P is for....

1) Paperback Proof copy. This came yesterday, and is SO exciting! It looks okay, except for having page numbers on the ‘front matter’. But I already worked my hardest to get rid of these, with no success. So the book will be up for purchase very soon.

2) Puffin Club. I was a founder-member of the Puffin Club which was set up in 1967 (at least the magazine started then, I could have sworn I was younger when the club began...!)by Kaye Webb who was the Editor of Puffin books(Penguin’s children’s label). I received the magazine, Puffin Post, I think it was quarterly, and a badge which I wore proudly -and so I should, I had read every Puffin book, my mother had a standing order with Hodges-Figgis (Dublin’s biggest and wonderful bookshop) to keep her the new releases. When they arrived she would bring them home, there were usually two at a time, and hand me one. Then we would sit at either end of the couch and read, swapping when we were finished, although I suspect she finished first and read something else until I was ready! Mum got her “M.Ed.” degree based on a thesis on children’s literature, and I am very grateful to her for exposing me to good writing. (When I first read an Enid Blyton, brought to me as a gift by a birthday party guest, I recognised it as inferior and never bothered with another!)

Back to the Puffin Club. My claim to fame was that I came second in one of the competitions. We had to finish a story, they had provided one page, and I think I wrote another one or two. I have no idea if I got a prize, but the warm feeling has stayed with me ever since.

3) Phytolacca. This is another sore throat remedy. When alternated with Hepar (see H) they will fix most sore-to-swallow throats.