A new novel from Belsize resident
Ranee Barr
In Ranee’s recently published novel “Finding Comfort Among Strangers”, set in 1970s Belsize Park and surrounding areas of London, many of you will recognise places and landmarks which are no longer there, and a way of life which no longer exists. Writing this novel, a work of fiction which draws on her own experiences, has also given Ranee the opportunity to weave into the narrative the social history of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where she was born and raised.
The novel began as a short story when Ranee was studying creative writing at City Lit, London many years ago. It only began to take shape after she retired from her day job and after publishing the book “Belsize Remembered”. She is currently working on her second novel, a psychological thriller set in Mexico, where she spends several months during the winter.
Finding Comfort Among Strangers is available at Daunt bookshop Belsize Park, from Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle.
Belsize Remembered (Compiled by Ranee Barr and David S Percy; edited by F Peter Woodford; photographs by David S Percy) is also available at Daunts.
Also, the Library is the venue for the book launch of Pat Holden’s debut novel, Paradise and Pink Plastic Shoes (Set in Uganda in 1972). The launch will be on Wednesday, December 6th at 5.30 to 7. All welcome.
On 31 September, Open House Festival took place all over London. It was a great opportunity to step into and see many amazing buildings, usually not open to public. As every year for the last decade, following the project’s win of Architects Journal’s Retrofit Award 2013, Sanya Polescuk Architects opened the doors to their studio and the HMO flat above at 8 Belsize Court Garages.
This year’s walk saw Averil Nottage take us on a tour of the Eton College estate, starting with us imagining the area owned by Eton in south Belsize as fields where duels took place, through its development as housing, and exploring the influence of the railways.
1968: Russian tanks have rolled into Czechoslovakia, and Syd Barrett has been dumped by Pink Floyd. Jan, a visiting postgrad at Cambridge, breaks with his old professor Max, a Marxist philosopher, and heads home to Prague with his suitcase full of “socially negative music”. Rock ’n’ Roll covers the ensuing 21 years in the lives of three generations of Max’s family while Jan is caught in the spiral of dissidence in a Communist police state. But it’s a love story too – and then there’s the music…
His story is an inspiring example of perseverance. Diagnosed with congenital glaucoma as a child, he lost all sight by age seven. He came to the UK in 2015 to pursue a postgraduate degree from UCL, was introduced to tennis for the visually impaired in 2016, and began competing internationally two years later.
Practical support has also been a feature of the Maggie’s charity since it was founded by the late writer and artist Maggie Keswick Jencks in 1996 with assistance ranging from possible claims for extra benefit payments to parking permits.
A 1950s police car outside the Magdala pub opposite Hampstead Heath railway station. Yes, it’s another film about the life and times of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK.