After a couple of wonderful days over Christmas, I’m not feeling well at all to be honest. I have been physically and emotionally exhausted towards the last few months of 2025 and I picked up a rotten cold over Christmas and the last 3 days I’m struggling with sore throat, congestion, coughing, cotton wool head and wretched exhaustion!!! Sage tea and throat sweets are helping today and lots of rest!
That didn’t stop me from driving to the recycling centre this morning with a car full and watching a documentary on an elderly woman who loved painting houses in Fulham (that seemed to open the flood gates and had me sobbing for ages).
And then the coughing started again so I’m in bed drinking lots of tea and writing notes to myself to stop myself feeling terrified about the next 3 months ahead…
I hope none of you have a rotten cold or flu! C xxx
It’s a big leap and it’s starting out with a bad cold and too many fears. But please don’t think you have ONLY three months. You have much more time, but three months is plenty to flesh out and get your book to the point where it has a good life of its own. You may be finished or you may have some tidying and editing to do, but you can do it. You just need a plan for the book and then you just write. You write, even if you throw that out with a better plan for tomorrow, even with NO plan for fixing it tomorrow. You write.
I am 66. Last April, my surgeon nearly killed me after a perfectly successful hip replacement because he didn’t follow up properly and I nearly died from unseen internal blood loss. On Dec. 19, just when I was feeling happily normal and had my life back, I had my first ever auto accident and although I sustained only a lot of musculoskeletal aches and a stable fracture of the pelvis (I can still walk), the Christmas I prepared for joyfully and then cancelled simply passed me by and I’m a bit terrified to do just about anything (or drive anywhere) with my mortality staring me in the face and I’m rather down in the mouth. The financial issues are one thing, but it’s the feeling of giving up inside my head that is creeping in and I’ve never been like that. Not to be entirely morbid, but I feel as though there are too many things that can kill me and maybe not enough dreams left to keep them at bay. I know I need some new goals. I’d surely like to see another 20 years.
Nearly everyone in my family writes but I am not a story-teller. I am a research writer mainly, but still…..I never had the courage to actually compile books about the several topics I could have done well and now the relevance of those topics is over with the world as it is. Why didn’t I do it? I had other ambitions, I suppose and led an adventurous life of sorts. AND there were all the fears that it wouldn’t be published, maybe it wouldn’t sell, maybe I was wasting my time. And THAT was the problem, because while it would have been lovely to “accomplish” something with a book, I really just wanted to DO IT, enjoy it, immerse myself in the process, and birth it, even if no one loved it but me, proud mama. I didn’t do it. I let the fears take away the enjoyment of doing something I wanted to do.
But here you are! You have carved out this time and will not be left out in the cold with a handful of matchsticks. You have enough time and you have all the information. So PLEASE write this book. It’s is not a matter of “can you do it” because you already HAVE done it, haven’t you? You have all the info, the recipes, the experience. You just need to compile it. Let it come. Don’t push. Lay it all out in piles and organize it, all the recipes, the anecdotes, the history. You already have it all, my dear.
Drink a good hot toddy. Take a specified amount of time off to get well (two, three days?) and “play” (not push) with your facts and index cards and notes, and then start. Start at the end. Start in the middle. You don’t have to start with the introduction with this kind of book. Organize it six different ways and see which one you like best!
And let us all know if you need help, or another set of eyes. In all the people you have helped and become connected to, there must be many who have been in publishing, or even been published.
Don’t let fear rob you of this. Give fear a good thrashing and get well and realize, there will never be a book quite like yours. It is your unique experience that makes it different from any other. It is worth doing and YOU are worth taking the time to do it. Just put one foot in front of the other. And enjoy it!
Happy Christmas and a courageous and dream-fulfilling New Year to you!
I am so very sorry that you are sick. I’ve had a cold and cough that has been lingering for weeks now. It’s the worst.
I wanted to reach out to let you know that although I have not commented on your blog, I have been following you for years now, reading your updates, researching rationing. I bought the book “Eating for Victory” several years ago because of your research.
