To the future! To individual membership! To the people of Left Unity!

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Adam Roden, the representative from Llanfairfechan Left Unity, co-chaired the middle session of our first national meeting. These are his thoughts.

Well, we’ve had the first National Meeting of Left Unity… it was bleedin’ marvellous! It was the first time I’ve ever attended a ‘proper’ political meeting, and while I may have contributed to the near-chaos of the second session with my inexperienced co-chairing(!) it was thoroughly heart-warming to see democracy in all it’s heartfelt action… in future I’d like to see all meetings that intense – part of the disconnect so many of us feel with politics is down to the modern fashion of polished pre-rehearsed output, and seeing how clumsy and organic democracy is in reality was an eye-opener – we need to bring that feeling of being part of a democratic process to as many people as possible. Terrifying as it was, I’d do it again in a heartbeat! My only disappointment for the day would be that I wish more of the Left Unity group members could have been there too – but this was just a small introductory meeting of representatives, and as a starting point – and as an introduction to the process – it was uplifting, a word I’m not prone to using.

As I say, this was my first meeting, and as such there were a number of eye-opening moments.  For example, I’d never considered the possibility that one of the threats to Left Unity project would come from other existing groups of the left… in my naïve, isn’t-all-this-lovely-and-new way I just had an assumption they would welcome a new group on the left that embraced ‘normal’ previously apolitical people like myself. At the time, as the debate raged on whether to allow non-voting observers from other groups into the meetings, as comrades described how other larger groups may seek to infiltrate and close down Left Unity, I thought to myself that this all sounded a little paranoid.

However, having seen some of the blog posts and blog comments by some members of these other groups since our meeting, I’m now beginning to think there’s something in it – in fact I’ve been shocked at the level of vitriol displayed in some of the comments. I can only assume that some of the downright hostile things I’ve read about the meeting – written by people who haven’t joined Left Unity and weren’t even at the meeting, people who have misreported what was said (and by whom) – that somewhere along the line, Left Unity has started to rattle the cages of some people and organizations that must now consider us a threat. I think that, whatever their reasoning, their hostility is sad and a shame. Left Unity’s greatest strength is in the fact it is pulling in the previously unpolitical, those people whose capacity to ignore what is going on around them has been worn down to the point where they have to do something… and as a result these people who are signing up are, on the whole, unaffiliated. That is what threatens our attackers, they’re fine with hope, as long as they started it and it comes from their particular brand of leftism. Well that’s just mean, man. I founded the Left Unity Llanfairfechan group as a way of linking up like-minded people who were spread out, isolated and feeling unrepresented. So I ask these groups who now criticize us in our infancy – where were you when I needed you? Where were you?

Another eye-opener was my first ever experience of a full-on Blokey Bolshevik & Bovver Boots rant, complete with ear-fuzzing volume escalation – it was brilliant, something I thought only existed on telly programmes set in the ‘70s, but there it was in front of me in all its impassioned glory! It’s a tick on my list of experiences, and was glad to be in a room where that level of feeling could be displayed and applauded.  While I might not have agreed with all that was said by everybody, I agreed with their right to say it, even if exercising that right may have massively overcomplicated things at points. But it’s all to the good, and all part of finding our feet. We must try not to do things in certain ways just because “that’s the way things are done”, so the clumsiness, chaos, energy and passion are our test-bed of what actually works in practice…

I also realise that we’ve probably opened a number of cans containing a number of worms at this opening meeting, but that’s a good thing. If this is to work in the long-term, and with the greatest number of people, we have to do what’s right, not what’s easy or proven. I read somewhere that a revolution shouldn’t clothe itself in the garbs of the past, and I think that’s what we’re doing – weaving new cloth of our very own. What started out as one man’s questioning appeal is turning into a real force in its own right. That man, Ken Loach, was there at the meeting too, and I got to meet him – the sort of thing that would have scared me stiff in any other situation, but seeing as I was about to co-chair a meeting for the first time, meeting a man off the telly was a breeze! It was good to meet him, but if I’m honest it was more exciting meeting all of the people from the other groups who I’d previously only talked to through email – it is these people I’ll be working with in future to grow what Ken Loach sowed.

