I was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of computers. Well, I would be, wouldn’t I, considering I share a maiden surname with one of the most famous typewriter manufacturers in the world? – Underwood. I learned to type on a machine the size of a small gas stove. You had to hit the keys with quite some force to make the metal arm leave that curve of letters and make its way to the piece of paper you’d secured in the roller.

But I was dragged kicking and screaming to that typerwriter in the first place by my father. He didn’t hold with my Grammar School not teaching its pupils shorthand and typing. So, he decided I should learn at nightschool. ‘You’ll thank me for it one day, Maggie Murphy,’ he said. For some reason my father always called me Maggie Murphy, whoever she was. And I’ve come to thank him over and over because hasn’t the ability to type got me some friends on the internet! Loads and loads of them, I’m pleased to say. Some I’ve already met, and some are names I know almost as well as my own now and am ridiculously pleased when I see them on my Facebook page, or in a Twitter message.

So, these friends…..they write blogs and I struggle to keep up with the blogging. I am going to have to get my act together and get something done professionally before too long, but in the meantime this one will do….:)

And one of those friends I’ve made but not yet met is Marilyn Chapman. She writes a most excellent blog over on http://guernseygirlie.blogspot.com/ and she’s nominated me for something called the Sunshine Award, which has a very pretty logo. The rules for this aren’t arduous…..just a few questions to answer and I’ve even been able to answer them after a lunch that didn’t include wine today because I’m on the 5:2 diet and it’s Fast Day today – and that could be the theme for another blog, somewhen.

So….the questions.

1. What was your first publication? A poem – more doggerel than poetry – in People’s Friend about my then 11 year old son going to Scout Camp for the first time. I was paid £10 with which I bought a little necklace I still have some thirty years later.

2. Favourite destination? La Roche, which is a tiny hamlet in Brittany where dear friends, Richard and Jennie Bohnet, live – it is peace personified….and Jennie is a wonderful cook!

3. Facebook or Twitter? Hmmm….I waste far too much time on both but I find Facebook the friendlier of the two.

4. The man I would most like to have met? Two actually……both my grandfathers who had died by the time I was born. Seeing how wonderful my husband is with my grandchildren has made me realise I have badly missed what could have been wonderful relationships.

5. Writer who most inspired me? Absolutely anyone who has got into print – it isn’t easy!

6. When would you have liked to have lived? The 1930′s and in the UK and I would have liked to have been well-blessed in the bank balance department to enjoy that peace between two terrible wars.

7. Favourite quote? ‘You can’t stop misery from coming into your home, but you don’t have to give it a chair to sit down in.’ I have no idea who said it first but it is such good advice.

And now another little rule of this award. I have to pass it on to other bloggers. The rule says ‘between five and ten bloggers’…….now I know I said I’ve made a lot of friends on FB and Twitter and through learning type in the first place and I’d like to keep them – and besides, so many have already done all sorts of blog awards. So, I’m recommending three blogs which I love.

Valerie Holmes – http://valerieholmesauthor.wordpress.com

Sarah Tranter – http://rambling indulgences.blogspot.co.uk

Christine Stovell – http://homethoughtsweekly.blogspot.co.uk

Over to you ladies….:)