Times of My Life - Part Two , livre ebook

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd - Carole Payne

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

127 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

A sequel to Times of My Life: A Forest Gate Girl, this book carries the reader from a wedding in 1971, to the present day in Wiltshire, spanning 50 years of events that have punctuated the writer's life up to now. It's been a whole adventure and education for a girl from a fairly sheltered and strict family background, embarking on married life as a young wife which would soon take her away from the London she had known and loved to following her husband's career all over the country.She would eventually achieve all the things she had dreamed of as a child. She would travel the world, meet fascinating people in far-flung places and make lifelong friends. She would have a successful career of her own. She would teach. Her love of music, theatre and performance would lead to one of her most thrilling and satisfying endeavours, running her own musical theatre group with amazing young people and watching them grow in skills and confidence. This memoir revisits those hectic days which tend to get lost in the fullness of time. Treasured old photos bring it all back. Most of all, she would have a long and happy married life, and be blessed with wonderful children and grandchildren. There were many adventures and so many reasons to celebrate along the way. But there were also trials and challenges, tragedies and sadness, as there are and have been for everyone, particularly during the Covid years. The best of times always outweighed the bad, however, and the happiest memories will be cherished forever.

Informations

Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
Date de parution	30 novembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781398412934
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	5 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0175€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Times of My Life – Part Two
The Best of Times
Carole Payne
Austin Macauley Publishers
2022-11-30
Times of My Life – Part Two About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Introduction Part Two: The Story Continues: The Best of Times Chapter 1: The Seventies Chapter 2: The Eighties Chapter 3: The Nineties Chapter 4: The New Millennium and the 2000s Chapter 5: 2010s Chapter 6: Finally – 2020s Postscript
About the Author
Carole Payne was born and educated in London and now lives and writes in Wiltshire. Her first book, Times of My Life: A Forest Gate Girl, about her fascinating family, early life in East London, and growing up in the sixties, was published by Austin Macauley Publishers in 2021. It was written for her first granddaughter to share the memories of that very special time up until her wedding in 1971. The book has been so well received all over the world that she started this second part to complete the memoir up to the present day – Times of My Life – Part Two . This was during the Covid-19 pandemic and several lockdowns and helped to occupy and sustain her during difficult days. The book covers five decades of recent history and so much has happened in this one lifetime. Writing has opened up a whole new world to her in retirement and she writes whenever she can, short stories and poetry, as well as children’s books and has started, most recently, her first novel.
Carole has been married to Chris for over 50 years and has three children and four wonderful grandchildren. She loves quizzes, travel, gardening, music and theatre and reading as well as writing.
Dedication
For my husband Chris,
my children:
Sarah, Siobhan and Dominic:
my life.
Copyright Information ©
Carole Payne 2022
The right of Carole Payne to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781398412927 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781398412934 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published 2022
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd ® 1 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5AA
Acknowledgement
I would never have been able to write my story without the encouragement and technical expertise of my husband Chris and all the wonderful family and friends from all over the world who helped make the memories I can share.
Special thanks to musician and composer Simon May and the Rotary Club of Devizes, the children from my amazing First Stages and Superchoir (and their parents!), Peter Polycarpou, our fantastic mentor, patron and friend, and everyone who supported us over the years: Ronnie from Marland Music, Devizes Lions, Devizes Town Council and Wiltshire Council.
Finally, my thanks to Austin Macauley Publishers for their belief in me and my story.
The Best of Times from La Cage Aux Folles by Jerry Herman:
“So hold this moment fast, and live and love as hard as you know how and make this moment last, because the best of times is now.”
Writing this I feel a bit like Forrest Gump’s mother – ‘life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get’. The chance encounters with people who are to become important later in our stories and the choices we make define us. And as the Chinese say, these are ‘interesting times’ for all of us. Certainly this road has been an interesting one for me. Films and music feature strongly in my life and I’m a hugely emotional soul, so as the memories come back, my heartaches and tears are never far away, but sometimes I’m crying with laughter too. I am easily moved: acts of kindness, art and literature, concerts, shows, music, nativity plays even when I don’t know the children on stage, a line or a word from a much-loved poem, and especially movies and books where I can lose myself. One of my favourite books at school was Virgil’s Aeneid. I still remember some of the original Latin lines I learned by heart: ‘Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt’ (Book 1). The English translation loses the emotion of the line, but I love it: ‘There are tears in things, and mortal thoughts touch the mind.’ Re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird or Rebecca after almost half a century, I find myself transported, as if I’m reading for the very first time. There is surely no greater pleasure than re-visiting a precious old favourite like this, and especially when my battered copy is full of highlighted passages and handwritten notes from our children who obviously loved it too. It’s like playing a favourite old album over and over again – lyrics mean so much more each time. Like many people of our generation I have to admit I’m a hoarder. I’ve kept tons of stuff over the years – these lovely old books, records, photos, cards and programmes, our wedding telegrams (do they even send these now?) and letters and cards, children’s drawings and paintings. I even kept ticket stubs and old menus and, looking through them now, they really do touch my soul.
Introduction
Researching Part One of my memoir took me back more than 250 years to our family’s roots in England and India. The family tree is huge now, so I’m including this, more recent family tree, to help keep track of who’s who:

