The Liebster Award

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by NotablePad, which is very nice to hear indeed! She has a beautifully-presented blog that reviews a wide array of interesting reads, and is well worth a follow.

RULES:
1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. Display the Liebster Award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note: the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. Answer the 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have less than 1000 followers.
6. Create a new list of questions for your nominee bloggers to answer (if you want to).
7. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!) or list these rules in your post (you can copy and paste from here).

ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS FROM NOTABLEPAD:

1. If you could be any animal in the world, what would you be?

My cat Tom, in his hey-day, when he roamed the streets of Edmonton, impregnating all the lady cats, fighting all the boy cats, and coming home for a cuddle. You’ve got to dream a dream.

2. If you could have any superpower, what would that be and why?

To be able to block out surrounding noise when I am reading, especially on my commute, when I always manage to tune in to Elaine telling Terry about her new shed or something.

3. A Genie appears and grants you 3 wishes! What would you ask for?

• Each person in the world to be given the education to fulfil their potential
• To protect the NHS, the UK’s greatest achievement since Shakespeare
• Danny Dyer to be on EastEnders FOREVER

4. Name an inspirational figure in your life- can be anyone (even fictional characters).

My mum Donna is intelligent, wise, kind, stylish and kickass. And she doesn’t bang on about it, which is nice. No-one likes a show-off.

HRH Mummy Donna

5. What is the worst food you’ve had in your life?

Some cured meat in Spain in Summer 2000, whilst interrailing with my gal Alison (the bespectacled blond beauty in the photo below). I got food poisoning and the cured meat found its way out of both ends on the train to France. I was so ashamed of the way I’d left the bathroom that I used my A-level French to pretend I was French and therefore not cast shame upon my great nation. Sorry to all you Frenchies out there, for the state of the toilet, and for the lies.

6. Do you prefer having a large circle of friends, or a few?

I am blessed to have a wonderful group of friends, in particular a group of girlfriends I have had since secondary school. I treasure them even more than my books. We all have cool nick-names that make us sound like a demented Rugby team.

L-R: Blower (her surname, not some kind of sex shame), Deeps, Me aka Brontster (blue hat), Avinitlarge, Home, Chinny, Mel C.

7. What is the kindest act you have ever done for someone?

Who knows. The smallest act can be viewed as incredibly kind by people who are not accustomed to kindness.

Yep, got a little bit deep there.

8. What is your favourite season?

Autumn as my birthday is at the beginning of September and, in my youth, always coincided with the start of the new school year.  I have happy memories of the excitement of walking to primary school at the beginning of the school term, one year older and, in my mind, much, much wiser.

9. Who in the world do you hate with a passion (can also be fictional), and is there a story behind this hatred? (unless you’re the most forgiving person in the world)

Whoever stole my retro Barbie Fan Club pencil case from school back in 1995. I have my theories. And the day of their reckoning will come.

10. Would you rather be beautiful with the memory of a fish OR intelligent and cursed with a face like Gollum?

Having had a face full of terrible acne as a teenager, I remember what it is like to have to put up with a face that you are ashamed of. So I’m ashamed to say that I would rather be beautiful.

11. What is your biggest fear?

Other than the usual friends and family dying thing, a house fire consuming all of my books and my memories of reading them.

11 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME

1. I can actually rap.
2. My great-great-grandmother on my dad’s mum’s side was a Romany gypsy. That’s her on the right on the front page of my blog.
3. The other lady is my maternal grandmother Iris who has polish-Jewish blood.
4. I’m an eighth welsh and one of my welsh ancestors was a 19th century poet called Robert Ellis with a wonderful, unpronounceable bardic name, ‘Cynddelw’.
5. So what I’m saying is: I’m exotic. And I can rap. I feel that no further facts are required.

MY NOMINATIONS (I WISH I COULD ADD MORE!)

1. EdBucks
2. Lady Fancifull
3. Page Chronicles
4. Clockwork Bibliophile
5. Evil Cyclist
6. A Reader of Literature
7. Poppy’s Best of Books
8. Franklenstein
9. Post Consumer Bookclub
10. Girl Reading
11. Eloise in Wanderlust

MY QUESTIONS FOR NOMINEES:

1. To paraphrase the poet Ronan Keating – Is Life A Rollercoaster, and Must We Ride It?
2. What made you start blogging?
3. Did you take photos of your book case as a 9 year-old (see featured photo), or were you quite a reasonably-adjusted child?
4. I buy most of my books from charity shops. Does this make me a fiend for not more fully supporting independent bookshops, or am I just one of Thatcher’s children, always chasing the cheapest price?
5. Television Book Clubs (eg Richard and Judy’s in the UK, Oprah’s in the US, and any others elsewhere around the world that I am not cosmopolitan enough to be aware of): a good or bad thing? (Respondees must try not to be swayed by the boyish good looks of Richard Madeley.)
6. Have you ever inherited any books from a relative and, if so, did you come across interesting finds?

Richard and Judy (thank you to the Daily Mirror for Richard in white linen)