My author friend Jean Adamson was mugged yesterday. The shameless robber escaped with her purse and left her lying in the road with a broken arm.
Jean is 81-years-old and has a frail build, but is full of feisty spirit that I hope will see her through this terrible ordeal. She is immensely popular in the village where we live because of her kindness and non-judgemental views towards all young people
She had walked a few yards to the village store in the morning to exchange her copy of the Observer because it did not include the supplements, and she was particularly keen to read one of the sections.
Unassuming Jean, who has sold an estimated 25 million popular Topsy and Tim children’s books over the last 50 years which she wrote with husband Gareth, believes she was possibly followed by the cowardly mugger from the shop when he struck.
I wonder if the robber was one of the local lads who Jean has read to from her story books during many visits to schools where she is much loved. Surely not.
Everyone loves Jean for her gentleness, warmth, generosity, wisdom, intelligence, patience, decency and humour. That was why I nominated her for an honour and she was awarded the MBE in the Millennium.
Jean was determined not to give in to the robber and hung on to her shopping basket as she fell and was dragged along the road. But her valiant efforts were no match for this well built thug whose eyes were firmly peeled on her purse in her basket. He succeeded by forcefully wrenching the basket and twisting it around her arm, which led to her horrid injury and bruising. She cried out, helpless on the road and unable to move as he fled, and was rescued by two neighbours, Trudy and Grace, who took her to hospital as no ambulance was available.
Jean has placed her faith in the local police and hopes they will catch this yob, described as a well built 15-year-old and wearing a white peaked cap and white t-shirt. What has the world come to if an elderly lady can’t walk along her village high street on a Sunday morning without being attacked and robbed?
She was inundated with media calls when I visited her this afternoon and handled them all with grace and perception.
Jean is very much a free spirit and in her younger days as an art student, she painted the uniquely flamboyant gay icon Quentin Crisp naked many times; he was famed for his outlandish autobiography The Naked Civil Servant. She is very cultured and gifted as a writer and artist.
We laughed together as she told me about the community police offer who called round and left a couple of Noddy bells with the helpful suggestion that Jean attaches them to her purse as some kind of alarm.
Jean has a better idea. She giggled as she said:
“I think I will attach them to my tortoises Mercedes and Matilda so I know where they are in the garden.â€
That sounds like just the kind of sensible idea that Topsy and Tim would have come up with…
I am so sorry to read this, Ellee. This truly is a sickening story. Your friend has my sincere sympathy and best wishes for a speedy recovery. PLease give her my very best wishes.
The trouble is that the media blame such behaviour on family breakdown and ‘fatherless families’. Why are women instigating divorce more than men and are less likely than men to remarry. Could it be because some men are crap husbands and fathers? After WW1 there were so many fatherless families yet the country didn’t go to pot. The real trouble is that children have no boundaries. I remember my own son swaggering about one day after school telling me that a teacher told him he can do what he likes and if I made him very sad or do anything to hurt or upset him then he would tell the teacher. Then the teacher fills in a report and Social Services and the police are informed. This is true. So what happened to parentla authority? To any authority over childrens behaviour? It’s in the hands of the State. I sincerely hope the State takes better care of your friend. I wonder what will happen to the boy if he is caught?
Pip, too true. I will let you know the outcome.
I hope your friend makes a full recovery very speedily.
I’m a teacher, the rest of the comment above is ridiculous. Yes, there are a lot of problems in society. Many young parents work in poorly paid jobs so there’s no one at home for the children and no guidance. The uncertainties in life now stress people and they don’t have the attention they should for their children. Money HAS to be earned just to keep heads above water for many people these days. No mother staying at home giving stability and comfort to children. When did all that start (?) and who is going to end it and bring long-term stablity and security in a hyper-competitive failing system where only materialism is rewarded?
Hi Raymond, I agree with Pip’s point about the lack of parental authority and boundaries as I have seen it myself in my neighbourhood. But your points are very valid too. I’m afraid I don’t know the answers to your questions as the culture of our society has changed so much in recent years. Do you have any suggestions?
That’s awful, Ellee. I hope Jean recovers well. It’s sad that someone like her gets attacked in this way.
Raymond – which comment is ridiculous? Yours? That’s true. The points you make do not offer any solution to the problem, they do not identify the cause of problems today, as mine did. But let’s take them one by one, shall we?
Many young parents work in poorly paid jobs
My grandfather was a jarrow marcher. Don’t talk to me about poorly paid jobs. We all live in relative luxury compared to those days and children didn’t set fire to people for fun like they do today.
so there’s no one at home for the children and no guidance
There was no one at home for many people in days gone by; me, my father, my maternal family as children and most of the people I know. We are working class and most women worked. For the women who were at home the children still disappeared in the morning and came back at tea time. Yet my generation, my uncles and my fathers were/are decent kind and respectful. Because if we weren’t we’d get a bloody good hiding!
The uncertainties in life now stress people
I won’t mention Hitler, even though being bombed would strike me as quite a big uncertainty. What I will mention is that we haven’t always had the NHS or social security. But today we have those. And we also have the ever-present threat of social services to remove children (but spookily ignore those who most need to be removed) and we have the police to tell us what we can chat about in our own homes. When we can wear a symbol of our national religion lest it offend someone. And we have politicians to tell us that losing our hard-won freedoms and liberties are for our own good. We have teachers to implement lessons in sex, masturbation, homosexuality and abortion to pre-pubescent little children, some as young as 4. If your neighbour did it you could have them arrested for grooming a child. Thanks for the guidance.
and they don’t have the attention they should for their children
Oh FFS! the attention they should have for their children? Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘children should be seen and not heard’? What should we do then? You tell us how to raise our children, you’re an agent of the state, keeping watch over us all.
Money HAS to be earned just to keep heads above water for many people these days
these days?
No mother staying at home giving stability and comfort to children. When did all that start (?)
Oh dear me. Look, did you just read a nice novel to get your impression of the history of British society? See a film once?
who is going to end it and bring long-term stablity and security in a hyper-competitive failing system where only materialism is rewarded?
Well not you, love. And not the Tories either. I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for Gordon Brown.
These youth that attack old or vunerable people have no respect. Either for themselves or for other people. They are not scared of authority, they just know they will get away with it. I doubt very much if there is much respect in the household either. They are just downright cowardly thugs..!!
I am left wondering what Philipa said to her son, when he told her what the teacher said!
Anne, what could I say – he was telling the truth!
[…] Cowardly mugger robs my frail but feisty friend […]
What a sad thing to read. The elderly are so vulnerable and just the people these fellows seem to prey upon.
Sorry I don’t get what use the Noddy bells might be. Ringing his way down the street as he runs off?
What an awful thing to happen, I hope she recovers quickly.
[…] Percy family and Island Hall By Ellee You will be pleased to know that my plucky author friend Jean Adamson has made an excellent recovery from her brutal attack by a ruthless mugger in our Cambridgeshire […]