Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...
Local recognition
The support of Graham Chalmers, our local paper’s Weekend Editor, is always very much appreciated. The article above is in the current issue which, in its various editions, has a wide circulation in North and West Yorkshire. Fingers crossed that a surge of sales will follow!
In addition and in response to a distressing article last week about the persecution of the red kite, a poem I wrote some time ago about these magnificent birds also appears on the readers’ letters page. ‘Red Kites Over Eccup Reservoir’ is included amongst the stories and poems available for you to read in the Stories + Poetry section of this website.
25 April, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
A mini-break with a few surprises!
Combining a visit to some of our nearest and dearest with a theatre trip, we found ourselves in a ‘family friendly’ hotel in Aylesbury earlier this week. Arriving late on the first night and struggling to find our way in from the car park, we asked directions of a glamorous young lady who seemed to know where she was going. She smiled sweetly and admitted in a strong eastern European accent that actually it was her first time there too. The significance of the fact that she had no luggage didn’t occur to us until later on when we saw her being escorted to a room a few doors down from ours by a smirking receptionist. Could you blame me for scanning the faces of all the men eating breakfast alone the following morning and wondering which one had been her client?
We decided to drive to Amersham and take the Underground, one day travel cards from there being only around £10 each, a great deal cheaper than going directly from Aylesbury. By the time we reached Covent Garden we were more than ready for some refreshment.
Compared with Ripon, the price of even a simple coffee was quite startling and we purchased a very modest lunch from one of the stalls. Eating it as we walked around watching some of the street entertainers on the Piazza was fun, and we confined ourselves to one visit each to the 50p a time public loos located down some steps near St Paul’s. (Not to be confused with the cathedral of the same name and generally known as The Actor’s Church, it was designed by Inigo Jones and hosts many a memorial service.)
The main focus of the day was a matinee performance of ‘Matilda’ at the Cambridge Theatre and what a show that was! Our seats were in the second row from the front and we were so close to the action that we could count every hair on Miss Trunchbull’s legs. Yes, that role was played by a man, but Alex Gaumond was very far away from being a pantomime dame – more like everyone’s nightmare of their school P.E. teacher! I can only comment on the show in superlatives, every aspect of it being the slickest and most entertaining that I’ve seen in many a long year, perhaps ever. The children performing that afternoon were superb, the adults amazing, the scenery and special effects brilliant… Gush, gush, gush! If you’re thinking of seeing the show for yourself, I suggest that you take a look at the official website: http://uk.matildathemusical.com/
The icing on the cake came that evening. We decided to eat at a popular restaurant in Leicester Square. It was busy, but we were shown straight to a table and our drinks appeared quite promptly. Deep in conversation and in no particular rush, it didn’t occur to us for quite a while that the food we’d ordered had failed to appear. Even then, we were content to wait and were completely taken aback when the manager, prompted by our waiter, appeared at our table and apologised profusely for the delay. Not only that, she insisted that we accept the entire meal – the drinks we’d already had and the food which appeared very shortly thereafter – compliments of the house. We certainly weren’t expecting that but were, as you may imagine, very happy to accept!
12 April, 2014 - There are 2 comments on this story
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!
This week has been a very busy one for me on the literary scene. John Steinbeck’s novellas have long been favourites of mine and so I went to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to see a new production of Of Mice And Men. As it’s a set book for GCSE this year, the auditorium was full of school parties but, I’m glad to say, the vast majority of the young people watched the play with great attention and seemed to enjoy it. The only sniggers arose at moments I too found incongruous. Curley’s wife, played by Heather Christian, rose from the dead to resume her piano playing at the back of the set and an actor wearing a large rabbit head put everyone in mind of Donnie Darko. That apart, it was an excellent show, with a very effective musical score and great set and lighting effects.
Having only recently joined York Writers, I wasn’t able to take part in their showcase event at the City Screen but went along to support it. This was YW’s contribution to the York Literature Festival and a dozen or so writers took part, offering the audience poetry and prose of various kinds and even a short radio play. Guest poet Don Walls, a York favourite, took centre stage for half an hour or so with a broad selection of his own work.
And so to the T-shirt! During a recent session of YW’s novelists’ support group, I fell into conversation with a writer who had just had one printed with the cover of her latest book. What a good idea, I thought, and rushed to design one of my own as soon as I got home. Now that’s arrived, I’ll be able to wander around literary and other events like a human sandwich board. Do look out for me!
30 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
The Disappearing Woman
This was the title of Germaine Greer’s talk at York Literature Festival and very powerful it was too. I’d heard of the gender imbalance in some cultures – more than you’d think – where boys are prized many times more than girls, but I had no idea of its extent until I heard the latest statistics. Millions of female foetuses are aborted each year and many more little girls die as a result of ill treatment or neglect. Those who survive are often condemned to a life of servitude at the hands of their own families and then those that they’re obliged to marry into.
As far as the West is concerned, we’ve come some way since The Female Eunuch (1971) and its sequel The Whole Woman (1999), but there’s certainly no room for complacency, particularly as we get older. It would be a brave man who’d try to get the better of Germaine Greer, though. As capable as a stand up comic when it comes to dealing with hecklers, she injected a great deal of humour into her serious subject matter last night and the audience roared when she referred to a gushing interviewer who’d assured her that she wasn’t old.
“I’m seventy f***ing five,” she retorted. “Of course I’m old!”
21 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
Easy Money For Writers And Wannabes
I’m delighted with the positive response so far to my first non-fiction eBook. Writing ‘fillers’ for magazines and newspapers has long provided me with an extra income stream and there’s plenty of scope for everyone out there. All it takes is a little ingenuity and a keen eye on the current market. Please invest in a copy. It will pay for itself many times over and I’ll be delighted to hear about your successes.
