 No. Not wedding talk…. rather that I tried a new place to meet an old friend recently – and what a success. Thank you -Bridport.
My lovely friend – who is not old in years by the way (I’ve known her since I started my career in journalism) – was staying further along the south coast so I couldn’t resist suggesting the home of the Bridport Prize (short story, flash fiction and poetry). What a lovely market town and we happened upon a delightful place for lunch too – the café within the Bull hotel. (Very nice crab linguine and buzzing with happy customers. ) I popped into the arts centre, of course, and found myself smiling – thinking of all the short stories winging their way through cyberspace every year from all around the world. The Bridport prize, for those unfamiliar, was the award which launched the career of Kate Atkinson. She won it in 1990 and that short story went on to become the first chapter of her novel “Behind the Scenes at the Museum”. Fay Weldon is now the patron of the Bridport and judges over the years include Rose Tremain, Tracey Chevalier and more recently a favourite of mine - the Cornish-based author Patrick Gale. Regular readers of this blog will know that I am very passionate about short stories – considering them a wonderful place for growth and experimentation on the writer’s journey. So I am delighted to have been asked to run a short story workshop as part of a summer arts festival at my local arts centre and library The Watermark in Ivybridge, Devon in July. We are still sorting out the details but it should be towards the end of July and the aim is to make it both fun and affordably priced so do message me if you are local and are interested. You can keep an eye on this blog or the facebook page for the Watermark in Ivybridge. https://www.facebook.com/Watermark.Ivybridge?ref=ts&fref=ts I’ll post more details here just as soon as they are finalised. Meantime - happy writing! And don’t forget it’s World Book night tonight. Hope you’re enjoying something wonderful.  I interviewed Maggie Thatcher only once. As you see from the photograph (check out my dodgy fringe and dodgy dress) it was very early in my journalistic career when I was still in newspapers.
What I remember most clearly is that she ignored every single question that I asked and simply made her own little speech. This is not, of course, unusual, for a politician and was very much Mrs Thatcher’s style. I found it completely infuriating. Then…and always. Later, as a television reporter, I was able to interview many of her ministers many times. Cecil Parkinson. Geoffrey Howe. Douglas Hurd. Norman Tebbit. Broadcasting allowed me , at least, the option to leave my questions in the edit so that Thames TV viewers could see when a legitimate question was being unreasonably blanked. This is not the time to say what I thought of Mrs Thatcher’s politics. There are hours of programming reviewing her legacy. What I will say is that it feels a little spooky to confirm that she was the age I am now when she came to power. Putting aside all political differences, I have not the foggiest notion how she found the energy! I may well remind myself of that the next time I feel “too tired” to work on a manuscript. |
AuthorTeresa Driscoll - journalist, author, mother of two and lover of great coffee. 
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September 2021
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