MY CREATIVE LITTLE SISTER

S U N D A Y,  1 2   N O V

I did 38 hours homework this week. I must be mad.

Did my whole essay on Childhood today. My earliest memory is my 2nd birthday; I can remember Grandpa on the left, dangling my coral necklace above me while I was lying in my cot. But, I wonder, do I remember it as it was? Or has the memory changed throughout the years? 

“Chump invented a ‘Garden Cluedo’ today and it’s absolutely marvellous! ”

It’s the same Cluedo but set in a garden with different implements, different people and different ‘rooms’: the Tool Shed, the Rose Garden, the Tennis Court, the Go-Kart track, and so on! The people are Harold Wilson, Prince Charles, Twiggy, Brigitte Bardot, Florence from Magic Roundabout, and, of course, Polnareff. 

Ma, Pa and Chump completely redid the rose garden today, and took me down to admire it. Then Daddy, Chump and me went for a walk up to the Heath - first time for ages.

Played Garden Cluedo in the evening. Ma and Pa think it’s a marvellous improvement.

Got depressed thinking how soon I'll be 18.

“Cluedo - a very British game!”

Originally called 'Murder at Tudor Close', Cluedo was invented by a retired solicitor's clerk for children to play in bomb shelters during the Blitz. There were ten characters not six, and weapons included such terrors as a bomb and a poker. As for the name, Cluedo was a pun on Ludo, but because the game-makers thought Americans wouldn’t get it, they shortened it to Clue.

In 1967, the lead piping was made not of plastic but of lead, and the rope of twine. Then, In 2016, Cluedo was glammed up: the characters were given youthful revamps (shudder) and white housekeeper Mrs White was replaced by Dr Orchid, a doctor of mixed race.

The originals: Professor Plum, Reverend Green, Colonel Mustard, Mrs Peacock, Mrs White, Miss Scarlett