Hello, welcome to my blog

Mostly you will find, here, transcribed entries from the secret diary that I used to keep as a teenager between 1970 and 1975. I try to be honest with my transcriptions, but, just occasionally I do edit, to protect myself or others from embarrassment or some other emotion.
Also, though, I like to do a brief review of the books I have been reading, so these are interspersed throughout. I reserve the right to write blog entries, also, about other random things.
Why do I keep this blog? I don't know. I am an academic and one of my research interests is around how people construct their own identities. The diary transcriptions, and what I write about my books, are very much about revealing something of my identity.

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Anna May Mangan - just finished reading

Me and Mine by Anna May Mangan (audio)

6/10


This is a book about an Irish immigrant family who came over to England in the 1950s, written from the perspective of one of the daughters in the present day.

What I got out of it was that I learnt more about a migrant's life, and what it was like to be treated with such cruel and bigoted racism (lodging houses would have a sign in their windows - 'no blacks, no dogs, no Irish'). These Irish immigrants had come to try to make a better life and were met by rudeness,  irrational fears and rumours, and systematic discrimination.
It's actually a book written with humour and a lot of affection, and is also a story about the way that cancer runs in families.
Phew.

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