How Lockdown Turned My Neighbours Into Friends
Difficult times can bring people together as Melanie Blake, author of The Thunder Girls, found out…
BY MELANIE BLAKE
I live in Crouch End, just a stone’s throw (or 20 pounds in a cab!) to central London with all it’s fabulous attractions. And although I’ve lived in my current house for over five years, up until lockdown I’m ashamed to say that though we’d smiled at each other politely whilst passing in the street, I didn’t know any of my neigbours by name. Well, not any more.
When lockdown first came into effect I decided that I’d finally say hello. Knowing that due to the two metre distance restriction I couldn’t just knock on their doors and see if they fancied a coffee, I popped a copy of my novel The Thunder Girls, which was a number 1 best seller last year and is currently number 1 again on Amazon Kindle, though all my neighbours’ doors with a little note saying I was sorry we hadn’t connected earlier and that I hoped they’d enjoy being lost in my book for a day during this time, along with my email and telephone number.
Our book club was born!
Well, I could never have predicted that little gesture would lead to my whole street now being close friends – as close as we are allowed right now! Every Thursday we are all out in the street banging our pots and pans and clapping for the NHS and every Tuesday we are all now part of a book club!
Yes, my gesture of dropping off The Thunder Girls (which luckily they loved!) got a bunch of us deciding that we would start ‘The Binge Read Club’. We call it that because, as we all don’t have much to do with everyone either furloughed or retired, we decided that we would each pick a book and order one for everyone from Amazon (who have luckily been delivering during this awful pandemic) and they, a bit like Santa on Christmas Eve, sneak around our street late at night popping a copy of our latest book through all our members’ letter boxes.
Then – and this is where the binge part comes in – we read them in no more than 72 hours and arrange a time to come out to our front doors – we live opposite rather than next door so again distance is not a problem – and we have our book club live in the street!
It’s been so much fun getting to know the neigbours but also reading books I might otherwise never have read. I’d never been in a book club before but now I’m hooked!
5 weeks on…
In the five weeks we’ve been prisoners so far we’ve got through Lynda La Plante’s Buried (5 stars from everyone); Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers (which was rather apt considering our history!); Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and The Light (mixed reaction), Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange (which gripped everyone) and She by Helen Warner, which was another resounding 5 stars. It’s not only brought us together as a street but it’s also enriched our reading lives with fresh books we might never have considered.
So whilst we are stuck indoors why not try what we’ve done in your street or even online – and if you choose The Thunder Girls do let me know. I’m on most social media sites and I always love to hear what people think of my book, just like I love to share my opinions on others.
Stay safe everyone and happy reading!
The No.1 bestselling The Thunder Girls has been selected as one of Kindle’s eBooks of the month for April 2020 at the discounted price of 99p for one month only.
Allison Hay
I joined the "My Weekly" team thirteen years ago and, more recently, "The People's Friend". I love the variety of topics we cover both online and in the magazines. I manage the digital content for the brands, sharing features and information on the website, social media and in our digital newsletters.
