Paul Hinks' Blog

2 Responses to “Finding new iPhone apps”

1. Fiona Barrett says:

   August 3, 2009 at 12:08 pm

   Hey Paul,

   forgive me for only just discovering your blogg! I have just found your ‘review’ of my book, Living with the bunnies, a British family’s exile to Marin County. Firstly, I am really glad that you enjoyed the book! Secondly, I wanted to address some of your comments.
   As for the grammatical errors in the book. No-one was more upset than me at the repeated errors within the book, iuniverse have been pretty awful to work with, seemingly finding it hard to translate the English way of spelling into the American way. I do hope that this did not detract from your overall enjoyment of reading the book. I am currently in negotiation with an international book publisher who are keen to re-publish the book under their own name and, I hope, correct all the previous mistakes!
   The newsletters have not been altered very much at all as I did not want to lose the ‘reality’ of what I felt at the time. They differ very little from the originals other than me changing the names of all those mentioned.
   My intention was never to offend anyone, the newsletters became a sort of diary in which I off loaded and shared all the experiences we had, good and bad. To over edit my rants, I feel, would have meant losing the impact of what I felt at the time. I do hope that I came across as praising the good parts as well as the bad, either way it really is a true account of our experience of living in Marin. Funnily enough, on Friday I picked Abbie up from Heathrow after she had spent a wonderful two weeks with Jenn. On August 19th we are back in the USA to holiday in New England!
   Anyway, my point is, I never meant to cause anyone any personal offence but I did write as I found! I would love to read of an American family’s experience in the UK! In my six year olds son’s class, there are several American children and several British children who have lived Stateside, most of whom seem to have shared some similar experiences to us!

   All the best,

   Fiona Barrett
2. paul says:

   August 3, 2009 at 8:52 pm

   Hi Fiona. Thanks for the message, and thank you for writing your book, which I enjoyed reading very much. I’ve heard similar things about iUniverse in the past so I assumed that was the problem. You book is still circulating as a guilty pleasure among several of our ex-pat friends, who are all enjoying your more than accurate portrayals of life out here. We first heard about the book from someone who claimed to know someone who had been upset by what you wrote, but I don’t know the details. You certainly wrote as you found – it rings very true. I’m trying to do my part to point out the idiosyncrasies of life here too, and if people are offended it’s too bad – although they are more than welcome to post a response. My wife is American and she made some very cutting and equally true observations about England when we lived in London. It often takes a stranger to point out the obvious to the locals. People who get offended about such things deserve their bubble being burst. Good luck with the future editions, and thanks again for writing such an enjoyable book.

   Regards.

   –Paul