bits_of_my

I was born in Walton, Liverpool in 1948. I come from a family of 4 brothers and three sisters with me making 8 siblings in all. My mother lost 4 children. These days I have contact with one of my sisters who lives near me in Norfolk; and my younger brother who lives in Liverpool; the other five siblings are as good as dead to me...their choice, not mine...sad, but a fact of life. They say, "you can pick your friends, but not your family." How true that statement is. In my case, the Americans have an apt saying: "You need a family like you need a hole in the head!" Am I bitter? Nah! Am I cynical? Nah! Do I live with it? Yeah, sure I do...life goes on...whatever.

I was asked to leave the matrimonial home my wife and I bought and shared in Germany from 1985 to 1990 because my wife no longer loved me...long story...so I left to live with my sister in Norfolk as our 23-year marriage was over. Our 3 children have also deserted me for reasons only known to them...I am still in the dark concerning those reasons...and no longer have anymore contact with them. I have not seen my children nor my grandchildren for more than 10 years....their choice, not mine...so I know what it is like to be a leper!

I divorced my wife in March 1991. I met my late partner with whom I shared a relationship from late 1990 until her death in November 2007. When we first met in hospital, she had only four months to live as her heart had swelled dangerously too big after a massive heart attack, which only a heart transplant could resolve and give to extra life, which she duly received on the 14th November 1990. Cyclosporine, which is an immunosuppressant drug to stave off organ rejection, slowly killed off her vital organs and by 2003 she had to have renal dialysis after renal kidney failure was spotted on a routine hospital blood check. Later, I was taught by the renal unit to dialyse my partner at home for more than a year, 3 times per week, 3 hours per session until she became so ill that she had to return to the renal unit for a more, hands-on renal dialysis treatment I could not give her at home. She died of a heart attack after her usual 3-hour dialysis session in hospital, at that time was in chronic renal failure - end stage - and was too weak to go on.

Our Cap Badge.

During 1980 to 1990 I worked for MSO - (Mixed Service Organization) under the Pioneer Core Labour Unit at that time, attached to HQ 1 Army Dog Training Unit - (1 ADTU) Detached to D4 Detachment, 43 Replenishment Park Company in Neihiemer Straße, Nieheim, North Rhine Westphalia, as a civilian guard dog handler. I'd love to chew the cud on British Military skulduggery in the units I worked with out there, but that is perhaps another book in the making!

Me and my guard dog "Guy"

Since then:

These days, I love to go fossil-hunting along North Norfolk's beaches, where I dream up some of the ends for my unfinished projects, some of which still remain, unfinished. I wrote my first play called, "Mr. Nature" within 2½ hours in the wee hours of one morning. Don't ask me how I did this, because up until today, I still do not know how I did it, but I did and I hope one day to stage my world premiere of it. I wrote it in full-script form as opposed to a story, as some writers often do at first. I have trodden the boards a little and was used to handling scripts, so I guess it stood me in good form to tackle the task in the first instance.

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JOHN VANBRUGH (1666-1726) "The Provoked Wife"

I'm on the right as "Colonel Bully"

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William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale"

I'm standing up as a "Lord"

The Owl and the Pussy Cat Xmas Pantomime

My late partner "Bridgy" as a Bird, me as the Turkey

Since then...I love traditional poetry. I am not a great lover of contemporary poetry, and stand firm on the belief that "Prose" is not poetry at all as it hardly ever, if at all, rhymes. My mentor, though long since of this world departed, sadly, was Edward Fitzgerald with his translation from Persian into English of Omar Khayyám's, Rubáiyát, which I can highly recommend to any one wanting a better understanding of how one sets out stanzas and line format rhyming discipline. A Persian writer, Idris Shah in one of his books on so-called, Sufi Wisdom, mauled Fitzgerald, but probably doesn't have an ounce of Fitzgerald's brilliance and was probably jealous of him, in my opinion...I say again - opinion. Another way to study a similar principle is to study a psalm book at your local church, or purchase a copy of Frances Stillman's, The Poets Manual and Rhyming Dictionary, which is invaluable, and your half way there; the rest is up to you. I once heard someone say, "Poetry is dead!" I can only say, "what goes round comes round" and we need to rekindle our love of poetry to read and write it as it was meant to be, thoroughly good soul-food and emotively entertaining, also one of the main building blocks of the foundation of English literature.

I have written a book, known on this, my website as "Chronicles of Man - Origin -" which is a 3-book series, the first is a free download...go and get it! The 2nd is almost finished, and the 3rd is on the starting block. I have also written a book called, "Beware of Women With Dogs" based on my experiences with walking my late partner's dog, which sadly passed away 15 months before my late partner did, and tells of the thrills and spills of women with dogs whose men in their lives left them because of their dogs...interesting reading! Well, in the light of how I started this page and in the absence of family and family, I cannot complain about not having enough time for my present pursuits!

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