• Two Cultures
    I’ve always worn boots since becoming bourgeois, To try and pretend I’ve still got working class roots, I suppose; But what with the heat-wave, The relentless style attack from wife and daughters, And the incipient holiday to fashionable Corsica, I finally sold out and joined the sandal brigade. So there I was, Under a DIY […]
  • Damant
    It was a beautiful July day and there was the view before me! Bayham Road, south Bristol, just by Perrett Park, Fuchsia filled front gardens and all those hanging baskets In all their petunia filled glory, in all those shadowed porches Of good old Bristol’s 30’s ribbon development! Look over there -there’s George Orwell coming […]
  • For These, Part 2
    86 years ago today, on Bastille Day, my mum was born and on that day, July 14th. 1915, Edward Thomas wrote his poem “For These”, explaining why he was joining up. It’s a description of English country living, in effect. By the way, my mum’s name is Nancy Mary Lorraine – in honour of our […]
  • He read it in the Tea Leaves: England 4 Germany 2
    Sunlight smoked through the leaves of the sycamore trees, Their tall trunks overhanging the railway cutting, Dads dug spuds from their allotments, Purple geraniums lit up the parish churchyard, And a poppy post-card field set the hillside on fire; It was a perfect suburban small town Sunday, An unhurried early morning stillness, Church bells, few […]
  • Apple Trees on the Somme
    APPLE TREES I was reading “The Ghost Road”, With its constant theme of father-son relationships, And, Reflecting on the past, I glanced up at the apple trees in the back garden, And was surprised at how thick the trunks had become, And realised how much had happened In the ten years since planting them, How […]