I think Ken Loach’s appeal struck a chord because he is a cultural figure making a political point, and therein lies the handle – for a long, long time people have defined themselves by their cultural choices not their political ones, and for an equally long time culture and politics have been completely separate worlds. Anthony Gormley recently said that we live in a ‘post-ideological’ world. Yeah, right Mr. Gormley, trying telling that to a Syrian or Palestinian civilian, try telling that to someone just about to hang themselves because the bedroom tax is going to ruin their life, either financially or by making them leave their lifelong homes… our culture, if it is not politically engaged, cannot improve peoples lives it can only entertain them. But if politics is not culturally engaged, it can’t improve peoples lives or entertain them, which is just one of the ways the current crop are getting away with what they’re doing – keeping all those parts of our lives separate, lest we see them complete and whole as the horrors they are.

We must all remember to stay active participants in the culture around us and not get sucked into a world dominated only by politics – it is through our shared cultural references that we have a way of engaging the most amount of people, and tying back together what has been artificially separated by those who seek to monopolise and commercialise our decision making abilities. We all need to reclaim what is rightfully ours, and in all the clumsy, organic ways we have at our disposal to gather together the 99% of us who make up this society. They – the 1% – are not of our culture, they are invaders and parasites, and they won’t be happy till they’ve taken everything they can away from us and sucked us dry!

In short, it was a pleasure to meet all involved and join in (specific thanks of course to Chris Hurley, who actually chaired the second session while I stared straight ahead like an innocent political bunny-wabbit caught in the red-headlights of comrade Nick), and I can’t wait to get the opportunity to meet the wider Left Unity community.

To the future! To individual membership! To the people of Left Unity!


33 comments

33 responses to “To the future! To individual membership! To the people of Left Unity!”

  1. Terree Selby says:

    I’ve also been reading some of the blogposts and comments from members of the ‘established’ left and I think they do, to some extent consider Left Unity a threat. I also think they are downright jealous that in a matter of weeks we attracted over 8,000 people to the cause. I know of no other left party that has ever achieved this.

    • Jonno says:

      Adam’s is a great article, but tbh, L/U doesn’t (yet) have 8000 members, these are people who expressed an interest online.

  2. Sheila says:

    Adam and Terree,

    Certainly chaos can be very creative. And passion and energy can be both uplifting and threatening. I’m a writer myself, as Adam knows, and certainly agree with his point that politics should be wholistic, not separated off from cultural and other life. And I deplore the recent advent of ‘the political class’. Politics, and the whole of life, belongs equally to all of us.

    But I wonder if we’re losing sight of a few things?

    Firstly, hats off to Ken Loach – total respect; but he didn’t sow the seeds for us to grow. He certainly seems to have galvanised people into action. But, in my opinion, it’s the actions of the coalition and the inactions of the labour party which are the seeds that have been sown – especially in the rocky ground which most of us inhabit.

    Surely any new, viable Left has to be a threat to the continuance of that, not to other Left groups. The in-fighting of the Left makes this so much more difficult.

    Yes, very early days. But don’t you need to keep in mind what you’re fighting to have any hope of success?

  3. Rich Will says:

    Brilliant, you are my new favourite person.

  4. Ray G says:

    Ha! You are a diamond geezer!

    Excellent! Well said mate. Glad you enjoyed it, and looking forward to doing loads of good work with you and all of us.

  5. Stuart Inman says:

    I am not surprised at Anthony Gormley’s “post-ideological” comments, he’s a flabby-minded idiot, but have been rather taken aback, not so much by the vitriol of some comments from the left, but their inaccuracy. Apparently we organisers have been parachuted in to set-up a top-down organisation. I have seen this on at least two websites along with a lot of other vergbiage that, whether it is due to ignorance or is deliberate lies, is certainly dishonest.

    Well, that is fine, as Terree has said, it means they see us as a threat. They shouldn’t, and maybe they will come round to a fairer and more honest assessment of Left Unity, or maybe they will be proven right in the long run, but it looks like they will have to take us seriously.

  6. Laurence Williams says:

    Well done all,
    I agree with all the above, and would like to add: First, ‘They’ ignore you, second, ‘They’ laugh at you, third, ‘They’ rubbish you, fourth, ‘You’ Win! I think Ghandi said this and it certainly applies here. Hope to get to a meeting around my NHS work soonish.
    Best wishes
    Laurence

  7. David says:

    Sounds like a good start.Need to protect against take over by old left wing groups. Organisers of this website and left unity should sit in the audience and shut up while members decide what to do. There already signs of leaders in waiting. If care is not taken this will be a rerun of the Socialist Labour Party.

