The occasional usefulness of annoying things which can lead to marvellous encounters

In this case - unbelievably useful and very marvellous.

I suppose most of us suffer from insomnia from time to time - or a lot, or never. There are people, like Mark (husband) who reaches a seemingly profound sleep after a few seconds, his hands announcing the waves of slumber as his fingers twitch as if still on the piano's keys from the pieces he has played throughout the day. However, he experiences his insomnia in the early hours, often waking at four or five - five has become quite a luxury . . . 

I have phases when I drop off like a tired dog to stay asleep for a good seven hours (perfect for me) but more often it takes some time to switch off my mind, or I'll wake at the fearful three in the morning when all fairly manageable problems distort into a theatre of darkness and I lie awake staring at the dim outlines of the beams above me adding the fact that some of them look distinctly bowed and surely unable to support the floor's weight upstairs . . .

If the non-sleep is very stubborn I'lll try migrating to a sofa or another bed - if there is no B and B guest in it.  :0) I used to try sounds of thunderstorms, crackling fires, and meditation - which I still use a lot, but more as a daily routine whatever state my mind is in. Then I discovered audiobooks. I've always had a stock of comfort CDs such as Lord Peter Wimsey or Dickens, but The CD format is not ideal as the disc has to be changed, and not having got as far as an audible inscription I had a meander about on Youtube to see what was on offer. 

One of the first books which presented itself in a fateful way was The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, read by a certain Steven Red Fox Garnett. Fateful as this was one of my childhood go to books, its text and visual imagery so incredibly atmospheric; a comforting story of gentle triumph played out against a backdrop of wind-wuthered moorland and beautiful gardens - the perfect antidote to my life in grimy North London. As soon as I heard the Mr Garnett's voice I was mesmerised, listening to the whole book - without dozing off - and then again on subsequent insomnia nights more as a comfort blanket, waking briefly, lulled by knowing where the story had got to and then extending a finger to stop the recording if I felt sufficiently sleepy.

I keenly checked what else Mr Garnett had recorded and was excited to find he had completed Dracula in its unabridged form - a feat! This is an extraordinary work, the voices utterly believable, just the right amount of music and snatches of sound effects to add to the tension. I found the voice of Van Helsing to be incredible coming from the reader's 30 year old vocal cords, not a wisened, elderly Swiss doctor from the C19th.

Other favourites so far:  a wonderfully creepy rendition of Lovecraft's The Colour of Outer Space, and Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlett. The voice of Sherlock is spot on with again, just the right amount of background sound effects - hooves, grandfather clocks, old typewriter, chinking plates, etc.

So . . . I got to thinking about my own books and the fact I am not writing much for than the odd blog post currently due to a face pain thing which allows me only short bursts on screen - not conducive to writing as one never knows if one is about to be stabbed in the jaw bone/teeth/scalp, etc, making concentration on a storyline somewhat fractured. 

I wondered if Mr Garnett might consider reading Londonia, or any other of my works, and thusly contacted him. It took a while - he's busy, and probably suspicious of such offers, but finally we got there after he read the copy I sent him, and he was duly hooked. He's made a great start, deciding to work on the narration first and then add in all the voices and sound effects/music later. Even just listening to the narrated chapters without dialogue is extraordinary for me. All those words I'd partially forgotten, hidden in the pages of a book that I wrote, edited, re-edited, proof read, sent out to agents, and which was finally published by the marvellous, Tartarus Press.

Mr Red Fox has an impressive catalogue of titles ranging from children's favourites such as the Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Prince through to a recent and impressive recording of Alice in Wonderland, Animal Farm, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and many more. I'm proud and very excited to think of Londonia being added to his list, and am more than looking forward to how he will tackle all the voices - of which there are many. 

His YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@redfoxvoice/videos

I am putting together a crowd funding for Londonia as an audiobook and will re-blog when it's up and running.

 

Oh, but to slip into sleep as a contented hound must do

As Shakespeare wrote in his play, As you would rather like it, back in 1624.

I think we all must suffer the annoyances of insomnia from time to time, or regularly or even almost constantly - if you happen to be like my dear mother. I could always tell from my first glimpse of her on a morning if the day was likely to proceed with her being wracked with grumpiness. She coped ok most of the time and would brighten considerably after a first creosote mug of tea but it was always a problem wish I wish she could have solved.

Currently, Mark and I have periods of insomnia which don't match each others at all. He will start sleeping as his head nears the pillow whereas I usually ruminate on some event of the day for a while or for hours if I don't manage to divert the thoughts with attention to my breathing. This often works but if a persistant niggling thought suddenly developed into something worthy of worry, that's it for a calm and restful night's sleep. Whereas, Mark often wakes at about four thirty - five/five thirty has somehow become alright - reads, makes bread (hurrah!) and does his worrying then.

Going somewhere else always breaks these sleep, or rather, non-sleep patterns, the sea being the best, but not overly practical, unless we move to the coast, but then we'd probably get acclimatised and all the patterns would reform and going away to somewhere else like a forest cabin would become the getaway, and so on.

I've tried natural, herb based remedies, mild-ish sleep, non-prescription pills, and full on sledge hammer tablets, non of which worked and the latter two gave me stomach upsets and heart palpitations. So, what does work - for me? Not eating too late in the evening, no caffeine-y stuff after about four, no looking at emails after late afternoon - in case of something angst inducing - and on a positive note, audible meditation and audio stories. Meditation does certainly work, especially the music-less ones that concentrate on slowing the breath and the nervous system generally, but to get into the right state takes some time and I prefer to use meditation now during the day at some point. The audio book is now my go-to sleep aid which works almost without fail.

I did have a few months of listening to Will Self's Book of Dave as I found his voice lulling, even though parts of the story are certainly nightmare inducing, but then the kind person who put it up on Youtube took it down again - possibly spooked by this one listener prodding the story into life several evenings a week.

So, the current favourite - The Secret Garden, read by Steven Garnet (Red Fox Voice). I hope he wouldn't mind me advertising this as a sleep aid but it totally works - for me. His reading is remarkable, the accents spot on, the pacing and tone, truly excellent. I know the story well from my childhood so enjoy all the characters, visual impressions of the garden, house and windswept moorland. That's the thing. It has to be familiar to assist sleep, the story known well so that the words act as a warm cocoon. A new story would be too engaging to encourage sleep and the subject, obviously, is important. American psycho or  The Road, probably wouldn't work . . .