I ran across some video clips about Brits in the 1960s being so trim that went on to explain the holdover of WWII rationing and I thought of you. I thought I would share them for your research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zH0FaDo7IU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iGOxwKyHaw
I am proud that you took the bull by the horns and made a major change in your life to get to where you want to go. Three months is very ambitions and there are times when progress comes in short order. However, leave room in your life for grace. If you don’t hit your goals in 3 months, please do not beat yourself up it. Just making steady progress is #winning. I always say that I am always working towards my goals and I’m going to get there even if I have to crawl [think the fable of The Tortoise and the Hare]. I realize that you already know this because I have watched you be successful over time. Wishing you all of the best in the new year.
Leslee Barnes, Lubbock, Texas, U.S.A.
Dear Allison, what an amazing response you have taken time to leave. Oh gosh, you have had one hell of a year and that perfectly reflects the unpredictability of life and health and emotions. We never can know for certain what life holds for us and when we make decisions the constant narrative flitting around in our minds, weighing up probability, ascertaining risk, letting comparison be the thief of joy, we are often left with some regret on occasion. I hope you get to fulfil your book dream too, you are so right about it being the process, fulfilling an ambition, enjoying the experience, feeling accomplished at finishing a project and feeling proud of oneself for doing so. It’s like an itch that needs to be scratched, you are always aware of it, sometimes you even forget it for a while, other times it drives you to despair. Once you scratch and itch, the feeling of bliss is immeasurably satisfying.
I do hope all will be well for you and thank you for all your wonderful advice. C xxxx
Hi
I was in the same position as you last year as had to give up work suddenly to look after my husband and mother as both not well when I had just turned 60. I worried about money terribly and would have preferred a bigger sum of money than I had behind me. Whilst obviously seeing what could be cut back, before me which you will have done, I found it was a whole lot easier than I had feared, so you will get there! Good luck with the book!
Sorry your feeling so unwell. When l have flu/colds/sinus infection, l increase my vit C in my foods, ie more parlsey as it very high in vit C And l treat any sore throat with l tabl ACV + l tabl honey mixed in with half cup of warm water, and gargle with the mix 3 times a day..it cures it for me in 24 to 48 hrs. plus l stay in bed during that time to rest and sweat the infection out. hope you feel better soon.
Hang in there, be kind to yourself and take the time to recuperate from your cold. You still have plenty of time to work on your book but you need to get well first
Hang in there Carolyn. This will pass. Try cayenne pepper sprinkled on a spoon of honey for your symptoms.
Best wishes.
I can’t wait to see your book. And I plan to order an autographed copy. A little worried about tariff to US. Other than that, it will be gorgeous. I make do and mend, eat as close to ration as I can manage, love rutabagas (swede), mash spuds and love stovies. So I figure I can buy myself your book. And you will do a fab job of finishing it! You’re so good at this! Please rest and get over your cold. So normal after the stressful time you’ve had. Please take care of yourself. Prayers for your recovery, you have a book to write! xxx
Perhaps rosehip tea will help you through your cold? It’s tasty, full of vitamin C, and available during wartime Britain. I drank many many rosehip based teas as a child and still do now sometimes. If nothing else,it’ll be a pleasant distraction while you’re ill.
Yep, Santa brought us both flu for Christmas, we are just starting to come out of the other side, it’s been rough. It’s fine to have a blip, I have made many big life changing decisions, and most of them gave me a blip just before they kicked off properly. Use the blip time to strengthen your resolve and double check your current plans … then move forward with a vengeance. And a Lemsip, a box of tissues and a big fluffy blanket. 😉
I hope you are soon feeling better. xx
Sending hugs.
Sometimes, when you have a lull or a moment or two out of stress, your body seems to decide that it’s safe to be ill. There’s also some awful bugs going around this year and it sounds like you’ve got it bad. I hope that you feel better soon.
I had the flu just before Christmas, it was awful. Exactly has you described and so debilitating. Hope you recover soon. X