Travel is only one of the dozens – maybe hundreds – of topics that you could explore. The cover of my book is taken from a published piece about a loyal reader on holiday with her favourite magazine. That’s what the editor wanted and that’s what the editor got!
15 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
An Afternoon with The More Mature Group
This afternoon I was invited to speak to The More Mature Group at Ripon’s Holy Trinity Church. As well as enjoying a very good tea, this lively bunch of senior citizens listened very appreciatively to all I had to tell them about my work as a television ‘extra’. It was a great privilege to meet them all.
8 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
A Feature About Me in Woman’s World
I was recently interviewed for Woman’s World, the annual of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, by freelance journalist Linda Harrison.
The interview touched on my writing, but the main focus was on my television work over the years. If you’d like to learn more about what’s involved in being an ‘extra’, please go to http://www.
7 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
An Evening with York Writers
I spent this evening in the upstairs room of the Brigantes Bar and Brasserie in Micklegate and enjoyed hearing ten members of York Writers rehearsing contributions to their forthcoming showcase. This will take place on 27th March from 8 p.m. at York City Screen as part of York Literature Festival and promises to be a very good evening. The pieces I heard included both poetry and prose, with subjects as far apart as canopy dwelling sloths and chewing your own hair!
As the meeting was also billed as a ‘Local Writers’ Night’, I was happy to be invited to participate and read a couple of stories from my own collections.
More information about York Writers can be had from http://yorkwriters.webs.com
5 March, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
A Tribute to a Grand Old Man of Jazz
It’s a couple of years at least since I last heard Ed O’Donnell play his trombone and sing, but my admiration for his musicianship goes all the way back to when I was seventeen and in the Sixth form at Lawnswood High School in Leeds. The sessions he ran on Friday nights at ‘Casey’s’ in Woodhouse Street were legendary and not to be missed for anything. My friends and I were intrigued by the fact that this former Bevin Boy now had a ‘day job’ posing as a life model for students at Leeds Art College and sketches of him in all his glory were to be found all over the place. However, and more importantly, I not only learned to appreciate his style of playing but also to dance to it and it was because of Ed and his New Orleans Jazzmen that I made a pilgrimage to the Big Easy. The hours I spent in Preservation Hall were amongst the happiest of my life. Moving on another five or six years, I was at a party somewhere on the Rhine when I was accosted by a German girl called Renate who was very excited to find out that I came from Leeds. All she wanted to know was if I knew Ed O’Donnell and, having established that I did, she went on to enthuse about him all evening.
Ed died in his sleep last month at the ripe old age of 87 and it was very fitting that his funeral today featured a New Orleans style parade band made up of old colleagues. They led the cortege from the gates of Lawnswood Cemetery to the chapel and played for the many mourners assembled there. Some alterations were going on nearby, but the construction workers stopped what they were doing and removed their hard hats. The rain stopped on cue and the sun came out just in time for Ed to be carried inside. As a requiem mass had already been held at Our Lady of Lourdes, the service was a short one, which was a blessing for everyone unable to find a seat.
I wish that I’d been able to go on to the wake, but duty called me elsewhere. However, I’m sure that the afternoon celebration of Ed’s long life, during which he ran his own band for more than six decades, was a memorable one. His wife Anne and daughters Frances and Kate would be left in no doubt of how much Ed was loved and admired.
NB This video clip from the Yorkshire Post website has just come to my attention: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/local-stories/video-fond-farewell-to-leeds-jazz-legend-1-6476733
4 March, 2014 - There are 2 comments on this story
Wonderland comes to Ripon
As a tribute to the children’s classic, chainsaw sculptor Mick Burns has created a wonderful installation in the Spa Gardens and I do hope that it will escape further damage by vandals who probably don’t have a creative bone in their own bodies. The Caterpillar lost its head and the White Rabbit its nose a few weeks ago in an overnight attack, but the talented Mr Burns has replaced them and added some more figures. The Cheshire Cat is my favourite, but you can also see the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Dormouse as well as a set of playing cards. So why are they in Ripon, you might wonder.
Recent events in our little North Yorkshire city, where the latest large sinkhole opened up earlier this month and partially swallowed a 100 year old property, caused a flurry in the media and have put paid – for the time being at least – to any ideas of building housing on the adjacent land. Subsidence due to gypsum, the raw material of plaster of Paris, is nothing new to Riponians. If water flows through the bedrock fast enough, gypsum dissolves 100 times faster than limestone and greatly increases the risk of collapse of the ground above. Close to the River Ure, for example, a garage was swallowed up in 1997 by a hole six metres deep. In the previous century, a collapse in that same area resulted in a hole twenty metres deep. That one and others would certainly have been known to the author of Alice in Wonderland.
The father of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was at one time a canon of Ripon Cathedral and his family, who stayed at the nearby Old Hall, would have seen at first hand the destruction caused by sudden and dramatic collapses. Alice’s long fall down a deep hole at the beginning of the story really can be seen as the stuff of nightmares!
On a more cheerful note, visitors to Ripon Cathedral can still view medieval carvings with which the author must have been familiar. On the misericords behind the choir stalls, one of these shows a griffon hunting one unfortunate rabbit while another seeks refuge down a hole. Did they, together with the sinkholes, inspire Lewis Carroll to write his famous story? I suppose we shall never know for sure, but we Riponians, whether by birth or adoption, like to think so.
28 February, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story
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