{"id":12077,"date":"2025-09-01T19:44:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/?p=12077"},"modified":"2025-09-01T19:44:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:44:27","slug":"its-all-relative-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/its-all-relative-2\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s all relative"},"content":{"rendered":"

1980 was my first year at high school. That made me a third former, or \u201cturd\u201d in common parlance.<\/p>\n

It was a turbulent year for me, full of highs and lows, including friendships made, none of which have stood the test of time, mostly because I moved away rather than anything more sinister (I have no proof of this.) Of course, I didn\u2019t invent adolescent turmoil, and there was plenty more coming for me in the years ahead, as for most of you, probably.
\nBut 1980, though I remember it clearly, was actually 45 years ago. 45 years before that was 1935, around the time the book I\u2019m currently reading was written and set.
\n\"\"It\u2019s a noirish crime thriller set in the US. It feels very modern, clearly the standard of living in America was high, even so soon after the Great Depression. I\u2019m still early on in the book, but its most notable feature so far is the around the clock drinking. (\u201cWhisky: it\u2019s not just for breakfast, lunch and dinner any more!\u201d)<\/p>\n

A contemporary of Dashiell Hammett is the less well known author Jeffrey Farnol. My dad used to read his books as a young man. I read this one last week.<\/p>\n

\"\"I hadn\u2019t realised it, but this author and Georgette Heyer between them pretty much invented the sub genre of the Regency Romance of historical fiction. While dad was reading these books, my mum was reading Heyer\u2019s books, which are much more popular. I prefer her books, but having read all of them several times over, I was keen to see if I might enjoy Farnol\u2019s books even half as much. This first one was OK, so I\u2019ll keep at it.
\nWhat is fascinating to me is that both Heyer and Farnol were writing their novels about a century after the era in which they were set (variously considered to last from 1795 to 1837, although more strictly 1811 to 1820), and now I\u2019m reading their books a century later, a period in which my parents lived their entire lives. OK, it\u2019s not quite as mind blowing as the factlet that Cleopatra lived closer in time to the moon landings than the building of the pyramids, but it\u2019s still amazing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1980 was my first year at high school. That made me a third former, or \u201cturd\u201d in common parlance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-38N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3215,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/05\/one-for-the-ladies\/","url_meta":{"origin":12077,"position":0},"title":"One for the ladies","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Another tv show I used to love was UFO. It was a sci fi show set in the distant future: 1980. Like most sci fi, it actually said more about the time it was made than the future. And it was the age of the White Man (and possibly also\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/7B43D8F4-2B69-4670-9E99-DF61FE3BAC4A-193x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10068,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/05\/15-minutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":12077,"position":1},"title":"15 minutes","author":"Interloper11","date":"May 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, a kotuku (AKA eastern great egret\/white heron\/Ardea alba modesta) was spotted in the lagoon in front of our beach house. It was widely and somewhat breathlessly reported in the national media. 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I can appreciate the arguments in favour of actual physical books, but you can\u2019t deny there\u2019s nothing as speedy as just going to the kindle store\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_0087-300x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12954,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/into-the-valley\/","url_meta":{"origin":12077,"position":3},"title":"Into the valley","author":"Interloper11","date":"May 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve had this earworm all week, so now I\u2019m giving it to you: you\u2019re welcome! It\u2019s a song by The Skids, dating back to 1979 ( so I realise probably not an earworm for many of you). 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It is essentially her memoirs from the early days of her career in California from the 60\u2019s to the 80\u2019s. It\u2019s quite interesting and very readable. Lots of birthing stories in the same vein as \u201cCall\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/8F177932-33E3-4B09-B7C4-406957394C4C-275x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9193,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/19\/assumptions\/","url_meta":{"origin":12077,"position":5},"title":"Assumptions","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I just read an article about an American writer who has dominated the New York Times best seller lists for the last few years that I\u2019ve never heard of. 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