How I Learn Stuff

My friend Helen Lowe just won an award for her book Thornspell, which is a novel showing the Prince’s side of the Sleeping Beauty story.

This is cool because not only is Helen a great writer, she’s quite a buccaneering thinker, too. I have had dinner at her house a couple of times, along with her husband Andrew Robins, whom I knew as a software tester.

When I first met her, I expected she wouldn’t say much. For one thing, I, um, talk a LOT. And besides, Andrew and I are testers, whereas Helen is not a technical person. Instead, she surprised me on two fronts. A) it turns out she’s a gourmet chef. The food was amazing. If Helen Lowe invites you to dinner at her house SAY YES! And, B) Helen has an encyclopedic grasp of European history. I don’t know how we got onto the subject, except that I had been listening to a series of lectures on the history of the English monarchy. So, I might I have been gushing about that. The conversation soon turned into a good-natured “rap duel” except instead of rhymes we were barking out little known bits about the Reformation. Helen actually lectured us quite a bit, but it didn’t feel like being lectured at. I guess because what she had to say was so interesting.

I wish every conversation was like that! Helen was an excellent hostess in the old sense of serving food, arts, and intellect in an evening. Andy and I were well looked after. At the end of that first dinner we agreed that we would discuss 16th century Poland at our next meeting. One year later, we did just that (although I forgot to bring my Polish history books and ended up cramming on Wikipedia the night before…)

Have you ever noticed that, around some people, ideas seem both more fluid and more vivid? And thinking is welcome and comfortable? Anyway, that’s what it’s like around Helen.

So go read her book. She deserves to give up her day job and write more of them.