fran

I’d a few pints with two friends, John Dale and Ian Handey, recently. They are both in their 80s though you wouldn’t think it. They were mischievous in their lives with hilarious stories to endorse their adventures. In the pub, in direct proportion to the number of pints, they reverted to their youth: playful teenagers […]

Hazel May, my dear friend, this story has to be told. Now, before I begin, let me say that Hazel is a formidable woman, writer of medical books, opinionated and no slouch in an argument. One evening some years ago, a friend let slip that he was a Mason. Hazel lost it: “These men discriminate against

When I was young there were three people who were revered – priest, schoolmaster and doctor. The first lost his way, the second lost his awe, but the doctor, ah, even to this day the doctor holds allure. The poem this month, “Faith,” is about a surgery doctor who is retiring this month and whom

Paul Waites was Vice-Chancellor for the day and I was Professor of English. You couldn’t make it up. Two friends, Katy Crowley and Kelly Newton, had been granted a BA and MSc respectively, but because of COVID-19, there was no ceremony. The degrees came by post. You couldn’t get duller than that after all the

Every year Poetry Swindon runs a weekend with local and visiting poets. This year it’s branded “The Big Poetry Weekend” and there are some good names. What to recommend to my regular readers? Poetry has many channels and sometimes it’s difficult to navigate. Some poets wallow in complexity with no consideration of an audience, some

I wrote in a recent article that my friend, Paul Waites, composed a poem for my birthday. I said it was so good I entered it into a competition. Many of you have asked what happened next. Well, he didn’t win but poetry judging is obtuse – and I’m a bad loser! But back to

I’m sure some of you know Milton Campbell from Stratton St. Margaret. You’ll understand the link here with his first name, Milton. When his parents named him after the great poet, John Milton, it could’ve been a millstone around his considerable neck, or a lifetime with a great conversation opener. He opted for the latter.

It took place in the Arctic Circle, north of Kangerlussac in Greenland. The Great Bear Challenge was to run the Marathon on Saturday and the Half-Marathon on Sunday. It was certainly challenging. The Ice Cap is just that, ice with deep crevasses and rutted layers. There was no snow so it was treacherous and most runners

Swindon has a newly published poet. Happy Days! He is Stephen Daniels and he’s been nurtured over the past few years from a person who showed interest…

An old school friend, Noel Boyce, posted on Facebook yesterday that 50 years ago in Dublin we started our final exams, the Irish equivalent of A Levels. Within weeks we were working full-time and have been for 50 years. The Facebook exchange had a question from a younger person asking if we had computers in