Mardle économies and a Troshin' in Norfolk by Alan R. Massen NEUF

Welcome to this the 13th book that I have had published. It is called "Mardle and a Troshin in Norfolk" and as the title suggests its an old Norfolk boys ramblings on a journeying through ten months of my everyday life experiences of living in the county of my birth. Although we will start off learning something about the Norfolk dialect. I will not be using it in the main chapters of this book as I realise that nobody outside of Norfolk would have a clue what it meant. For example: hold you hard and co to heck its a rum load of old Squit! See what I mean! The last sentence means: wait a moment he exclaimed what a load of old nonsense. Having reached the age of sixty six I have begun to realise that much of my life is behind me and that I am now beginning the downhill phase of my life towards the greatest adventure. Being an old person, I have noticed that every day, month and year goes by much quicker than it did before and most people are now much younger than myself. This realisation has helped me to focus on the here and now. I try every day to treasure and enjoy every moment, everything around me and smile as much as I can. To help me do this I have recently stopped smoking after more than fifty years, started walking the dogs most days and started a diet to reduce my current overweight self down to something much healthier. Whilst I enjoy reflecting on the fond memories of the past and the people that I have known I believe that you should always look to the future. It is not always healthy to spend too much time reflecting and remembering the past although it is important not to forget your past. So to help me to stop looking back to much I started ten months ago not only trying to enjoy every new day as much as I could but also to write down any key personal events and experiences I had as they happened. After ten months I had a significant number of diary entries of everyday events written down. So as I have done in some of the other books that I have written in the past I set about writing this book. I hope you will enjoy joining me in this personal journey of ten months in my life. The artwork in the book has been produced by either scanning photographs or my watercolour paintings into my computer and then using a piece of art software on my PC that gives them an Impressionist effect…a bit like Claude Monet. Before we set off I thought the non-Norfolk reader may enjoy some brief examples of the strange way Norfolk folk speak and a few of the peculiar words we use. The Norfolk dialect is not heard so often these days but it can still be heard in the Norfolk countryside and villages. So after you have experienced and marvelled at our rich heritage of Norfolk dialect and the way we communicate in Norfolk. As I have already mentioned I will not be using any of these words or expressions within the main body of my book however, my Norfolk roots may, however, inadvertently express themselves in the grammar that I use…

Alan was born in the city of Norwich in the county of Norfolk, England in November 1949. When Alan was still a teenager he started painting whilst attending art classes in Norwich. In his mid-teens he had two paintings accepted for a National Art Exhibition held in London and other major UK cities. Alan spent most of his working life as a professional Health and Safety Advisor and rarely picked up a paint brush until Alan, his wife Susie and daughter Ginny (his other daughter Mandy is married and lives with her husband Adrian in Sheffield) moved out of the city of Norwich into the countryside in 1993. They moved to a little village called East Lexham in the heart of Norfolk. The village was very peaceful and pretty. This helped inspire Alan to take up watercolour painting once again. In 2004 they moved to another small West Norfolk village near Downham Market where they still live today. In 2008 Alan had to retire due to ill health (bad knees) and whilst he still painted regularly he began to spend more and more time gardening. In 2013 his wife Susie suggested that he kept a gardening diary to record his adventures in the garden and capture the changing seasons, animals, birds and the successes and failures of being a gardener he encountered. By the following year Susie suggested that he should write a book from his diary and include illustrations of both the garden and his artwork. In 2014 Alans first book was published by Creative Gateway called "Retiring to the Garden - Year One". This proved such a success that Alan decided to follow this up with his second book called "Retiring into a Rainbow" featuring his watercolour paintings. He then in 2015 published "Retiring to Our Garden - Year Two" published this time by Rainbow Publications UK. He then re-issued his first two books this time in a "Second Edition". Also published by Rainbow Publications UK. In 2016 he published: "Skiathos a Greek Island Paradise", "Norfolk the County of my Birth", "Art Inspired by a Rainbow", "Ibiza Island of Dreams", "Majorca Island in the Sun", "Flip-flops and Shades on Thassos" and finally "Mardle and a Troshin in Norfolk". He has recently started on the following new books which will be entitled: "England the Country of my Birth", "Mousehole the Cornish Jewel", "Sunshine and Shades on Kefalonia", "Shades and Flip-flops on Zakynthos", "Crete and the Island of Santorini", "Cyprus the Pyramids and the Holy Land", "Corfu and Mainland Greece" ", "Trips into my Minds Eye" and finally "Flip-flops and Shades on many Greek Islands". When completed they will also be published by Rainbow Publications UK.