Welcome To An Author's Look At Life

Return of the Prodigal Son: Rembrandt Painting Inspires Author, Henri Nouwen

If you think this is purely a 'religious' book for people of faith from a bygone era, think again. The themes are relevant to the whole of humanity for all time. Here we are, in the 21st Century, struggling with issues that would have taxed the wisdom of Solomon: abortion, euthanasia (assisted dying); greed; poverty; sexual orientation; child traffiking.

But it is our inner struggle of alienation and rebellion - a topic I wrote about in respect of J.D.Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye - which best sums up the state of mind of our times.

THE MIND GAMES WE PLAY

And in Henri Nouwen's book, The Return of the Prodigal Son - hugely inspired by Rembrandt's painting of the same title - there is alienation and rebellion aplenty!

READ ON

Readers' Reviews of my book:
A Painful Post Mortem 

“I received this book as a birthday present and just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it - the way you write about Faith and God is just incredible, and has really helped me at a difficult time.  I am pregnant and facing death from cancer . . . according to Dr. prognosis is about a year . . . baby is 24 weeks.  I worked for a long time with drug and alcohol abuse . . . now for CRUSE Bereavement Care and a Child Bereavement Charity and I would like to put your book on to our required reading for students if that would be OK.  I love the way you change the tense so seamlessly.  It has everything . . . humour, pain, characterisation, existential angst.”  Lydia 

"Mel I am a big fan; I have read your book "A Painful Post Mortem" and loved it. You totally inspired me when I set about publishing my own book.  I send your site out to anyone who asks me how to become a published author. Thank you for your generosity of spirit. Love your life story too BTW. You are an incredible inspiration to me. :)" Christine

What It Means To Subscribe

There are several ways of keeping in touch with a website, and being informed of what's new in blog posts.  Having taken the advice of a professional blogger, I'm going to assume that you may not know about them all.  After all, initially I didn't!  Here's what you can do:

1. You can keep coming back to www.melmenzies.co.uk - if you remember!

2. You can "bookmark" the website by clicking the star at the end of the URL in the browser box at the top of the screen.

3. You can "subscribe" - i.e. register for free - to my monthly newsletter (above) and I'll e-mail you with updates.

4. Best of all, you can click the purple "Subscribe to my Blog" button in the right hand sidebar on every page.  This is RSS and it's free.

READ ON

Bereavement: Dealing With The Death Of A Loved One

‘Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.’ The quotation is attributed to a friend of the writer, E.M Forster, and is taken from a new book titled, Advanced Banter. It struck me, as I read it in the Daily Telegraph, that this is never more true than when we are dealing with a death in the family.

LOSS & BEREAVEMENT

Coping with the loss of a loved one is probably the most public performance we shall ever put on, for which we have had no prior preparation. Whether it’s the death of a spouse or the loss of a child, we come to it without rehearsal or training, all eyes upon us. We become the central figure on the stage of life, playing the lead role in a drama for which we have no aptitude and no liking. We have been thrust into this role; forced to play this part. And even while our grief, loss and bereavement wrap themselves, heavy, about us, others look to us to see if they can learn from our experience.

READ ON