Hello, and welcome to my 5th in a series of blogs where I discuss my thoughts on parts of Barbara Cartland's biography - Crusader In Pink. For previous posts, check out part one, part two part three part four. talics are my thoughts, all comments not in italics are from Henry Cloud’s Barbara Cartland Crusader in Pink 1979.
Moving on from Cartland’s writing tips and technique, I now come to her thoughts against feminism which are more controversial. They were controversial and out of step in 1977, so now, almost 40 years later, they must be antediluvian. Or are they?

Anti-feminism
In 1977, Barbara managed to arouse the ire of the Women’s Liberation Movement when she unequivocally proclaimed that ‘A career girl is a second-rate pseydo-man who looks her worst in trousers and all that a woman really wants is the protection of marriage,’
But on the contrary, women still want to be looked after, loved, and above all, paid for by men.

I think having the protection of marriage and being looked after, loved by men are not mutually exclusive to having a career. Based on personal experience (and watching The Apprentice) women in powerful positions in business tend to be almost more masculine and aggressive and power hungry than men in equally powerful positions. It’s as if the men can sit back and relax because they’re men, but the women almost need to continually prove themselves, since they are women. This plays out every series of The Apprentice, when the women’s team jostles and argues for who will project manage for the first 3-4 weeks, and the men’s team is full of a group of laid back, slightly Machiavellian men who all let someone else project manage first. It’s almost as if the men feel they’ve proved their worth simply by being on the show, but the women have to reinforce their worth every single week on the show.
Depth of character, a ‘big’ personality comes because one has a real knowledge of life...You yourself have to get down to life, to live it, and only in that experience are you likely to gain understanding, and from that to enlarge your personality and your character.’
This is interesting because it seems to contradict what Carland says earlier. If a woman is expected to not have a career how is she to develop real knowledge of life? Plus, Carland was anything but a woman who stayed at home and looked after her husband. Throughout her life she organised pageants, balls, charity events, wrote in magazines, newspapers and of course her novels.
To her daughter, Raine, Barbara would exclaim, ‘No man wants a clever woman!’
‘It doesn’t matter terribly what a wife does during the day provided she is always home at six o’clock to greet her husband properly when he returns from work.’
Maybe in 1977 there was an element of truth to this, for some men, in some marriages, but in 2016, I think this isn’t the case. Nowadays, due to the high price of houses, most homes are two income, with both man and woman working full time. Even with the introduction of shared parental leave (SPL), the proportion of men taking this up is still very small: 4 out of 10 organisations polled hadn’t seen any men take up SPL. 11% of those organisations involved reported between 0.5% to 1% of male workers taking SPL and fewer than 10% of firms reported more than 1% take up of SPL. This, I suspect is significantly impacted by the fact that few companies choose to enhance the rate a male employee receives their SPL from the statutory £139.58 whereas the majority of companies pay enhanced maternity pay to the mother.
I hope the division of chores in the home is now on less gender-based lines and more skills appropriate basis. Being in a same sex relationship, there's no 'wife' we both get on with chores based on who's best equipped to do so. So in a way that gives same sex relationships an advantage because there are no traditional roles for us to fall into.

If you enjoyed reading this and my other blogs, consider 'donating' by buying one of my books. You may want to read about a same sex couple with an unbalanced division of labour, which the main character escapes, you could check out Escaping From Him, Buy Links: Manifold Press | Amazon US | Amazon UK | All Romance eBooks | Smashwords

Thanks

Liam Livings xx

I’ve lived in various parts of London since I came to university here over ten years ago. When I first arrived, having left the New Forest, I was struck by how much of a 24 hour city it was. I went clubbing to GAY – a large nightclub in central London that stands for 'Good As You' btw – with some Hampshire friends. On the night bus home – which then cost less about 70p – my friends stood outside my halls of residence watching the night buses rush past, full of people, and asked what on earth all those people were doing at that time of night (about 4am if I remember rightly). This was the main difference from living in London to living in Hampshire – with that many people, there’s always someone wanting to get somewhere to do something, no matter what time of the night or day. Anyway, we stood watching the night buses swoosh past us on the New Cross Road, wending their way out to St Mary Cray and Eltham and other far flung places, then made our way into my halls of residence for a night cap before bed.

Coming from Hampshire where the getting home late options were drive and don’t drink, stay at a friend’s or get a taxi for more than the cost of the rest of the night out – the network of night buses in London were a revelation. I used to walk to my corner of Trafalgar Square where the night buses to South East London departed and had my pick of about 3 or 4 that would all take me within a short walk of my front door, all for about 70p. This was amazing.
This was all good and well when I lived in Zone 2. I had my pick of night buses. When I moved out to the outer suburbs to Zone 6, commuting took on its own magical powers. I learned where to stand on the platform to guarantee myself a seat during rush hour for the 55 minute commute home. I worked out when the trains left that started at my station and would guarantee a seat into town. Sometimes I would sniff the air and cup my hand around my ear straining my hearing for the familiar toot of a tube train as I approached my station and run to catch it at the last minute.

Having lived in Zone 2 for eight years in South East and then West London, when I moved to Zone 6 I was definitely not in Kansas any more and Toto was nowhere to help me either.

