Books By My Bed : in total disorder

We only moved house three weeks ago. Yet, I appear to have already recreated the messy pile of books by my bed. This pile appears to have a life of it's own, to be attached to me; like Linus's security blanket in Charlie Brown, wherever I go, my pile travels with me. At the moment there are ( in total disorder) : Jasper FForde, Lost in a Good Book, three matching brown Muji notebooks, one small black notebook, David Vann Goat Mountain, P.D James Trilogy of Death, Elias Cannetti Masse et Puissance, Francoise Dolto Tout est Langage, Wilkie Collin The Woman in White and various research notes and articles for I play that I am writing. There's also a loom bracelet, a bottle of water, a pen and a dead fly...

Writing news: Visual Verse

     I have another piece on the brilliant website Visual Verse. I am using each inspiring image, as a woman writing postcards home each month! Follow part two of the journey here. Or here: http://visualverse.org/submissions/vive-la-reine-long-live-queen/

And just as a little appetizer, here are a few words describing the latest adventures of Aunt Dorothea :

To my dear niece Clementine,

     Our trip to China has been postponed, for the moment Albert and I are stranded in Paris. The summer days are long and hazy, the streets tainted with the colour of treacle. I do love it here in July. Albert spends his time playing chess with Boris, an organic farmer who comes to visit his family in the Marais quarter every summer. Albert and Boris are to be found each morning at ten, on the terrace of the Café des Amis. They sit hunched over their game of chess, ignoring their steaming cups of espresso, until the liquid turns cold and bitter.

     I watch them from afar, sipping my petit crème. I read Le Monde and peruse the pages of Paris Match. The chess pieces slip and slide across the chequered board. The knight hopping, the castle commandeering, the poor little pawns the foot soldiers of the game, murdered on mass by the others......