AND INVITATION TO 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
***As of 10th December 2017 I am convalescing at home with an injured leg following eight days in the Western General My friend Penny is also recovering from a bout of ill health. I was visited in hospital by Scott, Julie, James. Lindsay. and three friendly Quakers., and I am indebted to Dr.Michael McKenzie for his outstanding treatment and kindness. I would particularly like to thank Scott for handling the situation****
ALL FRIENDS PLEASE NOTE
I will be celebrating my 70th birthday on 24th March 2018 in Vittoria Restaurant on Brunswick Street, Edinburgh, with my co-hosts Scott, Julie. Penny and James. Would any local or international friends, or surviving pockets of relatives, interested in receiving an invitation to my party and dinner (6pm-12pm) please e-mail me on leonardthomas70@googlemail.com and we will send you a formal invitation. Anyone wishing to visit Edinburgh for the weekend might wish to stay in the Courtyard Marriott Hotel at the top of Leith Walk
During the year I have totally rebuilt my life following a great deal of my usual sorts of drama after a classic episode with my Toureg-Volkswagen, and I spend most of my time writing and on social media. I attend meetings of the Open Book reading group in the Botanic Cottage, the Edinburgh Writers Club, the South Edinburgh Quakers and the Edinburgh Section of the Royal Statistical Society. I still visit East Lothian and the Borders two or three times a month, with Penny who lives in Dirleton. My mental health campaign is about to enter its sixth year, See for example my Mental Health Discussions Edinburgh Facebook Page. My short story Joe's Mole, which I wrote in late 2011 has recently been widely read around social media:
http://thomashoskynsleonardblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/joes-mole-anecdote-concerning-perils-of.html
During late July I attended the week long annual Quakers Meeting on the University of Warwick Campus, a nostalgic return to the campus after 38 years. I also visited the Queen's Castle Inn, near my former house in Kenilworth for a nostalgic dinner with a statistical colleague. The Quakers were wonderful people with important social messages who had extended their notion of all inclusivity into their political structures and individual families. People of disability and all orientations and genders were made particularly welcome, as should befit EVERY family in Britain.
Early in July, Penny and I visited County Durham, and stayed in Hardwick Hall near Sedgefield. On the way back we visited Durham, including the Cathedral
My long-term flatmate Scott is writing a scholarly 'Radical History of Edinburgh and the Lothians' (1880-1936)' and he is currently investigating the influences of the Boer War on the creation of the Welfare State. Scott is also completing lots of invaluable social advocacy work in Edinburgh, and visits other cities to talk about these issues,
During the year I completed my fourth novel since 2012 (three now self-published and another left unpublished)
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The latest novel 'Reborn on Soutra' is humorous, Pythonesque historical fiction set in Scotland, York, France and America during the fifteenth century. It may be accessed free of charge on my blog:
https://soutranovels.blogspot.co.uk/
This novel is written in a unique highly humorous and slightly Chaucerian style, and life in the Middle Ages is parodied in a Pythonesque and at times surreal fashion with some serious social messages intended for the present. The Scottish knight Sir Richard de Liddell visits the medieval hospitals on Soutra Hill on a regular basis to deliver herbal remedies from his garden on Calton Hill in Edinburgh. He is forced to seek sanctuary on the Soutra during 1436. He returns to Edinburgh in1462, as Le Chevalier Duncan Le Cottier, after a quarter-century of intrigue in York, France, and Patowmeck (in North America), during England's 100 years war with France and the subsequent dynastic struggles between the Yorkists and Lancastrians in England.
A sequel 'Children of Soutra' is in preparation, and a Soutra trilogy is planned.
n
sounds fab, miss you guys, definitely want to come to your party
ReplyDeleteIt'll be lovely to see you Lindsay. Please bring your daughters too!!!
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