Michael Louis Hedley

I suppose it's no bad thing to be thinking of forgiveness at what is the start of Lent today. No coincidence either that I should be looking for something in a book and a page marker fell out. On it was written a piece that resonated with me again when I read what I had written. Where I found the quote in the first place I can't recall. Apologies therefore offered and thanks too. 'Forgiveness is the perfume that the trampled flower casts upon the heel that crushes it.'

I've just recently finished reading Memories of the Future by Siri Hustvedt. A profound experience. What keeps coming back to me is this, 'Let us not forget that a memory is always in the present. Let us not forget that each time we evoke a memory, it is subject to change, but let us not forget that those changes may bring truths in their wake.' (page 177)

Well I happened upon this thought of his which touched me today. Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money cannot buy.

This week I’m happy to announce the publication of my novella Behind the Walls . It is about a canny, resourceful young Catholic boy, the girl he befriends and the courage they find to create a future of their own despite their personal difficulties and hardships. Behind the Walls is flavoured with an element of medieval mystery and is inspired by a rich sense of the past which still resonates in the streets surrounding Newcastle’s City Walls where I was born and brought up. Behind the Walls is currently on promotion with Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions and will shortly be available to order from bookshops. I hope you will enjoy and leave your review on Amazon.

Hard to believe that it's over a month ago since I posted anything. How is it that time slips through one's fingers so easily? I was visiting someone recently and noticed a book on the bookshelf in the bedroom I was using that I had lent him some twenty odd years ago. It was a delight to pick it up again and revisit it like an old friend. Rushing to Paradise by J.G.Ballard I'd forgotten how good this dystopian novel was. It has returned home with me. It has meant that I have been dipping again into his work and I reckon I'll have another look at Crash next. While I was flicking through notes I'd made on some of his other books over the years I found this which made me smile. 'The knew they were being lied to, but if lies were consistent enough they defined themselves as a credible alternative to the truth.' J.G.Ballard from Kingdom Come p. 204.

It's funny what jumps out in the context of current life, something that didn't when I first read it too many moons ago to specify exactly, but I suppose that's significant on both counts. I'm referring to Grahame Greene's novel Stamboul train, one of his first which I picked up again recently. A conversation early on the Ostend to Istanbul train when Mr. Opie chatting to a perfect stranger in his compartment about the relative merits of first and second class travel. 'Yes, that's so-yes,' the other answered with alacrity. 'But 'ow did you know I was English?' 'I make a practice,' Mr. Opie said with a smile, 'of always thinking the best of people.'