To Drive The Cold Winter Away by Tess Berry-Hart

It's still winter! The bone-shaking chill of a new January with its winds, ice storms, broken healthy resolutions and humourless deadlines (tax payments, school applications, etc) can make even the bravest of us want to curl up in a cave next to a blazing fire and hibernate until spring arrives.

And to some of us who suffer from depression (episodes of persistent sadness or low mood, marked loss of interest and pleasure) either constant or intermittent, winter can be one of the hardest times. Depression being a multi-headed hydra ranging from many states of unipolar to bipolar, I'm not suggesting that there is one single type of depression; for instance not all of us are affected by the winter or weather, while some people who don't even have depression in the clinical sense might be experiencing a mild case of the winter blues, or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Creativity is like a fire that we can stoke to drive away the cold winter (whether physical or psychological, internal or external). So I'm deep in my cave trying to work out ways that I can stoke my creativity without resorting to biscuits!

Bibliotherapy's been around for a while now, and is the literary prescription of books and poems against a range of "modern ailments" - including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. A form of guided self-help, it's not exactly a new idea - the ancient Greeks spoke of "catharsis" - the process of purification or cleansing, in which the observer of a work of theatre could purge themselves of emotions such as pity and fear through watching and identifying with the characters in a play. All of us in the modern world can attest to the feeling of connection and joy when an author so precisely describes a state that we are ourselves experiencing, and the nail-biting, cliff-hanging state of knowing exactly what our heroine or hero is going through. We root for him or her because s/he represents ourselves battling our own demons in an idealised meta-state.

But how does bibliotherapy work? According to the various proponents, it helps perpetuate a shift in thinking, so that things are not so inflexible (black and white thinking, for all you cognitive-behavioural depressives out there!) which is crucial to tackling depression. Being able to gain distance and perspective by viewing problems through the lens of fictional characters means that in real life our fixed thought-patterns which contribute to our problems can start to become unpicked.

And of course, identification isn't the only joy to be found in books; good old-fashioned escapism is surely the reason why many of us read so avidly. A new world, a new family, a new life, perhaps even new biology or physics, takes us away momentarily from the mundane world so we can return refreshed, hopefully to see our lives with new eyes.

I've obviously been self-medicating for a long time, but I always called it comfort-reading. By comfort-reading I mean a well-known book that you can plunge into at will like a warm bath or a pair of slippers. At school when I was anxious about exams or bullies I would find solace in re-reading the heroic adventures of Biggles or the magical quest of Lord of the Rings; at university it was in the dreamy memories of Brideshead and the vicissitudes of Billy Liar or Lucky Jim. When I started my first office jobs I would read 1984 or Brave New World (odd choices for comfort-reads but I think it was to remind myself that things could actually be worse!) but when I started writing my own books, I ...er ... stopped reading for some years. I think my tiny little brain could only take so much exercise!

I started comfort-reading again when we first had our children; during long and frequently painful breast-feeding sessions my husband would read my childhood favourites Charlotte's Web and Danny the Champion Of The World to me as distraction and encouragement. And these days my prospective comfort list numbers hundreds of books; for me, reading is re-reading.

So what could I take to bolster myself against the winter chill? I've written myself a prescription but I'd be interested in hearing yours!

1) A dose of James Herriot's short animal stories, to be administered when needed (they are nice and short so you're not left hanging after a few pages) or chapters from Jerome K Jerome's Three Men In A Boat, or virtually anything by PG Wodehouse;

2) A daily dose of half an hour "joy-writing" - half an hour in the morning when I can sit down and let ideas spill out onto the page. (If it ends up with me writing about what happened last night then so be it. It can often lead to something more ...)

3) A small creative project on the horizon, easily identifiable and manageable, that I can look forward to; in this case getting a small group of actors together to read through a new draft of a play that I've written (there'll be a blog post on this soon so stay tuned!)

4) Connection with others - I'm a member of a local book group, which not only makes me keep on top of what new books are coming out, but also participating in the joy of discussion; there's nothing more frustrating than reading a good book only to realise that nobody you know has read it!)

So I think that's enough to start barricading myself up against the January snows!

But what about you? What kind of comfort-reads do you enjoy to drive the cold winter away?

Have Dog Will Travel - Megan Rix

Traffy started coming into one of our local primary school to listen to children read with me back at the end of April and I have been surprised at how much she loves it (pulls me into the school) and the children love her and how successful it's been. Now when anyone asks me if I think they should do it I give a resounding yes. As she walks around the school everyone greets her and seems pleased to see her and judging by her wagging tail she's just as pleased to see them.

At the end of summer term when the Year 4 children she'd got to know left to move on to their next school Traffy was given a beautiful card with thank you note bones attached to it and a packet of treats - most of which she ate there and then.

