My secret diary 1973 August (ii) Beware - sulky teenager on holiday.

August 8th
Ju seems sad about her gran dying. It must be hard to take on board. At night went dancing. Dutch sat with us and then 2 French blokes. I didn't like any of them much. I wanted my Franz. He goes home tomorrow. See yellow paper*

August 9th Thur
Spent most of day with Franz on beach. Ju stayed at caravan. It can't be love - I've only known him 3 or 4 days - but he's nice. Wanted to know if I had slept with English fellas. I didn't give a straight answer. I'm a bit of a liar. Well, I don't know. He went. I didn't cry. Stayed in tonight.

August 10th
Did absolutely nothing all day. Didn't even sunbathe on beach or swim or anything. Got annoyed with Ju. We had 2 rows*. Cleared the air a bit. Getting brown now. Ju spent a lot of time talking to Italians across the road.

August 11th Sat
Ju wanted me to go to Tossa with Valent and Paolo and Hermano - I didn't want to go. Had a row. She went and I stayed home with Auntie Margaret - okay.

August 12th
Today Valentino etc went to Tossa for bull fights, so Ju has been bored. We were both bored. Did nothing.

August 13th
In morning we cleared the caravan up, and in affy we drove to Barcelona airport to collect Ju's mum. Ju's mum and aunt M started going on at me to go to Tossa, but I don't want to go. Me and Ju went to top - good dancing.

August 14th
Behind with diary. A lazy day. We swam and sun-bathed and did daft things. Ju spent time with Valentino.

August 15th
Can't remember much. Valentino went home and Ju cried her eyes out. I think he was annoyed with her last night because me and her danced with 2 arty types. Sat with 2 English drips at night.

August 16th Thur
Oh1 I've seen this gorgeous bloke - we've nicknamed him 'Simple Simon' - he's French and beautiful. He's got long hair and a tash and he's small. He plays the guitar.

August 17th
I'm sorry - I just can't remember exactly - oh! I bought a new bikini - there's a shop on the campsite. Cost 380 pesetas - £2 something.

August 18th
I can't remember much but I do know I'm miserable. Had another row with Ju. Wrote postcard to SQ. I'm in love with Simple Simon. I mean it.

August 19th
Oh dear. I got a bit drunk at night. We were having a laugh on beach with a few people, including nice Bavarian called Rudi. I was sick twice. I lost a contact lens in the sand.*

*Commentary
Aug 8 - sorry - no yellow paper in diary!
Aug 10 - I guess it doesn't take too much reading between the lines to understand this sulky grumpy teenager. I wanted a boyfriend, and I wanted to be able to spend time on my own with him, but if Julie wanted to be with a boy, and this excluded me, then I got cross. Sorry Ju!
Aug 19 - Julie and I recall this episode well. Being drunk, I decided that a sure-fire way of finding the contact lens (it being dark) would be to draw a big circle in the sand around where I thought the lost lens to be. The next morning we went back but, of course, the circle n the sand, and the contact lens, were nowhere to be found. I spent the rest of the holiday squinting short-sightedly through one eye, because vanity would not permit me to wear glasses.

Hilary Mantel - Just finished reading . . . .

Fludd by Hilary Mantel (1989)

7/10

Hilary Mantel is an incredibly versatile author. This is the third book that I have read by her and each has been very different from the last. I suppose that this one has the same mystical strands that 'Beyond Black' had, but Fludd focuses on the mysticism of the Catholic Church, whilst Beyond Black was about clairvoyance.
This is a good story, and what more can we ask of a book? I suspect there was some depth of meaning th at I didn't get, because Hilary Mantel is cleverer than me. Is Fludd a saint, or is he the devil, or an alchemist? Without doubt the changes that he brings about are positive and empowering ones, so we are glad of his visit to this miserable northern town. The reader (well, this one anyway) roots for Sister Philomena and Father Angwin to come out on top by the end.

Speaking of the miserable northern town, it reminded me at times of the setting for 'Father Ted' with its idiosyncratic priest and his housekeeper, or 'Cold Comfort Farm' with its miserable inhabitants, or 'Little Britain' with its insularity and weirdness.

My secret diary 1973 August (i) sun, sea and boys!

Aug 1 (Wed)

Moved onto plot 30 with great chaos. Put the awning up. 3 Italians* opposite talked to us. Quite good looking. Sunbathed. Not to long, didn't want to burn. Went dancing and met 2 Dutch lads. Speak Eng very well. 1 lad - Steve - quite nice but about 16!

Camping Giverola Pola nearly 40 years on!

Aug 2

Sunbathed, swam in sea, saw a fella on sand that looked just like Robert Redford - no kidding, really beautiful, tan and everything. Met them at night - about 4 Germans asked us to sit with them. Wolfgang (Robert Redford), Rudi & Franz. Franz interested in me. He's nice.

Aug 3

Don't like sleeping arrangements. Me and Ju get trodden on constantly. Many flies and creepies. Sunbathed and swam. Camp is very nice. Germans, French, Italians, Dutch, English. Nice! Sat with Germans again in bar. Invited us to a dance in Tossa. Accepted. Taught us German.

Aug 4

Did nowt during day. Saw Germans in bar. Franz fancies me - he's nice - not as nice looking as Robert Redford, who doesn't really like us a lot I think. Ju fancies Italians, I prefer Germans. Went to Tossa with Germans. 1900 Club. Great time but had to be home for 12 o'clock.

Aug 5 (Sun)

Snogged Franz last night - he's pretty good - pash! Getting tanned now, but people keep saying we're white. Ju and I are quite close.

Aug 6 (Mon)

Can't remem properly what happened. Camp is made up of many tents and caravans in a valley and up hillsides with bay at end of valley. Not proper sand - very stoney - but beautiful water. Spent today messing about generally. Night sat with Germans!

Aug 7

Went to Llorett in morning with Auntie Marg and Uncle Alan etc. Very, very hot. Market on - nice. What should I buy family? When we went back to camp-site found Ju's mum and dad upset because they heard that Ju's gran had died. Only just found out. Ju's mum and dad flew home. Alan goes tomorrow.

*Commentary

Aug 1 - Every encounter with a different nationality was a thrill for a small-town girl from Lancashire who had never been out of England, except to Wales.

Mary McCarthy - Just finished reading ....

The Group by Mary McCarthy (audio-book)


8/10

I read this book many years ago when I was a young feminist, learning about woman's place in the world. When I saw it on my local library shelf, I had forgotten its power and just got it out for curiosity's sake.

Do any women, nowadays still say 'I wouldn't call myself a feminist?' It is a crime if they do, and they should be made to read this book to remind them what women who do call themselves feminist have achieved for all women in the last 50 or so years.

Mary McCarthy wrote this in 1963. It is a novel that follows the lives of a group of young women who have just graduated from the elite Vassar College in New York in 1933. They are mostly intelligent and well-heeled; of 'good pedigree' and are expected to achieve success in work or in marriage.
We learn, by following their lives over the next few years, leading up to America's involvement in WWII, about the married lives, the single lives, the working lives, the sex lives of women of this class at that time. We learn about the inaccessibility of contraception, the lack of information about sex, the double standards held up for men and women, the stigmatisation of those who choose to go their own way. We learn what it is like to be in a relationship where the man holds all the real power, and how difficult it is to get a divorce. We learn that a man can have his wife committed as insane, with very little psychiatric evidence. We learn that men and male scientists believed that they knew more about child-rearing than new and experienced mothers did.
It is a book of its time. It is a good read. It is an important reminder for all of us that we should continue to think about inequalities and how history still impacts on who we are in the present.