  8. Tom says:

    Who refused to let my criticism of this post to go through? And on what basis did they do it? Can I have an explanation please?

  9. Adam Roden says:

    The comment can be seen at http://derekthomas2010.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/left-unity-sectarian-censorship.png and I wrote a short apologia on facebook:

    “In my defence Tom, I don’t see that I was being sectarian, just pointing out that I’ve read some really bad things with a completely unnecessary (and sometimes downright untruthful) tone since the meeting, and further asking why those people are getting the hump when none of them have made themselves known in my area, or done a damn thing to help the ordinary people suffering in my district without asking for membership fees. Nor was I making a virtue of being inexperienced, I mentioned it to encourage anyone else out there who has never been involved with any form of politics to join in in any way they can, to hell with feeling out of your depth, to hell with fear, to hell with sitting waiting for someone else to do it for you… if you see that as a bad thing, then that viewpoint is the one of the reasons why the majority of people have absolutely no involvement with politics in any form. I’ve made the effort to track down your comment, and have shared it so that it can be seen. Cheers, Adam”

  10. Tom says:

    I note my comment has been returned to waiting for moderation status. That is fine. We need left unity and I do not believe that TUSC is the finished article. Left Unity can help TUSC move in a better direction, if that is what it wants. This can be to all our benefit. And I don’t mean ‘us’ as individuals, members of groups, but of our class. There is no reason that the left cannot unite in a way that allows us an electoral advance as strong as UKIP’s. That in turn will shake up the entire political landscape, and the terrain upon which the class struggle takes place in the extra-parliamentary sphere: mass strikes, civil disobedience. But it is going to require compromise when it comes to first-past-the-post elections. Sectarianism can become a thing of the past, if that is what we decide we want.

    • Ben McCall says:

      Blimey Tom, is this what censorship of your vitriol gets us: a chastened, more thoughtful approach, that I actually agree with, in part? Let us have more!

      Yes, as comrade Bazza says: there is hope!

  11. Adam Roden says:

    Tom, …also forgot to say (there isn’t much room on the little facebook comment box before it looks unreadable) that you’ll also notice that I didn’t refer in my article to which way I voted on any particular issue, and that you infer quite a lot about my opinions on the issues you mentioned. Best wishes, Adam

  12. Dafydd Gogledd says:

    Any chance of Llanfairfechan Left Unity linking up with the Penmaenmawr Proletariat in the near future?

  13. Rich Will says:

    As many articles and posts on this site have made clear there are several very serious issues that Left Unity faces which require concerted thought and discussion, not the least of which are how we organise and how we coexist with and relate to other left groups. Nontheless I fear that we run the risk of appearing to navel-gaze, ie. focussing exclusively on these existential questions instead of starting to explain what we have to say about the state of the world and what we intend to do about it. At the present moment almost all of the articles on the front page of the site are about Left Unity itself – apart from the very important message from Portugal about June 1 there is nothing which addresses the struggles against austerity, the bedroom tax, the benefits cap, climate change, UKIP or indeed any other of the critically important issues which Left Unity was set up to engage with and intervene in. I think it is essential that the local groups quickly identify struggles to which they can make a contribution and that reports on these struggles find their way onto the website. In the meantime I think there should be many more articles by Left Unity activists and supporters in which they set out their opinions about the world, because if we continue to talk only about ourselves a lot of visitors to the site will be put off.

    • Sheila says:

      Yes, I agree with you, Rich Will. This is essentially what I was trying to say above. I’m certainly hovering on the brink. We so much need what Left Unity could become – but there are precious few signs, at the moment, of it becoming that. Good to see some concrete suggestions on how to take it forward.

    • Iram says:

      Hi Rich

      I totally agree with you and have submitted a topical article about Cameron at the UN which the media are currently whitewashing.

  14. Jonno says:

    Sheila, its only been going a few weeks, you can’t give up yet! I agree though the site should be opened up more and have many articles on the austerity attacks, though its good to hear what positive things LU groups are up to.
    Although, I disagreed a little with Jenny R, I think her articles are always positive and uplifting.

    • Sheila says:

      Iram, many thanks for your article, please keep them coming. None of us, alone, can keep up with everything, and I’m certainly in need of several bucketsful of education!

      Jonno, thanks for the reply. I certainly agree that being positive and uplifting can be valuable, especially when people are feeling disenfranchised and hopeless. I’m very glad you agree things need to be opened up. It’s not either/or is it? We need both.