I really look forward to our one hour sessions (I wouldn't want Traffy to do longer as all the attention is tiring for her) and love listening to the children read. There are usually lots of dog books and funny books to listen to. I'm always excited to see what story the children have chosen as I must say I love being read to. Plus, because we see the same 8 children for the year I get to see their reading as it develops and they grow more confident. One or two of the children now even give their characters different voices when they read the story and Harry very kindly asked for the interesting 'animals who carry things' book over and over from the library so I could hear it right to the end. I've learnt lots and I think it's helped my writing too as I like to imagine one of the children picking up a book and reading it. Also it's been interesting to learn things that I'd have thought children would know but they don't always. One of them was really confused about the word chrysanthemum and had no idea what on earth it could be.

A few weeks ago Traffy arrived quite stressed at the school as I'd been away and only come back that morning (totally my fault and I should have thought it through) as one little girl was reading Traffy proceeded to be sick next to her (horrors!) luckily the lovely staff member with us cleaned it up and we didn't make a thing of it and carried on. The next week when we got there one of the boys had made Traffy a get well soon card.

Traffy also came into 2 local schools during my book tour and went out on stage at  the Bexhill Pavilion when I collected my East Sussex Children's Book of the Year runner up prize. I love taking her with me into schools when I visit as part of my talk is about her and her sister Bella as puppies and how my work with assistance dogs led me to want to write about dogs and the jobs they did during World War 2.

Traffy as a puppy learning to open a washing machine

Emma taking out the washing

One boy asked if I was writing a children's book about my dogs and I said I'd love to and then another child pointed out they were already in all my books and proceeded to read from the front:

'Megan Rix lives with her husband by a river in England. When she's not writing she can be found walking her two golden retrievers, Traffy and Bella, who are often in the river.'

Recently I've worked with Travelling Books who organised 2 school visits to schools that were close by and that Traffy could come to too. One of the schools she came to and the other she didn't in the end because some of the children had allergies. Truth be told the one where she didn't come ran a little smoother but I don't know that smoothness should be the aim.  I love this beautiful portrait of her that one  of the children did.

Megan will be speaking at the StoryStock Festival on the 1st November. Traffy will not be there as she will still be celebrating her sister Bella's's birthday by eating chews and going for walks by the river.

Dog Days - Ruth Symes/Megan Rix

Back in March of this year I blogged about how my golden retriever, Traffy (short for Old Trafford) was going to be a reading therapy dog and would be visiting schools so children could read to her. 

So far this has been far more successful than I’d even imagined it would be.  On our first visit we took assembly for the whole of the Lower School so everyone could meet Traffy. As I read the children a book about her the children started saying 'Miss, Miss' and pointing behind me. When I looked round I saw that Traffy had helped herself to a bag of her favourite chicken donut treats from my bag (which is really her bag as it only has her toys and water bowl and treats and special mat in it) and was throwing the treat bag up in the air in the hope that one would fall out. As I looked back at the children's laughing faces I thought I couldn't have planned a better introduction for them to her. Who could be frightened of a dog who helped herself to her own treats.
                                                   
         ‘Shall I give her one?’
         ‘Yes!’ came the resounding reply.

After that initial assembly our real 'work' began. Each week we go into the school for an hour and the children come one at a time to read to Traffy in the library (the carpeted floor is always a lot furrier by the time we go.) We're helped by one of the Mum's who brings the children to us - which speeds things along. And at the end of each child’s visit they get a special paw-print stamp in their reading record book.
        
I love listening to the children read and Traffy does too; lying next to the reader and often watching as they turn the pages – although occasionally she faces the wrong way and once or twice has had a little doze.


This week 2 of our regular readers were missing so the teacher said she'd pick two extra children who'd finished their books and were starting new ones to come to us instead. We were told some of the fastest reading in history happened as a consequence!
             
As well as her reading job Traffy's also recently been along to 

the East Sussex Children's Book Award Ceremony at the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill where my book ‘The Great Escape was runner-up.

She wagged her tail at the 300 or so oohing and aahing children in the audience and would have gone down the steps there and then to meet them if I’d let her. 

Kate Saunders won the beautiful engraved glass first prize for her book ‘The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop’ and as we answered the children's questions Traffy sat down on the stage and then lay down looking at us and then back out at the children - totally unfazed by it all. Although she'd have preferred it if there were more chicken donuts.






Ruth and Megan are the same person.

Megan Rix's latest book is 'The Victory Dogs' published by Puffin and set during the Blitz in WW2. Her website is www.meganrix.com

Ruth Symes' latest book is 'Witch Camp' published by Piccadilly. Her website is www.ruthsymes.com