I was surprised and honoured the other day to learn that I had been nominated as a “lovely” blogger.

Now “lovely” is the last adjective I would use to describe myself. However, we all want to be acknowledged for what we write, so in the spirit of the game, here goes with my response:

The rules of the game!- Write a link to the person/persons, who nominated you, copy and paste the “lovely blogger award” (as shown above), share seven interesting facts about yourself and, finally, nominate a few other bloggers for the award (I think it might be up to fifteen tho’ on browsing I see there are different versions of this particular rule).

Well, I was nominated by Anna Belfrage, who blogs at http://annabelfrage.wordpress.com.

Anna is a novelist and historian with a Swedish and South American background, who writes – amongst other things-  interesting articles about Swedish history. I feel somehow that I am being educated anew about what it means to be European. Not sure if I’m allowed to reciprocate nominations, but I’d like to thank Anna again.

The logo is, I think, self explanatory. As for me, lots of things about myself I find interesting, but are they of interest to anyone else?  I don’t know, but here are seven facts anyway:

1. Apart from writing my other great love is music. For a large slice of my life I was a semi-professional pianist and accompanist, and still play, tho’ without thought of reward. I also sing in a choir and play clarinet/saxophone in a (very) amateur trio.

2. I’d hate to have lived in the middle ages  but am fascinated by the history of that period, especially the history of the Mongol conquests.

3. From 1977-1982 I was chairman of a board of school governors. [Now I’m giving my age away!]

4. I love travelling and collect badges from all the places I’ve visited.

5. My left forefinger is rather shorter than it should be. When I was two years old I managed to stick it in the breech of a shotgun, and a bit of it sort of came off. Not ideal if I had wanted to be a concert pianist.

6. My grandparents (both sets) were married in South Africa, and my parents were born there. I could so nearly have been a South African.

7. I scorn prejudice of any kind – racial, religious, sexual or any other kind, and despise artistic snobbery.

Now, to the most difficult part ! I’m definitely not going to nominate fifteen other blogs for the award. There are so many really great blog writers out there and I don’t want to offend any of them by leaving them out. Instead, I’m going to take a different approach and recommend and nominate just half a dozen, based mainly on brevity and impact. My blog, my rules, OK?

They say that brevity is the soul of wit. I’m not even sure I know what that means, but one blog that says a lot in a just few words is Fabricating Fiction, so I’d like to nominate Louise who, by the way, has just finished the first draft of her first novel. Good luck to her!

Sometimes, images can say so much more than words ever do, and I would like to nominate artourway who manages to do just that in both art and photography.

A relatively new blogger, like me is James B Shannon (even newer, I think) and we newer bloggers ought to encourage one another.

I’d also like to nominate Read & Survive. Anastasia’s blog was one of the first I came across when I started here, and we seem to have similar cross-genre literary tastes. I also like her reviews.

Another site with amazing photography is It’s a Wonderful World ; it also supports a worthwhile mission, to educate children in Africa, so I’m nominating it too.

My final nomination is a bit different. It’s not about writing at all but about one of the other senses. A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of hearing a group of young singers called Northern Spirit. They’re an a capella chamber choir from Bremen in Germany with a very original sound. If you like music, and get the chance to listen to them, do go along!

All you other guys that I follow are great too!!!

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