Jacqueline Winspear

One of my favourite authors on this round of audiobooks has been Jacqueline Winspear with her Maisie Dobbs series. The heroine has become almost a fictional role model for me.

Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator living in London between the first and second world wars. Many of the techniques she uses in her work are precursors of modern forensic and psychological skillsets, but many are also useful and relevant as general life skills.

She uses psychological profiling techniques to identify likely culprits. To interpret how a person might be feeling, she imitates their posture or gait and analyses what emotions it produces in herself, in a kind of precursor of NLP.

She uses mindmaps to chart all the information relevant to an investigation, adding information and arrows and linkages as they emerge. I am a big fan of mindmaps and goalscapes, using them for everything from planning a presentation to planning my life. The back of my ship’s logbook now contains quite a number of mindmaps of ideas for the future.

Maisie uses an intuitive, almost spiritual, approach to her work, deliberately clearing her mind and tuning into the vibration of a place or a person in order to perceive them more clearly, without prejudice, before proceeding. This would be a very good practice for me to adopt. Too often I rush into a situation, judging it or starting to speak before truly figuring out what is already going on.

And finally, at the end of a case, she does what she terms a “final accounting”. She revisits the people and places that have played a part, and ties off all the loose ends. This brings closure not only for her, but for the other characters touched by the investigation. To an extent I already do something like this. At the end of a chapter of my life, I like to take time out with my journal to analyse what has happened and to draw out the lessons learned. Along with the mindmaps in my logbook, I’ve already started making notes on lessons from the Indian Ocean (don’t ask!).

Sometimes I even actually remember the lessons learned and manage not to make the same mistakes again – but, erm, not always. Maybe Maisie is better at this than I am. But there again, she’s fictional. And I, of course, am only human.

Other Stuff:

By the time you read this blog it will be Saturday, and time for our Solidarity Sunset. I will raise a mug of miso soup to you all, and imagine myself with you in spirit. Feel free to toast me back with something more interesting! I’d love to hear where and how and with whom you celebrate the full moon. And I will tell you about my own celebration in my next blog.

A modest day’s mileage today, which is okay because the strong wind was blowing me off course, so if I’d done lots of miles I’d only have gone even further off course. The wind is building now, and due to reach 30 kts tonight. Hmm. There’s something to look forward to. Let’s hope it has calmed down enough tomorrow for me to enjoy my Saturday celebrations without just having to hang onto the boat for dear life.

Jay – the ALEX bottle sounds awesome. I can’t wait to try it out! I couldn’t follow any of the links you posted, of course, as I only have email out here, not internet. So maybe you can tell me what my colour pattern options are?

Good to hear about further support for plastic bag bans. Keep up the good work!

Sean – have a fantastic time in Shenzhen. You have presented me with a dilemma. I don’t know whether to wish you luck, or to support the Poms. So I shall just say, “may the best crew win”!

Quote for the day: Experience teaches only the teachable.
(Aldous Huxley)

Sponsored Miles: Diane Freeman, Alexandra Stevens and Jeffrey Green – grateful for your sponsoring of today’s miles.