More thoughts following on from my previous blog.
I grew up in a post-war, lower middle class family. We came to Enfield in 1947 as my father had secured employment here after being de-mobbed from the Royal Navy. Thinking back, as I do from time-to-time, some memories glowed more strongly than others and the idea for the poem Ten Things I Learned Before I was Fourteen was born. In the first stanza I am feeling happy and proud that Bill was taking me seriously. He features in The Collection Reek of Alchemy in Elegy to Brimsdown Plating and was patient, kind and gentle though his favoured pastime was to take up the challenge in fairground boxing booths and always win! We moved in 1954 and my feelings changed from happiness and involvement to a stoic loneliness and finally disillusionment. So a poem that shares my feelings and, at the same time, a family history.
