It's my birthday today, and I'm fifty! so I feel entitled to have another Marilyn Monroe song.
Gosh! that moment when she goes: "Hu-" and stops, then she sings the song. it's so sexy, that husky breath of a sound.
In Some Like It Hot, Marilyn Monroe said: "Quarter of a century, makes a girl think." My half century has certainly provided rich material for reflection. I achieved every ambition I ever had, except to read the fishing forecast. (Cromarty; Forth; Tyne; Dogger. Fisher; German Bight.)
I studied and I played rugby. I travelled and worked in wild corners of the world, from Pakistan's North West Frontier Province to a poky little second-hand bookshop in Somerset. I did a PhD. I published articles in high theory academic journals, in feminist magazines and in Rugby World. I taught some great modules (my favourite was the Access course on English Literature, I still can't believe people paid me to talk about poetry). I have a family. After writing stories most of my life, last year I finally started publishing my fiction.
I'm surprised when people want to pretend they're younger than they are. I love to think about the crammed basket of fruits of experience I've gathered in fifty years. (And a couple of nuts I met along the way!)
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