mns  2009-04-01 09:00   

March brought with it multiple changes and events, including the acceptance of my next novel, 'The Plane Tree', which will be published at the end of the year, a preface for the book 'Written Off' which is due out this month to tie in with the television series of the same name and numerous articles on topics which were really interesting.

Searching for Home came out in Serbian 'Dugo putovanje kuci' by Meri Stenli. I had not realised that the author's name could be translated and I smile every time I think of it. Of course it makes sense, but it was just something I hadn't considered. And you whom I thanked in the acknowledgements, let me thank you again in your Serbian names, Lori Sajklana, Zani Hornbi and Patriku Grantu, Lusi Stenli, Takiju, Doktoru Martinu Brejdiju and Doktoru Dzastinu Korfildu.

And then it was off to London for a wedding - JC's brother Mark married Polly. The speeches were so funny and so good that I filched the one from the father of the bride, the actor Milton Cadman, who kindly said I could put it up here, and that is what I am going to do - or at least some of it.

'When I said to a friend of mine that I was to give a speech at my daughter's wedding, he re-assured me that I couldn't be as bad as the bride's father at the last wedding he had been to. The man had stood up, looked at his audience and fainted. I didn't find it all that re-assuring then... but I do now. I'm already doing better than that guy.
When Diana Spencer was about to be married to Prince Charles I remember her father, the earl of Spencer, saying to the telly and indeed the whole world that, when born, his daughter was a fine physical specimen. The old man was barking of course, but even so, it seemed an odd thing to say. But, now that I am, as it were, where he was - I too feel a proud urge to tell the whole world that my second born was also a fine physical specimen. Obviously it would be monstrously embarrassing to Polly if I did, and so I'll refrain - but she was a fine physical specimen.
In the hospital where she was born and only a few hours old she repeatedly climbed to the top of her crib, a crib that was sloping upwards. A number of times we picked her up and moved her down to the bottom, but no, off she went climbing again. The muscles; the coordination, the sheer mulish determination.
May and I looked at this spectacle - remembering the sweet placid calm that was our first born and said to each other, 'She's going to be trouble!'
And so she was....'

There was five minutes of this incredibly funny and endearing speech about a truly wonderful person, someone whom it is a privilege to know.
In truth the three speeches from the father of the bride, the groom and the best man (my JC) were so good that they would make a fantastic comedy sketch in the Apollo.
Funnily enough Mark had asked me to do a reading at the ceremony and had sent me the number of the Shakespearean sonnet that he wanted. I misread the number and was very puzzled at his choice - fortunately I was so puzzled that i did a double-check, and found that it was sonnet CXVI which was rather more appropriate.

The weather held, and St Albans is a truly brilliant part of London, a place neither JC nor I had visited before. It seemed to be a hub and hive of activity and reminded us of our years in Islington. It was also like a magnet and my brilliant agent came to see me which was exciting, good fun and quite focussing - I always seem to need work to justify my existence. Two close friends we had met in a queue at the Uffizi Gallery a few years ago also came on the last day and we talked till time and times were done before braving the airport and Ryannair and the journey home.

And home we are now and the rewrite of The Plane Tree is about to start, the sun is shining and I feel happy. Eleanor Roosevelt said something like 'happiness is not an end in itself, it is a by-product.' It's a great by-product.