To (modern) Autumn

The Autumn mist falls gentlyon my window paneOh no, it’s condensationthey’re filling up again I’ll have to get them cleanedbefore the room it all fills upWith scents of mellow fruitfulnessof mould and other stuff. It’s time to put the heating…

Helmsley Market Day (circa 1960’s)

Helmsley Market Day (circa 1960’s) Helmsley at the time that this memoir is set was the hub of the local farming community and there were still several working farms scattered within its boundaries. It was a less ‘refined’ town than…

Maybe

Maybe it’s because I’m A Londoner . . .        . . . And I’ve always loved London town As a writer, the big cities of the world call to me. They want to tell me their secrets,…

Gladness and Addiction

One of the biggest questions regarding addiction is ‘why are some people susceptible to addiction?’ We know that many people can try addictive substances or activities yet only a percentage find these overwhelmingly addictive. Here I hope to present my…

What if?

The inspiration behind this essay came from notes in the Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing: it suggests the use of data collected via field study techniques: for example – observing the behaviour of fellow townsfolk whilst they go about their normal business.…

Growing up in West Yorkshire

I remember . . .    Going to school on a trolley bus, with one of dad’s white hankies tied round my face. It was the smog you see, turned the hankie black from the mills. Bradford, originally called Broad…

Carols by Candlelight

 The church* is hard to spot even in daylight. There’s no spire, just what looks like a fat chimney housing a single bell. I love it for its lack of pretension. Far from perching on a hill, looking down on…

Yorkshire

Ey up Ow do Welcome to Yorkshire our land with a view And enjoy our fat rascals with a grand Yorkshire brew. When dinner-time calls at precisely midday Its fish and chips or ‘One of each‘ we say. On a…

Strange Land

 What am I doing in this strange land, where ‘bar’ means gate and ‘gate’ means street? There’s a funny floating ‘t’ that I think means ‘the’, as in t’poet or t’pub, and I’m assured that  ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ are alive…

Just for one day

Beginnings begin with courage. These words came from my radio mere seconds before I switched it off. They stayed with me as I prepared to enter my den where I could psyche myself up to start a new year of…