Jane Bloom On Writing Three Memoirs

For some years now, I’ve been working with a wonderful woman memoirist – Jane Bloom – who lives in the ancient English market town of Framlingham in Suffolk.

Jane is one of my favourite writers, particularly for her gift of observation – the most important skill of any memoirist.

For me, she is up there with the greats such as Marta Zsabo, Abigail Thomas and Deborah Levy*. As she says, “My inspiration comes from happenings and people”.

What is Jane’s secret? I would say she has four main ingredients:

1. She reads a lot. Crucial!

2. She’s a sensitive soul and a deep thinker – this shines through.

3. She loves to write, feels compelled to do it and pushes through the knottiness of it all. But she wisely takes a break when she needs to.

4. She has been a long-term member of a writing group.

I hope you enjoy this blog post from the lovely, always modest, Jane. Here’s to more Jane Bloom memoirs to come!

“I was always good at English but never saw it as a talent. I hadn’t passed my 11+ so I went to a secondary modern school in Framlingham where a good education was not high on the list. It was presumed that we would leave and work in a shop, a factory, or for boys, an apprenticeship. Later in life, an English teacher I had when I was 17 told me that I could be a writer if I continued in the way I was writing. In my 40s, I took A Level English. My tutor told me that I should go home and do what I was born to do: ‘be a writer’. To be honest, I didn’t know how to go about it. Soon I was married with a family. Writing didn’t come into it.

That was until I joined a writing group in 1987. Each month we had a word or sentence for inspiration to get us going. I would say that was when I started to write. I found that I had a good memory for putting into words what I saw – a sort of photographic writing mind. Somehow the group word would lead me into writing, and I just wrote what I saw. I was much encouraged by other members. I was often told how honest my writing was. Over the years, I accumulated much writing. I had often written about my grandmother, Nannie, and life around her. I had also written much about my beloved favorite place, Thorpeness. Plus, I had a journal I kept in 1989 when my husband died.

I am lucky that I can write what I see. It is not imagination, but facts. I am told so often how much my writing touches the reader. My first memoir, Nannie, is a collection of pieces that I have written over the years. I wanted to do something with my Nannie pieces, and by using Google, I discovered Marnie – what a godsend, Google and Marnie, that is. Because of Marnie, my first memoir came into being. I had a launch for it, and people have often stopped me since and said how my writing had affected them and reflected much in their lives, plus it was a bit of social history. I was born in 1944, and the books begin from around that time.

My inspiration comes from happenings and people around me, which are just logged into my memory. My next memoir, Stay, Passing Moment, Stay – a love letter to Thorpeness, is about a place I love, as do so many other people. It sells well as it is a popular place and very special. My third memoir is Which Side Of The Bed Do I Sleep Now? Well, that was just pure Marnie. I had written it, as I said, in 1989, and played around with it for years. I thought it was a no-hoper until Marnie worked her magic and Parker Digital created the wonderful cover and printed it. It is quite new, but people who have read it, widows in particular, said it moved them to tears. They’ve told me that what I said was how they felt but could not put into words. The thing is, I just write the facts and say it as it is. The threads in my books are the things that matter to me and the continuing threads that run through my life. It is life that has given me inspiration.

I do feel apprehensive before the memoirs are out, but oh the relief when they are. After three, I do not worry so much (two more in the pipeline). I wish I had done more years ago, but I didn’t. Now aged 80, I have plenty more ideas. Maybe they have come with age, and of course, Marnie has had belief in me, hence my nickname for her – Feather – as in Dumbo the elephant. I cannot fly without my Feather. I never believed in myself. The one thing I knew I was good at and love is cooking.

I always have a book with me wherever I go. I like all sorts really, a wide range of books. I am a bookaholic – Maeve Binchy, anything by or about Daphne Du Maurier, and books about writing. I loved Mary Wesley. I wrote to her, and we started a good correspondence. She even asked me for tea. I always write to authors if I like their books. I am surprised they write back, often with their addresses on the letter headings. I like children’s books: Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh. I was brought up on Enid Blyton books and could read well by the time I was four years old.

When I did my A Level, I enjoyed studying books, especially Under Milk Wood and A Passage to India. I hadn’t thought of books in that way. I saw them in a new light, so to speak.

I have had so many lovely remarks, none bad so far. People have told me that they are now searching for the places mentioned in my Thorpeness book. Also, one of the recurring remarks is how what I have written resonates with people.”