Don't judge a book by it's film...

Unless you are reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett


Having heard some good things and read a couple of glowing reviews I knew I wanted to read The Help. Now I'm not a super fast reader by any means (my closest friend from Uni reads like a scanner, no joke!) but I absolutely devoured The Help. 


I'm really fascinated with social history, particularly of other countries and the semi-autobiographical nature of The Help is evident in the detail, the cultural referencing and the complex and convincing characters.

Set primarily in the 1960's (though it flits to other decades for context) The Help focuses on a young woman called Skeeter Phelan who lives on a cotton plantation in the Deep South, A middle aged woman called Aibileen Clark who's heart is breaking due to the passing of her son and Minny Jackson, a fiesty older woman with a reputation for brilliant cooking. Skeeter is a white amateur writer and Minny and Aibileen are two black maids which Americans call, 'The Help.' 


An unlikely (and forbidden) friendship unfolds between the three and Skeeter is offered a once-only opportunity from a ballsy New York based Editor on the condition that she produces an outstanding article. Skeeter decides that the Civil Rights movement is the obvious choice for a topic as it is all anyone is talking about in New York and is being wholly supported by black and white people, whereas in Jackson, Mississippi, black men who are campaigning for equal rights are being maimed and murdered.


I won't say too much more about the plot as you really do need to discover it for yourself. It is totally engrossing and absolutely fascinating. 

So having read the book with record timing, I was curious to see the film when it was released. As I really loved the book I held out for ages (in fact until it came out on DVD) to watch it as I didn't want it to do the book an injustice- I needn't have waited at all.


Apart from the fact they cast Emma Stone as Skeeter, who acted the role brilliantly but was far too pretty in my opinion, the film sticks to the book with real integrity and in some parts it even quotes it directly.


If you haven't seen or read The Help yet, make it your next film or book- you won't regret it!

What I Wear to Work

Clothes reflect the way you feel and sometimes they can even influence the way you feel. For example, I've spent the last 48 hours feeling sorry for myself with suspected food poisoning and therefore have worn a comfy grey hoodie and holey old leggings and benefited greatly from the reassurance you can only get from your 'scruffs'. 

That's why it's really important to decide the pieces that make it into your work wardrobe. It gives you a boost to wear a smart top that you reserve for critical meetings and similarly having a good stock of 'civvies' helps you to feel more off duty on your days off.

I'm not saying go out and buy a whole load of new clothes but think of the key pieces you have at the moment that you can build a functional, smart and expressive capsule that you can interchange to suit your day.

Interview jacket making an appearance to toughen up a feminine floaty dress

I wear this with opaque tights, heeled loafers and a  caramel de-constructed blazer

Smart slippers, working in live events can be almost impossible in heels!

A range of scarves, tied in many different ways update your more plain staples

I pad my work selection with:

•  three pairs of trousers:- 1 pair of smart black skinnies and 2 pairs of linen trousers, 1 black and 1 a putty/mushroom colour
• a couple of long sleeved neutral tops and some short sleeved tops and two shirts, 1 plain and 1 patterned
• 2 pairs of flats and 1 pair of heels (and a pair of wellies- I work at a festival)
• A selection of quirky, cute costume jewellery to make me smile!

I'd really like to add some cardigans and a breton top to my work stuff but can't find any that I like. On the look out though especially loving monki at the moment and think I will probably get some pieces from there.

The Sweet smell of Success!

I think that there are important milestones in everyone's self development where all of a sudden, the clouds clear and the answers you've been looking for are all of a sudden, rudely apparent.


Changing my career completely two months ago, forced me out of my comfort zone and was a step I took purely for my self development. Little would I have foretold that my self development would actually come from less focus on myself and learning from those around me.


Since going to University and seeing myself as someone who could achieve, I've always been drawn to others who are achieving. Success is an addictive thing and something that when we perceive we have it, we (usually) want to let everyone know about it. Just look at facebook profiles of those you went to school with or work with now, from the outset, everyone's garden seems to be rosy, an advert of their own lifestyle. It's great that these lovely things are happening to people but in all honesty, it's probably not the full picture.


Nobody is going to post on their facebook status: God I'm feeling so awful today can't stop eating hobnobs in my pyjamas and crying at repeats of Secret Millionaire
(If you do- thank you for being 1 in a million!)


Now here's the thing, the second you have an "Achievement Addiction" you have a niggling fear that success will leave you and for some reason your subconscious has this way of telling you, 'This decision you've made isn't right- how can you save face on this? You're losing your success here!' and all of a sudden that sweet smell of success that you once revelled in and perhaps encouraged others to take a good sniff of all of a sudden becomes quite sour.


The panic sets in and rather than being able to step back and relax about the whole situation, all of a sudden you're pining for the green grass in everyone else's garden while absent mindedly dowsing your own with weed killer. 
My yoga instructor (not a personal instructor obviously- I'm not Madonna!) always says in the meditation bit of the class:

"The more you let go in life, the more the Universe will support you"

Well guess what, it's not all hippy crap and whale music- there's something to it. If you think you're losing your success, you quite naturally overlook the success you already have.
Like wearing your favourite perfume (probably a better analogy for females here, sorry lads!) for ages, you know when you spray it on that others can smell it on you but because you're so used to it, you can't smell it on yourself.


That is exactly the same with success- it doesn't leave you, you're ability to achieve can not ever be compromised- unless of course you compromise yourself and allow yourself to focus on what isn't achievable. 
Wherever you are in life, you have to accept that you chose to be there. You sent the thought out into the ether and whether it was passive or active, you took those steps towards where you are now.

Similarly, the destination you aspire to in the future is just as flexible as your life is now and just as you have given it thought- you are already on your way to that destination. But when you get there, don't forget the journey you took and what you had to do to arrive because you might just forget that once again, you have achieved.