This week we went to Limmud. No, it isn`t a distant country. It is a five day annual `Edinburgh Festival` of Jewish culture and learning – defined as broadly as you choose. It is open to anyone who wants to come along and participate. In the past I have given talks about plays ( The […]
Coming to the end of an intense and complicated year. For much of my life, I have assumed that whatever historical horrors lie behind us, and however we may be threatened by the complexities and conflicts of modern life, there are leaders and institutions that have been pretty much in control since my childhood, and […]
Went to a lovely Christmas Party the other day. Emma King-Farlow, a hostess of great grace, in her parents` home in Barnes. We have become accustomed to living in North London, and I always enjoy travelling south. There were interesting people of all ages. Shame it was dark and we couldn`t admire the sweep of […]
It seems to have been a busy few weeks. I have been working on a new story, 6000 words. It took over my life for a week or two. Meanwhile I was pleased to hear, from Dr Nora Gold editor of the Online Journal Jewish Fiction.net, which comes from Ontario, Canada, that they would like […]
Saw the new play Fast, by Kate Barton, because I heard about it on Woman`s Hour, and it sounded fascinating. My sister, visiting, decided not to accompany us because the subject matter was too depressing, and indeed it was. But also – interesting. A true story, about a so-called Dr Linda Hazzard, who was an […]
This has been a busy time. For several days I seem to have been glued to the TV watching Brexit – except for this evening when like everyone else I have been shaken by the news of 39 people killed in a truck trying to escape here for a better life. What kind of a […]
There we were, two of us, though I would rather call us Two Women. One older, one younger, (one me, one my daughter-in-law,) in prime stalls seats at the Bridge Theatre. We were watching another two ladies – Zoe Wanamaker (I admired her in a play about Stevie Smith a year or so back at […]
I have mentioned before my late father Professor Joseph M Yoffey`s inability to throw away a diary or a letter, which he inherited from his father Rabbi Israel Jacob Yoffey. I inherited that family gene, if no other! I have been transcribing a handwritten notebook made by my father on a visit to Palestine in […]
Attracted by the zeitgeist of Brexit, Populism, and all that I clicked online to perhaps book tickets at a new play coming shortly. The play is called `Youth Without God,` and is by Christopher Hampton, based on a novel by Odon Von Horvath, who escaped from Nazi Germany just before the war. Yes, I care […]
I am preparing to publish my play The Song of Deborah, and have been writing, rewriting, deleting, writing, a `preface` to what will be a slim volume, but I hope a useful one – successful also! Many writers self-publish these days. I am joining their ranks slowly. ie I am not quite ready to launch […]