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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. […]

I love it when there’s a bit of colourful distraction on a Hash. Kathy led the way with her exquisite summer clothing, Anne looked well in two-tone and a fetching hat and Kay stood out in a pink top with matching grey. In fact I could fill the mag with detail on all the women

My friend, Brian, is in the terminal cancer zone but he is handling it well. Recently his family chipped together and bought him a wheelchair made from the latest lightweight material. You could lift it with a finger. He is so agile now he is talking of upper-body strength. Last week he texted the family

I spent the last weeks above the Arctic Circle in Greenland. The attraction was the Polar Marathon followed next day by a Half-Marathon with only 135 runners. It was challenging: running on the Ice Cap and through the Arctic Desert at -10 plus the wind chill, totally alone for most of the race with the

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

This is how it happened. I went to a rugby match in Bath and took a shortcut across a grassy bank. My left foot slid down the slope and my body fell back on my ankle. Snap, fibula fractured in two places. We went to A&E. The nurse asked questions about allergies. Then said: “On

Have you ever entered a poetry competition? If you are a closet poet it’s a great way to test yourself. Winning poems have a few things in common. The poem should have a cracking opening. You want the judge’s attention straight away. The second is that the last lines should make the judge hold her

I was in the House of Commons recently for the launch of the “Ovarian Cancer Awareness” programme. So how does a male poet get involved with that, you might ask? Well, I have five sisters, four daughters, one wife and many female friends who are precious to me. Ovarian cancer is a silent killer, mostly