Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Life of a Wife in the North

Now I know we haven't got a lot to be grateful to Labour MPs for, but Tom Watson has alerted me to the existence of a blog called WIFE IN THE NORTH. I rather like blogs written by people about their everyday lives, and this one's a cracker. The 'wife' concerned is a young mother who obviously sees her blog as a bit of a release valve. I can't quite work out yet whether her husband even knows she writes it. Here's an example of her writing...
Here I am in windswept, muddy Northland when I have Beatrix Potter's
townmouse written all over me. I know the marriage vows say something about "in sickness and in health" - I am sure, however, they didn't mention "up in the North and down in the South" because I wouldn't have signed up for that. I come from Leeds - I have "done" the North and you know what, I like dear old London town just fine. I feel like I am a character in one of those epic sagas of a Northern lass who gets hersen' down to London and suffers vicissitudes along the way, oh yes. But does she let them get her down? She does not. She's got grit has our heroine and she makes a reet success of her life in London and she gets a posh job and brass and nice frocks and a fella and then bugger me, if the fates don't decide to blow our scrappy heroine back up North to the mud she thought she had escaped so long ago.

PS Note to Tom - if you can link to Wife in the North, a link to me would be nice too!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

One for the Favourite Bar Iain?

BJ said...

Interesting how you're cosying up to northerners just before the Tories do tomorrow, Iain...

Anonymous said...

Great blog - this would make a good film.

"I figure if my husband is going to make me live in the North-east, I will get fat in silent protest [eating chocolate cake]."

Anonymous said...

I'm from Yorkshire (Barnsley) and I now live near Portsmouth. I'll never move back - grim is not the word.

tom watson said...

I'm getting there with the links Iain. I know it's fashionable to run "take down the link" campaigns these days but I'm not getting into that kind of trouble :-)

Anonymous said...

What a amazing blogg, Real life in buckets!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is excellent - in a sort of post-Bridgit Jones kind of way.

Anonymous said...

Drab.

Self-righteous. Preachy.

Lefty-yawn-o-rama.

Gavin said...

Well, that's rather a fine find there. I too like reading well-written autobiographical blogs. Politics isn't everything.
(PS, Iain, sincere apologies for my last comment re 18DS which you chose not to publish. I was just a bit pee'd off about it all, hope you don't mind. 18DS is now working again for me).

Anonymous said...

When Tom Watson was visiting Gordon Brown to discuss overthrowing Blair/compare sprogs did he drive it one go or did he make stops?

Anonymous said...

why would you want anything to do with low life like Tom Watson?

Anonymous said...

On the reverse side of the coin- we southern rural wives are fed up with 'townies' moving into our villages (with their unnecessary 4X4s which they cannot drive) wanting the environment then doing their best to ruin it! 'What, shop in the village shop - never. Use the local school - never, block affordable housing for village families -certainly it will bring down the property value and ruin our view. What is that dreadful smell -cows -well get rid of the farms its too intrusive!

That is, of course, if Blair and co leave any farms to get rid of, or if Prescott leaves any villages in the south.

Gosh I feel better after that!!

Anonymous said...

It's a great blog Iain - you've done us a real service. I see the northern lass links to guido and tom watson but not to you. Dear me! And Tom watson seems to be reading too much guido with all his talk of 'take down the links' campaigns. Let's just get real and think north!

(Oh, and Iain - any good northern constituencies going....?)

Curly said...

Whey man wots wor lass deein doon theor? With a blog anarl!!

Yes it's quite a realistic read.

Anonymous said...

Definitely a good blog. What do you expect from someone up North. I feel its the kind of thing that might do well in book form. Refreshing.

Anonymous said...

javelin - no, she should write a book first to help pay the bills, then it can be 'screenplayed' out to a film.

In that way she can get a second tranche of dosh for the film rights.

However, as it is such a good blog, I think we should start some idle chat about who could play the part in the film. Daniela Nardini maybe ?

Little Black Sambo said...

It is well written, but no more interesting than the far too many falsely self-deprecating "me, me, me" columns written by women in the newspapers.

Giles Marshall said...

Let's hope she provides you a link and votes Tory,as I see that virtually every comment is a variant of "Have come here from iain dale's blog"..... I bet Watson never provided this much traffic!

Man in a Shed said...

Its well written - perhaps too well.

Does anyone know if its genuine - perhaps that doesn't really matter.

For some reason the blog reminds me of LonelyGirl15.

rilly super said...

marvelous marvelous darling, thank so for sharing. I've been to her blog and it's really really super, moved to tears I was. that poor girl and what she's going through makes Shindlers list look like having a lovely weekend place on the northumberland coast..