A Different Take - Born to Rule by Julia Gelardi

I've just finished reading this week, Julia Gelardi's - Born to Rule.  The book, as you may have gathered from the picture is about the Granddaughters of Queen Victoria or to be precise five of the Granddaughters.  She has selected these five as they went on to be Queens in their own right.  

The one that always stands out is, of course the Tsarina Alexandra of Russia.  The turmoil of the country she lived in, coupled with the tragedy of how the whole family met their deaths is a story that we all know.  I have read a number of books on the subject and wondered how Julia would present this differently.  

Thinking about Call the Midwife

Sunday night TV has been a little bit lacking for a long time, so its been great to see Sherlock and Call the Midwife on TV ( See BBC Iplayer episodes ).  I really enjoyed reading Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth ,so was a little bit worried when they said they were going to make it into a series.  It has been a little bit twee, maybe they should have put it on after 9pm, as there is a limit to how graphic it can be before 9pm.  But discussing the pros and cons of production was not my plan on this blog.

I don't know if this book has got to the other side of the pond, so I will give a bit of background.  Call the Midwife, as you may have guessed, is Jennifer Worth's account of being a Midwife in the 1950s.  It is set in the poverty of London's East End, at a time of great change.  The old bombed out slums are slowly being replaced and it is the dawn of the NHS (National Health Service).  Jennifer is sent to Nonnatus House, a convent where the nuns and nurses cover eight square miles of London Dockland and shares in the ups and downs of the community.

What is a woman?

I've decided to think of all the words that describe the different roles in a woman's life.  If I've missed something out as I'm sure I have, please feel free to comment:

Employer, Driver, Washer, First Aider, Scholar, Cleaner, Domestic Goddess, Female, Mother, Nurse, Protector, Friend, Activist, Mother in Law, Gatherer, Follower of Fashion, Writer, Widow, Reader, Accountant, Partner, Career Woman, Beautician, Caterer, Diary Manager, Womb, Daughter, 

Today's Woman - An Outsiders View

If an alien looked at out planet, what would they think of women today in this country???

So up in their space ship, they take a look at all those electronic signals floating around and type Woman into the world wide web.  First entry from Google (other search engines are availiable), Wikipedia; informing us that woman is a term usually reserved for a adult female and blurb on our history, biology etc. "Well that's a good start" thinks our little alien friend