I have to admit to being a slightly reluctant blogger. Just as I was a slightly reluctant facebooker but now I have been sucked into that time-consuming world …….. and worry that I am stepping into another yet more sinister world of self absorption and unbridled opinion sharing. I fear I am guilty of enough of that anyway without forcing it onto a bunch of people who don´t even know me! However here I am for better or for worse. I promise to try to blog away from the banal and self absorption or self promotion as much as I can! I challenge all bloggers to respect this rule.
However despite my hesitance, narrow minded I certainly am not. I do enjoy reading good novels and news articles from around the world but have very little time to do so (as my children and more recently Facebook seem to take a lot of that time). I am lucky enough to have my mother send me a great publication from the UK called The Week. Their tagline is …….
all you need to know about everything that matters
Here, in a brief form I can read articles from newspapers all round the world, as well as film reviews, book reviews, gossip, talking points, finance news, obituaries, travel articles, art reviews, music reviews, a letters page, sport, Health and Science amongst other interesting titbits. If you want to find out more, go to
Recently I was having brunch with some fellow bloggers, as now I suppose I am one. I expressed my fears of adding to the self absorbed banal drivel available on line and that I needed to try and find a way of writing something that was worth reading and I showed them a copy of The Week. Unfortunately, there was a picture of April Ashley on the cover and they sneered at the transexual´s picture in a rather narrow minded way. Poor April Ashley.
I admit to being very ignorant and possibly a little judgemental like these bloggers when it comes to transsexuals but I was intrigued to read about this character and thus learn a little more about the lives of these often fascinating characters.
April Ashley has just celebrated her 75th birthday and as Britain´s first transexual she has some pretty extraordinary memories. She grew up an abused boy in the slums of Liverpool and later as a young merchant seaman she began to grow breasts (I actually know some very untranny men that have this problem!). After years of trauma she ended up working as a dancer in Paris and then heard about a pioneering operation she could have in, of all romantic film locations, Casablanca. She was seen onto the plane by an American dancer called Skippy who made her promise to be her first lover when she returned. She lost her virginity on Bastille day when the whole of Paris was celebrating in the street. She later went on to become the toast of London with an array of lovers that ranged from Peter O´Toole to Michael Hutchence. She however was never under the illusion about the reason for her celebrity.
You say I met everybody but it was the other way round. Everybody wanted to meet the Freak
And yes I wanted to read about the beautiful freak and how she had turned her life around. Happy Birthday April Ashley, and maybe I can share fascinating snippets from the Week from time to time when I am blogging.