The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple

Product Information

Der Autor beschreibt mit feinem Humor von allem, was er von Winnie gelernt hat, von all den Momenten, in denen sie ihn beinahe an den Rand der Verzweiflung gebracht hat, frustrierend pedantisch und eben eigensinnig war, aber auch von all ihren guten Seiten, ihrer bewegten Vergangenheit, und einer Beziehung zwischen sehr unterschiedlichen Menschen: die vielleicht voneinander gelernt haben, sich auf jeden Fall wichtig geworden sind. If you are a history student in 2050 writing an essay entitled 'How the 2020/1 lockdown impacted the daily life of Britian' I highly recommend this as a primary source. I moved in with Winnie because she had a spare room and needed a hand around the house (or several, as it turned out). Leider waren mir weder Winnie noch Ben äußerst sympathisch, sodass ich insgesamt etwas ernüchtert war. Like its predecessor, the book displays a keen eye for the humour of everyday life, be it a newspaper headline (‘Circus in trouble over Nazi goats’) or something overheard in the park: ‘But one can’t understand Sussex without an acquaintance with Kent.

Much of the book focuses instead on the daily lives of Winnie and Ben, and how they adapt to both changing circumstances and their generational differences. Along with the pithy put-downs, she is also dealing with the loss of her husband and caring for a son with cerebral palsy who lives in a residential home near to her.There is never, ever enough time for her to get to the point in the day when she thinks ‘right let me see down and think about [myself. Class is becoming more relevant in the arts general because it's so linked to identity - and your first 18 years exposure to that is so important.

I want to pass on what I’ve learnt, I suppose - a lot of key lessons enter through the side door really, don’t they”. Unterschiedliche lange Einträge befassen sich mit dem Zusammenleben und den alltäglichen Dingen wie Essen kochen, Gartenarbeit, Impfungen, Fernsehen (Ben zeigt Winnie the Crown) und Winnies Sorge um ihren beeinträchtigten Sohn Arthur, der in einem betreuten Wohnkomplex lebt. Out of the most inauspicious of soils – and from the author of The Gran Tour – comes a book about grief, family, friendship, loneliness, life, love, lockdown and marmalade.Winnie does break her hip and goes to the hospital, with Ben still her connection to the outside Covid-ravaged world, but he feels guilty when he cannot visit her for ten days at the hospital, because one of the staff tested positive for Covid. It’s not often I venture into the world of non-fiction but I was attracted to this one – and it is one terrific read! I do think Ben and Winnie come to appreciate each other, but based on Ben's telling of it it seems much more one sided (his side). But they paid me the advance, and that’s work, and it was the only book I could have written in the pandemic”.

Full of warmth, wit and candour, The Marmalade Diaries tells the story of an unlikely friendship during an unlikely time. With the lockdown in place and their travels outside the house limited, television became a close friend, as often there was debate over what to watch. Wir lernen Ben und Winnie kennen mit all ihren Eigenarten ( und davon gibt es viele) und den Geschichten ihres bisher gelebten Lebens. Their wit shines through, as when they read a news story about a clandestine breast reduction and Winnie thinks it sounds ‘like a fancy French dish that’s been translated poorly’.

It’s a funny, warm, thought-provoking read - charming and witty but it doesn’t flinch from the difficult things: the reality of ageing, the care system and lockdown. There is definitely a 'beginning, middle and an end' but there isn't a big bang, or a long and lengthy treatise about the meaning of life hidden between the pages. His kedgeree ‘cannot boast of being flavoursome’, and when he attempts a curry she covers it in banana and yoghurt ‘to mitigate the damn thing’. An appreciation for conserves are high are on the list of things 36 year-old author Ben Aitken learnt after moving in with an always-on-the go-elderly stranger - during a global pandemic. The entries are both serious and with some levity, as there were times when Winnie so set in her ways was not about to waver.