The Daily Novel

Their behaviour sometimes seems strange or annoying to others.

This point was not amongst the original ten points with which I started this series. It emerged during the course of writing the previous blogs. But in some ways it is the most important point of all to me. Because one of the main reasons why I got sectioned and locked up in the Royal Free just before Christmas two years ago was because my behaviour seemed strange and annoying to my own wife and daughters.

They have known me a long time. I met my wife forty-one years ago. And my younger daughter is thirty-six. During that time my depressions have obviously impacted on their awareness. But in Christmas 2004 it was my manic mood that got me into trouble. (I am indebted in writing this paragraph to Randy, the blogger who commented on one of my previous posts, who made the point that no-one bothered about him too much when he was depressed. It was the manic mood that others found threatening.)

In retrospect I can now see that by the time I met my wife and reared my children I had learnt to manage my manic moods to some degree. I channelled them into writing. And sometimes that writing meant that I was spending less time talking to my family at weekends and during holiday periods than the average. So although they told me I was a workaholic, they did not want to get me locked up.

After all, although only a small part of the writing I have done over the years has been published, that small part has been sufficient to pay the rent.

My family had also got used to my occasional bouts of manic humour. Because I managed to make them laugh. And because these bouts were often associated with dinners and parties at which most people were getting a little bit drunk, so that the rational questioning mind is taking a holiday.

My family had also got used to my somewhat eccentric behaviour in the manic mood. When my mood was, for me, unusually talkative, outgoing and even mildly sexual. Two examples come to mind. One was at an open day at Camden School, which both my daughters were attending. I greeted one of the guests of honour, Pamela Stevenson, like a long-lost friend, telling her how much I admired her work, etc, etc. My wife, who had noticed that Pamela was somewhat taken aback by my behaviour, upbraided me, and was supported by both my daughters, who, like all children, do not want their fathers to embarrass them.

The second example is when I walked into a local restaurant and noticed Bill Oddie, sitting at one of the tables. So I went up and shook his hand. (Not quite such a faux pas, as the Pamela Stevenson episode, because I had met Oddie a couple of times at local parties.) But it made my family uncomfortable, because Bill Oddie was now a famous person, and I was treating him as if he was just one of the neighbours.

So I don’t think Oddie was a bit disturbed or surprised by my behaviour. Indeed, he might have been quite pleased. And in relation to Pamela Stevenson, who was deffinitely a bit uptight when I met, I have noticed that she subsequently fell for someone who is even more manic than I, Billy Connolly.

This is all rather deep stuff for a short blog. Because it touches on how all human beings trust and depend on other human beings, and want them to behave in familiar ways. Even when they are changing as they continue their individual voyages through life.

But the essential point is that what struck my family as strange in the particular circumstances was not all strange to me.

(Before I posted this blog I thought I had better check the spelling of Stevenson and the fact that she was married to Billy Connolly. So I went into Google and got this. As you will see if you click it is:

This is Robb’s unofficial Pamela Stevenson Site revealing, naked, nude, topless, down blouse, cleavage, candid - , the Official Celebrity OOps! site,

There are lots of nude pictures. But they seem to be of women other than Pamela Stevenson. Perhaps some blogger, or Pamela Stevenson’s agent, or Billy Connolly might be sufficiently stirred to get Google to do something about this.