  15. Joe says:

    Great article

  16. Darren Cahil says:

    ‘I can only assume that some of the downright hostile things I’ve read about the meeting – written by people who haven’t joined Left Unity and weren’t even at the meeting, people who have misreported what was said (and by whom) – that somewhere along the line, Left Unity has started to rattle the cages of some people’

    Who are these ‘people’ you speak of? And why would their ‘cages’ be rattled?

    ‘and organizations that must now consider us a threat.’

    Source? Stating an opinion as fact doesn’t make it true. And anyway, what do you mean by threat? A threat to what exactly? What you have said is vague. It would be nice if you could elaborate.

    At the end of the day the only threat we should pose is to the bureaucracy within the left and capitalism.

    • Emil Christian says:

      I presume he’s referring to what is kindly called the ‘organised left’ and unkindly called ‘the 57 varieties of sects’. If you look at some of the biggest and most prominent, i.e. the SWP and SP, it’s made members and leaders take notice of the fact that a different organisation has had to come into existence to do the tihng they allege to strive for, i.e. a united left.

      Potentially, if Left Unity is not a federated organisation then they cannot as a group take it over, which is what the long history (SA, RESPECT, SLP, etc) shows has been the strategy. Particularly because of the crisis of the SWP and the poor showing showing of TUSC in the local elections (principally SP and SWP) which failed to get a single candidate more than 10% of the vote, the prospect of a democratic, innovative campaign or party is basically anathama to the entire power structures and cultures of the far left.

      Which basically comes down to the question: should Left Unity become the next version of the coalition of the cadres (just an excuse for the far left parties to get together to recruit for their own causes) or something more interesting and healthy?

      By definition we are a threat to the current left, and it is being discussed in the various groups. Indeed, we have got the attention of at least one very determined poster of the organised left. And yes, while the ultimate aim should be to oppose capitalism and be a threat to the actual system of oppression we live under, the current issue for the left is how to deal with the current, parasitic and autistic state of the left. We are currently dealing with a backward-looking, inward, defensive culture that is deeply rooted in part of the far left activist community. If this approach worked it would have been much more succesful by now.

      It’s true you might not see it publically on their websites, but that’s because these parties do not have open disagreements. You might be able to glean it from Facebook, but AFAIK there isn’t a far-left party that would ever put a critical article of themselves on thier own website, another extremely positive aspect of Left Unity which I hope will be continued in practice.

      • Sheila says:

        Emil,
        I accept that the current state of the left has to be dealt with, and you clearly know more about this than I do. But I cannot accept that this should be the only current issue for Left Unity; and the immediate increasingly worsening reality of so many people and supporting structures relegated to an ‘ultimate aim’. This is urgent; something needs to be done now; and the longer it’s left the more difficult it will be to tackle.

        I don’t understand why both cannot be done at the same time.

  17. Ben McCall says:

    Long live the gogs! If anyone reading this has not had the pleasure of Penmaenmawr and then, rounding the curvaceous cliff, the loveliness of Llanfairfechan with the sea and Puffin Island off the coast of Ynys Mon on the horizon – please do so as soon as you can.

    As has been said above, nice one Adam: “…full-on Blokey Bolshevik & Bovver Boots rant, complete with ear-fuzzing volume escalation – it was brilliant, something I thought only existed on telly programmes set in the ‘70s, but there it was in front of me in all its impassioned glory!” is the sort of political poetry that I look forward to on this site.

    Exactly what I thought on seeing a youtube vid of Jerry Hicks: why would anyone but an embedded anthropologist / ethnographer, sent to observe and record the full-throated squawk of pseudo-political self-delusion, want to watch this? Not that I’m in favour of Len, a much more sinister and malign figure – what a choice! – thank gawd I left Unite in disgust at the “lads network”, bullying machismo and worse-than-useless representation of some of their full timers and lay officials!

    Yes Adam, long live a future left that is open, creative, warm, welcoming and – most importantly – effective, in achieving our common goals.

    • Terry Crow says:

      There’s quite some irony in your comments, Ben – just saying.

      • Ben McCall says:

        Thanks Terry, but “good socialists” hides a multitude of dodgy ‘cadres’. Degsy comes to mind, but also less infamous members of the ’47 martyrs’, some in our midst it seeems.

