Welcome readers

Welcome to my first post on my first blog. How jolly modern of me. Only 7 years or so behind my peers, but hey, I've been busy. Life takes over doesn't it? And all those things you planned to do somehow end up taking a back seat to the 'real' things in life. Things like getting a job. Buying a house. Having a family.

OK, so having a family definitely constitutes 'real' life. How much more real can you get than pro-creating? Answers on a nappy please...

And now all those things are done. Or are at least underway. And I feel the need to return to all those things I planned to do. The first chapter of my novel is kind of started (isn't everyone's?) and happily sitting on a memory chip inside my clock (it is a clock and it is also a cupboard. It is ingenious and I love it) and there it will no doubt sit until my children have begun to need me less frequently during the evenings and I'm able to fully enjoy a glass of wine without the buzz of a baby monitor in my ear.

And so to the job in hand and an explanation of Got Darcy All Wrong. If you haven't read Pride and Prejudice then I hate to spoil it for you, but Elizabeth, bless her, got Darcy all wrong. I see this as a metaphor for my life in a way. In my experience, first impressions are almost never borne out. I should point out that I am drawing a distinction here between first impressions and gut instincts which, in my experience, are almost always borne out. A gut instinct is a feeling you get about a person, a situation, a place, a building, a story, a haircut. It is beyond your control and comes from deep within. A first impression is a judgement you make consciously and is inevitably and inescapably subject to your personal baggage; where you live, how you were educated, your principles, politics, tastes, etc. It comes from without rather than within.

I have learned not to trust first impressions. I get them wrong. Like our beloved Elizabeth.

I shan't be harping on about Pride and Prejudice; its nuances. Its well-crafted realism. And its oddly fairytale ending. More has been written about this rather excellent novel than can ever be digested and regurgitated by one person (that is not to say I haven't tried). Instead I shall be looking at other works, new and old, and sharing some thoughts about them with you.

If you'd like to join me.

Which I hope you will do.

TTFN.