Category Archives: Odds & Ends

The Delight of Hand Writing

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Scribe Doll

I am sitting on a wooden bench, by the red-brick wall of a small Elizabethan palace.  My back against the arm-rest,  my legs stretched out before me, bare toes  wriggling with the pleasure of sunshine.  Behind the bench, a few … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: In Praise of Food

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Scribe Doll

I was seven years old and auditioning to be the voice of the Russian commercial for an Italian chocolate spread.  The director was desperately trying to drag more enthusiasm out of me.  “Do you really, really like this chocolate spread?” … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: Art or a Naked Emperor?

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Scribe Doll

A ten year-old Italian boy called Federico went to the Tate Modern with his mother.  When he saw Damian Hirst’s formaldehyde-pickled cows, he said, “That’s cruel.  Why didn’t they allow this calf to grow up and have calves of its … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: A Nomad to Guard Someone’s Land

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Scribe Doll

My Armenian grandmother, Yekaterina Gregorian, passed away last March, at the age of one hundred.  Several years ago, when, blind and almost deaf (but her mind as sharp as a needle), she was moved from my mother’s to a nursing … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: London – Can’t live in it, can’t live out of it.

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Scribe Doll

Ask me if I like London. No, I don’t, would be a frequent answer. Architecturally, I don’t think it’s beautiful.  Not as ugly as some other places (no names mentioned) but not a city where you can walk down the … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: A Mother-in-Law to Smash all Stereotypes

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Scribe Doll

When I was getting a divorce, twelve years ago, my mother-in-law said, “I want you and I to remain friends.” I muttered some polite platitude in return. Friends with the mother of the man with whom I was engaged in … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: My Adventures in Twitter

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Scribe Doll

Beginnings: I signed up to Twitter a few days before Christmas.  It seemed like a low-maintenance way of promoting my writing electronically. As usual, I needed someone to show me.  Not that the instructions were complicated – on the contrary.  I … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: Showbiz Party*

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Scribe Doll

The Scene: a bar Props: nibbles and alcoholic drinks (white wine with a soupçon of ammonia, red wine with a bouquet of vinaigre, or champagne à la bicarbonate) . Sound Effects: Near hysterical laughter and raised, sometimes high-pitched voices with … Continue reading →

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What Made Me Start Writing

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Scribe Doll

“I think you’ll be a writer and a teacher, when you grow up,” said my grandmother, when I was about eleven.  To this day, I do not know what made her see that in me.  Still, when I got divorced, … Continue reading →

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Odds & Ends: Tristan and Iseut

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Scribe Doll

It was a book with a dark blue cover, with a ghostly picture of a Mediaeval ship, in a paler blue and grey, on the front.  My mother had brought it for me from the local library, in Nice, as … Continue reading →

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