        I vividly remember in 1986, I was an unemployed activist in the broad-based Merseyside Campaign Against Social Security Cuts. We held an event, to which your hero Terry Fields turned-up (no such thing as a “Militant Labour MP”, but its been a long time) never having had anything to do with our campaign before, with a Militant crewe of similar non-commitment to our cause. They proceeded to hijack our well-attended event, with Tezzer making an – uninvited – impromptu speech.

        As a young activist, this was a sobering part of my political education: the abject opportunism of the ultra-left. I proposed to our next organising meeting that we write a letter of protest to the said “workers’ MP on a worker’s wage”, and a few people argued against, rather sheepishly. I later found out that they were not members of Millo, but ‘fellow travellers’ (Socialist Organiser – now there’s an ironic name).

        In about 1992, I also remember a good friend of mine. We both worked in a trade union unemployed workers’ centre, on of the centres of the left at that time and were working on a huge banner together, for a youth festival. It had a group of figures and super-imposed words and symbols, representing issues of concern or that would affect young people in 1990.

        I was after a symbol for ‘the environment’ and asked him who at our centre may be able to help. “Sorry mate, we’re all socialists here” was one of the most depressing responses I have ever received; at a time when it was still radical (and hopelessly wet liberal / hippy) to link the left and the environment; Marx forbid that our alternative economic strategy should be sustainable – well actually that is still questioned, explicitly by some (Micky D) and by the obsession with ‘growth’ of many others.

        Interesting that you include Caroline Lucas in your approved list! I look forward to robust but comradely debates and action as we build left unity together, Terry…

  18. Terry Crow says:

    8,000+ expressing an interest in Left Unity – but why?

    Notwithstanding Ken Loach’s distancing himself from the idea of charismatic leadership, undoubtedly the success of the appeal derives mainly from his persona.

    Behind this of course the timid Labour leadership and for most on the Left a lack of any credible alternative.

    At this point I declare my history. In my youth an ardent advocate of the Militant Tendency. Ducked out with family commitments from age 36-37. Re-politicised 2007/8 with the rise of the BNP, the economic meltdown, redundancy, rejoining Labour in 2010 after having not voted in the General Election. Didn’t see the Socialist Party as being an alternative, its best cadres long since gone. Socialist Appeal seemed to have better quality material, but not enough to draw me in. So I have viewed the political scene at a distance, taking on the Tories and LibDems (& others) in the time at work I have over the internet (I commute from So’ton to London, so little other time left).

    There are obviously good socialists in a range of groupings and parties or like me, just out there as individuals.

    Given the focus of my thoughts is to promote socialist ideas and expose the failings of capitalism, the idea of Left Unity can only mean one thing – how to unite socialists under a common banner.

    And I mean socialists – not some Left of Centre mish-mash that would tinker around the edges of capitalism with a bit of legislative control, leaving the big capitalist guns to carry on regardless.

    And I mean unity – I like what I’ve heard from Ken, but I also like much of what Owen Jones says, and John McDonnell, and Caroline Lucas. Imagine the support that this combination of leading socialists might garner.

    But this isn’t going to happen if Left Unity becomes yet another, vaguely Left of Labour, Party.

    So my question is unanswered. I don’t think there is a clear path forward. There is no one right answer, though plenty of wrong ones. I had hoped, and still entertain such a hope, that Left Unity could play a part in drawing all the socialist strands together. A heck of a challenge I concede. But doesn’t that define openness, altruism, integrity, and rule out sectarianism and partisanship?

    It might mean for instance that on the back of some event or other and an opportunity to stand a credible representative, such a combination of noteworthy socialist leaders come together in a united stand. I’m speculating, thinking aloud – but it seems to me that we see a quantum leap in support for socialist candidates when they are well known and are perceived as offering a real alternative and face a chance of being elected. This idea by some senior labour and trade union figure that there is no ‘political space’ is complete hogwash, as proven by Caroline Lucas and George Galloway (an enigmatic character!). But nonetheless there has to be a reason why that space isn’t being captured more broadly, and that would seem to me to be credibility, and a big part of credibility is whether you are known.

    After all, back in the day Terry Fields, a Militant Labour MP for Liverpool Broadgreen got elected as an MP in a Tory marginal, and at the same time an advocate of expulsions, right winger John Spellar, was being booted out from a Labour seat in Birmingham Northfield. Credibility alongside a real alternative. Dave Nellist, an ex-Militant Labour MP for Coventry South East, on the other hand, doesn’t stand much chance these days as a candidate for the Socialist Party or TUSC.

