeous sense of celebration. For others it is less romantic for a myriad of different reasons. Human love stories are complex. If they weren’t there wouldn’t be so many novels!

Many wise teachers say in spirit we are love. Deepak Chopra once wrote that ‘A person desperately searching for love is like a fish desperately searching for water.” And yet as a friend once said to me, the fish’s predicament is so understandable. And in many ways endearing. I have an enormous compassion for that fish!

In the film ‘A River Runs Through It’ there is the line ‘we can love completely without complete understanding’. And that, for me, applies to the great mysteries of love itself.

Lots of love,

Grace

P.S. If you want to hear an inspiring talk about creativity Google ‘Ted Talks Elizabeth Gilbert’.

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