Plus, to add insult to injury, my part of Zone 6, unlike many others, isn’t strictly speaking, part of Greater London, despite having a few tube stations, London buses and – oh joy of joys I was so pleased when this was confirmed as we moved in – a London 0208 phone number. Where I live, is Essex, not just by postcode or post town, which can at best bear a passing resemblance to county borders, but I mean properly Essex, as in I pay my council tax and have my bins collected by an Essex council. This, as such, meant that the night buses that did run towards my neck of the woods ended where Greater London ended and became Essex. Woodford or thereabouts. This being a good 5 miles or so from me.

We got a night bus there and then a taxi and it was like a British version of that film with John Candy – Trains, Planes and Automobiles. It took about 2hours door to door from central London to get home. As you can imagine, this meant we didn’t do it again.
Since then the departure time of last train from Oxford Circus on Friday and Saturday nights was ingrained in my mind. 00.33 in case you’re interested. I needed to be on the platform at Oxford Circus ready to catch this last train, or face a 100 quid cab fair home. As you can imagine, this somewhat put a bit of a dampener on nights out in town. I’d get to quarter to midnight and become twitchy. I’d start working out how far from a tube station I was and how many stops that would be to Oxford Circus, and inevitably left quite soon.

In short, London wasn’t such a 24 hour city as it claimed to be!
This has all changed with the coming of the Night Tube. This comprises the Central Line (my line) running from White City in the west, to Loughton in the east. Plus the whole of the Victoria Line from Brixton to Walthamstow Central.

I went to central London last weekend to visit a friend and we ate, drank and hung out, eventually ending up at his friend’s flat in Elephant and Castle. It was so freeing not to have to check the time and plan an escape route to get me to the magical 00.33 train from Oxford Circus.

We spent a lovely evening together and when he admitted how tired he was, he walked me to a night bus stop going into central London. From there I got on the tube at Holborn at 01.40 which whisked me all the way to Loughton, arriving at 02.25 which was walkable to home.

I didn’t walk home because 1) I was alone and 2) the streets from the station to home aren’t lit – penny pinching local council, but more of that’s not for here, 3) I’d promised Himself I would get a cab and be safe.

So I joined a taxi queue and announced my destination to a man who ruled the taxi rank and our queue with a clipboard and pen of steel. Six middle aged men and women were going my way too, so they said I could share their taxi. We chatted about the revelation of not having to rush for the last Tube home and how our nights had been. They refused money from me and suggested I do the same next time someone wanted to share a cab with me. I agreed I would, arriving home at 02.35, 1hour 10mins door to door from leaving my friend’s flat. That’s only about 15mins longer than it would have taken during the day with the Tube.

Will I be going out every Friday and Saturday night partying until 05.00? Doubtful.

Will this mean I can have another drink, dance, or laugh with friends without having to calculate my exit strategy at quarter to midnight? Absolutely. And I welcome that.

The Night Tube was filled with kissing couples, sleeping people and laughing groups. It was much more jovial than a normal commuter time Tube train.

If you'd like to read a story set in London, way before the Night Tube, check out Best Friends Perfect Book Three - available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. One reviewer said: This book convinced me that Liam Livings doesn't just do 'frothy feel good'. Liam can actually really write...Some books affect me, some don't. This one really did.

You can start the series at any point including book three, but of course you may want to start right at the beginning with Book One. Here's some blurbs and reviews of the series.

Enjoy,

Liam Livings xx

I'm getting ready for UK Meet - the conference that brings together readers, authors, bloggers and publishers of GLBTQ fiction all in one great British city.
My swag has arrived - some pretty swish roller ball pens.
I'm pulling together paperbacks for the book sale.
And I'm on RJ Scott's blog talking about how I came to be involved in UK Meet, meeting my writing family and how much of an innocent childhood I had with a complete absence of Chinese restaurants.
Is it September yet? Not quite!
Enjoy,
Liam xx

I listened to a wonderful Desert Island Discs recently with a very well known famous author who gave some brilliant tips for writers:

1. Keep a diary because you won't remember things otherwise - people soon forget what it's like to be 23 when your 24 etc- memory is very false.
2. Every time something funny happens write it down
3. Remember the 5 senses because it lifts the prose - what things feel like, what things sound like, what things look like, what they smell like...
4. Follow your heart - probably

I firmly believe in the benefits of keeping a diary. It gets you in the habit of writing every day. It also makes you practice story telling - so if you only have a page for your day you shouldn't waste valuable space describing in minute detail the tedious 8 hour journey from London to Cornwall, when the interesting part was when you arrived at your destination for a party. Simply summarise the journey - Arrived at 2ish, to find the party was already in full swing... etc.

I am never to be found without my notebook or notes app on my phone. I am always writing down funny things I overhear, see, or that happen to me. See above re diary.

The five senses is a great tip - I'm apt to only describe what something looks like, because usually it's our dominant sense. However, you can really enrich something by including other senses too. However, try not to make it like a shopping list where you have sound, taste, smell, feel, sight, for every. Single. Thing. Only if it's relevant or interesting to the story, should it be included.

I think following your heart is very important. If you're writing something you don't really want to write, it will show in the story. Write the books you'd like to read. Tell the stories (and remember there are only 7 basic plots in total) in your words, with your voice, with your characters. That's what'll make your story unique. Plus, writing for the joy of writing, without an aim of publication, is wonderful, useful, and perfectly acceptable in itself.

What do you make of these tips, do let me know in the comments?

Who was the author of these tips? The fabulous, fun and life loving, Jilly Cooper, of course.

Happy reading and writing!

Liam Livings xx