Arts
Writing – a few tips
I’ve often heard Puffins lament that they would like to contribute articles to our esteemed website but are too daunted. So, I thought I’d share a few tips to encourage more Puffins to pick up [more…]
Poetry
20th Century
Stalybridge – Clubs, Pubs And Poets
I’ve never been myself, but I’m prepared to bet that Stalybridge is rather different today from when my uncle described it for the Manchester Evening News in February, 1947 – Jerry F A blizzard was [more…]
19th Century
In Defence of Kipling
‘When the Rudyards cease their Kipling, and the Haggards ride no more…’ was a favoured line in the era of post Imperial breast-beating, when this voluminous and best-selling writer, both in verse and prose was [more…]
21st Century
The Fall of Boris
All his life Boris had his eyes On winning that most glorious prize, The golden key to Number Ten, The greatest goal of powerful men. A chubby lad at a posh school, His one ambition [more…]
20th Century
Stand in the Trench, Achilles*
Most of us, if asked, would be able to name a fair number of WW1 poets and writers without too much hesitation. Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Robert Graves, Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg – [more…]
Literature
Cupid’s Dart (ii)
‘Was Blake right? What do you think, dear?’ I was a bit nonplussed by this, since we’d been talking about how ever more pricey things had been becoming lately. ‘Blake?…’ ‘Yes, dear: “Milton was of [more…]
Arts
The tale of John Barleycorn
Whilst listening to some 70’s era music – the time when music demanded competence – I came across a track by Traffic. I listened and remembered hearing it many years ago and that it was [more…]
Literature
Archaeological Limericks
Both English and, to a much greater extent, Scottish and Irish Gaelic are full of words spelt very differently from the way they are pronounced. These are ‘archaeological’ pronunciations reflecting the way the language [more…]
Literature
Bird Brains?
I’m not at all sure now how we got on to the subject of birds, but I was talking (I can hear her now, ‘To, dear, not with: the Americans get so hopelessly confused about [more…]