Carole’s FAMILY TREE 2021
My Grandparents:
Walter Withbert Payne = Vera Violet Cove (9 Children)
Laurence Andrew Woodhouse = Mary Elizabeth Head (3 Children)
My Parents:
Gordon Richard Payne Born 1923 = Yvonne Moreen Woodhouse Born 1926
Married 1947 in India
6 Children – Kristin, Carole, Gordon, Ian, Bernadette, Keith
1 Kristin Mary Anne 1948-2016 = John Jeans Mitchell Jr (USA)
2 Children
2 Carole Elisabeth = Christopher Andrew Berry 1971
3 Children: Sarah-Marie, Siobhan, Dominic
Sarah-Marie Berry = Peter Michael Hatch 1998
3 Children:
Atlanta May Hatch
Luke Benedict Hatch
Xavier Jack Hatch
Siobhan Peggy Berry (UK / Saudi Arabia)
Dominic Gordon George Berry = Samantha 2019 (WALES)
Daughter by previous marriage: Isabella Rose Berry
3 Gordon Payne = Dianne (NSW, Australia)
(4 Children)
4 Ian Payne = Elwyn (Queensland, Australia)
(3 Children)
5 Yvonne Bernadette = (1) John Shazell, (2) Tim Cooksley (Texas, USA)
(2 Children)
6 Keith Andrew Payne = Rob Early (London, UK)
Writing a memoir has been an odd experience. Why would I? I’m not famous, although I have managed to reach a good age and lived through some pretty historical moments. Would anyone, apart from my immediate family, want to read my story? I’ve read many biographies in my time and enjoyed most of them, especially having an insight into famous lives. But everyone has a story. Life happens to us and we’re not aware of it being even slightly remarkable until we look back. Triumphs and tragedies happen to all of us. How we deal with them is down to us as individuals. Even apparently quite ordinary people I’ve met over the years have astonished me with their personal experiences and I’m a particularly curious soul, so perhaps I’m not the only one and you are reading this because you also want to know what happened next.
So many global events and special people have had an impact on my life. Our generation has seen the first space exploration, landings on the moon and journeys to Mars and beyond. We have progressed from stargazing to space tourism in just decades. How amazing that would have seemed to me as a child looking up and wondering at the stars. We joined the European Union to improve our national standing in the world, then left it forty seven years later, the first country to do so. World Wars have given way to horrible terrorist attacks. There is still conflict in so many parts of the world, forcing humanitarian crises which affect us all. As I write today, we are living through a global disaster – the Covid-19 pandemic, which began as an almost insignificant news item just 2 years ago has swiftly progressed on a scale we could never have imagined. This is a unique event – unheard of until now in our lifetime. On a much more positive side, we have learned so much with this new threat to human existence and the information and experiences we are gathering now will help us in the future. We have hope and faith that the universal race to find effective vaccines and treatment will unite humanity and have far-reaching benefits.
The Climate Change movement has grown in force and momentum. A universal agreement on COP26 in Glasgow has been signed, with firm commitments to reduce global warming again by 2030, protecting our planet for generations to come.
Technology has developed exponentially in every aspect of our daily lives and we are only just beginning to see the massive potential. While I was growing up, most people didn’t even have a house telephone. We used the coin-operated phone box on the corner of the street in an emergency or ran for a neighbour. If we posted a letter, we could be pretty sure it would be delivered the next day. We even had two postal deliveries a day! Today I may be one of the older generations, but I’m routinely ordering my shopping online for next day delivery and learning to text with both thumbs!
As women of their own times, my grandmothers, mother and mother-in-law didn’t have careers in the modern sense, but were all strong and amazing women also living through extraordinary events. Their lives are also their legacy to us.
Music, song lyrics and films were al