Under Certain Circumstances
The other week this correspondent was browsing through the stories on the Evening Herald web-page, to catch up on local news, when I came across a story that left me completely confused, and after a bit of thought, baffled still.
The story concerned Amy Huberman’s (actress, author, & wife of ex-rugby international Brian O’Driscoll) latest enterprise of converting her 2012 published novel (‘I wish for you’) into a screenplay.
She informed the columnist Kirsty Knox that she did most of her writing at night, as she loves to write then, when she is at her most creative. As a fellow night-writer, this correspondent was mystified as to how Amy could love to write at night or even day for that matter?
This correspondent finds the activity hard work and writes mainly to avoid park-bench sleeping & water-pond washing (can blame my middle-class up-bringing for accustoming me to beds & hot water). As said at the top, your correspondent was thrown into a state of complete confusion by Amy’s view of writing, but when your correspondent looked at her outlook, from the perspective of his own love-labouring, another thing was thrown into your correspondent’s state- ‘a sort of light’.
A labour of love to this correspondent is reading the Times newspaper with a cuppa in the local (after finishing the hard labour of writing an article). In the beginning you can be overwhelmed by the volume of reading material to get through, but once settled into the newspaper, you discover some fantastic pieces of writing from journalists such as Ben Macintyre, Libby Purves, Leo Lewis, and Michael Atherton.
Another labour of love for this correspondent is a Saturday night drink. Usually this correspondent has to force himself out the door. Reasons for this lethargy can be tiredness, due to playing a match that afternoon or a desire for a hangover-free Sunday in order to enjoy the breakfast and Sunday Times.
However when this correspondent gets into the local, orders a drink and sinks into conversation with John, Stevo, Kevin, Dominic, Marcus etc…your correspondent invariably encounters a good night which makes the following morning’s pain worth it.
This correspondent can subsequently relate to Amy’s attitude (to writing) through the enjoyment received from Times newspaper reading & Saturday night carousing down the local, but is mystified still as to the pleasure Amy gains from tapping her typewriter nightly?