Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers

In celebration of Memoirs Day, I thought it would be fun to reflect on memoirs. The definition of a memoir is: a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources.

We have all seen the biographies of ‘famous’ people topping the book lists etc., but it is the ‘real’ history of ‘normal’ people, who have lived life with historical events as either a background, or the cause of changes in their lives that are the most fascinating. I was honoured to beta-read such a memoir just recently. The gentleman’s life was filled with world events that changed his family’s lives, but also how he travelled the globe and experienced different cultures and work situations. This gives the reader a sense of how a ‘real’ person lived through conflict, what that event did to their life course and how it altered their perceptions.

As part of my writing group’s community connection we formulated a presentation for local senior’s lodges and wrote an accompanying guide to encourage seniors to write their life histories. The many stories shared were (and are)a glimpse into how life was lived generations ago. Personal histories are so important. Much of this history will be lost if it is not written down.

Just for fun what would you entitle your memoir?

This is a ‘fun’ exercise, I think I would call mine: Plan’s Change. My life path did not go to plan.

Do you have a favourite memoir? Mine is The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw by Sheila Hancock This actor played a detective on a British TV show called Morse. The main characters was a modern day Holmes type. It was excellent. He also did another police TV show called The Sweeney – a hard hitting show focusing on the British Flying Squad.