2008 - A Review

I’m not one for sending out Round Robins, but after the year I’ve had, it was time I just started to take stock a little: a year of high highs and deep lows really.

The year started with the death of my Mother (well, technically 30th December 2007), but most of January was taken up with the funeral [MINUS] and the rest of the year taken up with clearing out the family house.

O.K., so now, after probate, I get the house [PLUS]…which was then followed, mid-year, by the credit crunch, the general collapse of finances around the world and about a 20% loss of value in the property [MINUS].

In May, in the same week saw the break-up of a (16 month) long-term relationship [MINUS] and my visit to the Doctor when I decided to quit smoking [PLUS]. As Lloyd Bridges said in the movie Airplane: “Looks like I picked I fine week to quit smoking!”

At least I could concentrate my mind by working on updating and expanding my book Teach Yourself Screenwriting (May-August).

The main benefit from quitting the fags was not the health stuff (boring boring) but the money saved, which meant I could replenish my hat collection and buy a couple of new suits [PLUS].

And spurred on by a friend of mine in Los Angeles (born on exactly the same day and year as me) with has his own musical outfit playing 1920s-styled music, I started writing song lyrics again [PLUS] - the last lyrics I wrote were in the early 1980s. So I started venting my spleen in rhyme, sent them over to him to add the music and he acclaimed them as “works of genius”. So I believe he’s about to start recording his group’s second CD.

Then September came the accident [MINUS] and I ended up in hospital, then on crutches and using a walking cane for over three months. At least it did lead to me starting what is now growing into a rather splendid collection of antique walking canes [PLUS]. Having seen the physiotherapist at the local hospital a couple of times, I’ve now started walking without a stick. As he said “a lot of it is down to getting your confidence back in that leg and using it without thinking about it”.

The trouble with leg meant that my plans for everything were put back about ten weeks [MINUS]. Everything was either scrapped or delayed: the intended Christmas in New York, the house clearance (and plans for renting it out).




I never take a great photo, but some of the photographs taken of me at events during the year have been rather splendid and garnered some very positive and pleasing comments, especially the Victorian ones taken at the New Sheridan Club’s Christmas party [PLUS].



And in November the new edition of my long-established best-selling tome Teach Yourself Screenwriting hit the UK book stores [PLUS] - initial Sales figures are very encouraging…at least we got it in the shops in time for Christmas. 2009 sees its release to the rest of the globe (USA in February, I believe…perhaps I should go over there on a promotional tour…).


















At least AC/DC managed to keep High School Musical off the top of the album charts.

That’s about it - 2008 in a nutshell. And considering everyone I know across the globe has had a pretty shitty year themselves, for me, on balance, I guess it was: a score-draw.

Conclusion? / Resolution for 2009: Things can only get better.