    I really don’t know the answer anymore than anyone else, but I hope this is food for thought and adds to the discussions that are now undoubtedly being undertaken with a fresh pair of eyes.

    And I think the very name ‘Left Unity’ has captured the mood of many socialists, searching for a way forward. This idea is not to be dismissed now it is out there as a possibility.

  19. Adam Roden says:

    Hi all,
    Just to add a couple of thoughts I’ve been mulling over having read the comments (tell you what, one thing this website desperately needs is a forum!)… I think it’s probably true that there’s a been a lot if inward looking commentary on and about Left Unity, but I think that’s probably because we’re at a formative stage, and worried as much about this becoming something that’s either a copy of what’s been before or worried that it will become something that doesn’t represent what we want it to represent – a period of bashing around for some sort of identity.

    I agree there has to come a time when we start looking outwards and placing ourselves somewhere – but part of the difficulty of that is what we’re facing – is there anyone on the left that can look at the world and not end up thinking “Ye gods, this is hopeless – do we have to rebuild everything from scratch?”.

    I remember reading somewhere (desperately trying to find out where) that one of the greatest strengths of neo-liberal capitalism is its ability to absorb and assimilate (and ultimately commodify) criticism and dissent, which makes our job of building a completely alternative system (as opposed to just opposing individual matters like wars, sexism, bigotry, austerity or environmental degradation) that much harder, because the current system is very very good at taking our dissent and pulling is into a debate which is framed by their system (which ultimately wraps us up into knots as we try to fight multiple battles on multiple fronts). I think that’s one of the reasons why LU is going through this period of navel gazing – trying to work out where we stand, not based on ‘tradition’ of where the left stands, but based on a completely alternative reality of what we want a new system to be.

    A period of pre-grouping if you will, before we start to roll this thing forward. I think this period is probably even more important than it has been for other groups in the past because LU seem to be pulling in a wider range of people, not just people with previous/current membership of other left groups (and beyond – I’ve met quite a few anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists recently who’ve signed up), but also those who were previously unaffiliated or unpoliticised – it’s raised the hopes of some people who previously kept their hopes firmly suppressed (and I guess we can thank the coalition government for one thing – their all out blitzkrieg has woken many to what’s happening not just within our own borders but also around the world)…

    It’s for these people that I sincerely hope this works (not least because I’m in their number), and that it does become a broad, informed and united front of individuals from all shades of the left intent on changing the unjust system we find ourselves living within for one that works for all of us and the environment we live in.

    And yes, everybody should come and visit Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan at least once!

    Solidarity,
    Adam

    • Sheila says:

      Adam,

      A few more of my thoughts.

      It’s absolutely great that 8,000 people signed up; but as the population of the Uk is currently around 63, 200, 000 that’s about 0.012%. Don’t know how many are still interested. Without something concrete to get involved in, people tend to fall by the wayside pretty quickly. I don’t know how many could be called actual members. There’s probably definitely the 100 at the recent meeting – 0.00015%.

      I’m not trying to pour cold water here – very far from it. Over and over again in history we have examples of profound changes originating with just one person.

      Looking at the world and thinking of re-building it from scratch tends to result in total paralysis. Don’t you have to start by removing one brick, replacing it with something better? And people see what’s happening and remove a brick of their own – and the whole thing snowballs, gathering momentum.

      How can identity and our place in the world be decided in abstract? Meanwhile the world is changing around us, changing our place in it, wanting us to be other. Surely our actions evolve and define us, our place in the world, the world itself? And alternative realities grow as we gradually see what they can become.

      When I write a poem, or a short story, I can see it all in my head before I start – then I write it. When I write a novel, it’s too big for me to hold all together in my head at once. And if I tried to, I would never begin. I just make a start, and it gets written. It changes and improves as I go along and I begin to see more clearly what I’m trying to do. And the next one is easier. Isn’t the task facing us like that? A series of novels.

      Penmaenmawr and LLanfairfechan are beautiful places, I love the mountains and the sea, the sky. Some of the homeless get to sleep on the beach, rather than in urban doorways or underpasses. Or in the caves on the Orme and other headlands with the winos, and the abandoned mentally ill. And the ex-soldiers with PTSD since the closure of the only specialist facility.

      Nothing ever works unless you actually do it.

      Fluidity!!
      Sheila


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