Category Archives: Uncategorized

I value kindness to humans first of all, and kindness to animals. I don’t respect the law; I have total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper, and … Continue reading →

I have known Alan all my life.  He lived with us for my first 20 years and remained an integral part of the close family structure even after he moved into his own flat.  Indeed, it was my belief up … Continue reading →

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. Albert Einstein South-East London Boys’ Secondary School, Deptford, South-East London. Struggling my way (sometimes literally) through bone-wearyingly long days in a South-East London boys’ secondary school, … Continue reading →

Inklings #12 is something of a departure from form and, to an extent, content too. A few years back, I was preparing a brief record of my immediately post-school year prior to rolling up at Goldsmiths’ College for 3 years … Continue reading →

After Wennington. Hitching north from Hendon, the two of us get up to Wetherby in a couple of long lifts.  The first is in a lorry returning to Harrogate after delivering washing machine parts to a factory in Edgware.  The … Continue reading →

DJ and Adam. Camden Town, North-West London. Of all my Wennington school friends, waiflike Adam, with his faded, wispy blonde hair and huge Buddy Holly spectacles, was the most enchantingly disreputable.  Installed in our remote fastness by his local social … Continue reading →

Wennington School, Wetherby, Yorks. Christmas Dance Thin snow floats in the honeyed light from the Ballroom window.  A vixen shrieks from within the spinney across the field.  It speaks of knives and violence. Shivering, I step away from the long … Continue reading →

Wennington School, Wetherby, West Yorkshire. Kings Cross Station in September. Bars of yellow light from the skylights in the great curved roof, falling through steam. The London – Leeds express. The doors in the long maroon carriages stand wide open, … Continue reading →

IRMA’S BIRTHDAY Irma Wood – 1908 : 2003* Here, at another table, by another window, leaning into the lee-side of my own half-century-plus, I’m looking out over autumn fields, heavy with the news. Not so much grief or loss for … Continue reading →