Biddy Chambers turned the tables to interview her biographer–me.
This is all imaginary–she died before I turned ten–but it’s fun for me as I prepare to launch Mrs. Oswald Chambers.
(You can read my questions to Biddy here, here and here.)
The genesis behind this imaginary interview blog series is, when I enter heaven, Biddy and Oswald meet me inside the gate “to discuss.”
The idea makes me nervous, but it also enables me to ask about things I’d like to know.
Join me with two variations, Biddy interviewing me here and part 2 in the next post.
Who are you?
As a matter of fact, my Sicilian mother and I both graduated from UCLA.
BC: “I’d like to know who you are to write my biography.”
MU: I’m an unlikely choice, that’s for sure.
BC: “Indeed. Who thinks the daughter of a Sicilian immigrant who grew up in Los Angeles can write about a Victorian woman from England?
MU: (Raises her hand) I do have a degree in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles.
BC: (Indicates her amused husband). “All that does is help you recognize Oswald’s beloved Robert Browning poetry.”
MU: (Grins). Worse, Biddy. It enabled me to do a literary analysis of My Utmost for His Highest to discover some of your secrets.
BC: “I have no secrets. This is about you, have you even visited my hometown?”
MU: I’ve been to Greenwich, right next door. Had I realized I’d be writing about you, I would have gone to Woolwich.
BC: “Hmm. The town of my birth is a little different than Greenwich.”
MU: Obviously, as it is dominated by the Woolwich Royal Arsenal. It made me laugh while I wrote the book to think you knew more about the military than Oswald did.
BC: “He caught on quickly enough and loved the soldiers.”
MU: Yes; and they loved him.
See? I was at Greenwich in 2009. If I had looked east, I could have seen Woolwich.
Oxford
BC: “Have you been to Oxford?”
MU: I’m sorry that all three times I visited Oxford, I didn’t know to look for your boarding house. I’d be happy to return to take a photo.
The famous Blackwell’s bookstore was once owned by Biddy’s Oxford landlord.
[Note, would any readers in Oxford, England be willing to take a photo of the house for me? Use the contact form, thank you].
BC: “Like all tourists you were probably admiring the college and dreaming of Harry Potter.”
MU: (Laughs.) Not as much as I thought about Carolyn Weber’s Surprised by Oxford, which I carried with me.
I did purchase a British copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from Blackwell’s–which is where your landlord once ran a bookstore.
BC: “Carolyn’s book is a much better choice than Harry Potter.”
MU: I wrote about Oxford after my last visit–several blog posts, including the fun tour I had at the Bodleian Library.
(You can see them here, here and here.)
BC: “I’ve noticed you use that word fun a great deal. Is all life about fun for you?”
MU: (Grins). Of course not, but so many delightful events happen to me in my life, I might as well enjoy them, don’t you think?
What about all the amazing serendipities that happened while I wrote about you and Oswald?
BC: “Your newsletter readers are well up on those stories. Besides, that was God at work, not me.”
MU: Which is what made them so delightful.
BC, Oswald Chambers and MU all laugh.
Tweetables
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Mrs Oswald Chambers responds to her biographer? Click to Tweet
An imagined interview between Mrs. Oswald Chambers and her biographer. Click to Tweet
Every month in 2017, I related the stories about God’s leading and my blessed–and astonished–reactions while writing Mrs. Oswald Chambers
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