Today, April 10th 2021, is the thirtieth anniversary of the sinking of the Portsmouth based scallop trawler Wilhelmina J. Wilhelmina J, a 26m beam trawler left Portsmouth on April 9, 1991, to trawl for scallops in the English Channel near fishing grounds known as Horseshoe Bank. But at 2am on April 10, the vessel was involved in a collision during foggy conditions with MV Zulfikar, a 142m Cyprus-registered cargo ship. All six members of the…
It’s the day after National Poetry Day – I should have posted something yesterday, but much of my day was taken up with dealing with a deceased fridge-freezer. Anyway, this film has been released about a wonderful project I was involved with – Places of Poetry is a website where people posted poems on a map of England & Wales. It is open for additional poems to be posted until the 10th of October. One…
Sometimes the past rushes back in an instant. It doesn’t take much. I was on Facebook yesterday, completing a song-title list challenge; Ok music lovers — here are the rules:Answer each category with a SONG TITLE. No repeats and don’t use the internet (it’s tempting but try not to). Go with the first song that comes to mind, change the answers to your own. My list was as follows; * Something to wear – All…
A quick post to mention that the Places of Poetry website will be live again for poems to be posted between the 1st and 11th of October. It’s in celebration of the anthology coming out, (which I have a poem in). So if you have any place based poems (England and Wales only unfortunately) then go for it! Oh, and here again is my video from earlier this year – I was very lucky to…
I shouldn’t be writing a blog post today. I had managed to secure tickets in this year’s ballot for the first day of the test series against the West Indies at Lords, where I have never been for a match before. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. But it was something I had been so looking forward to. Especially as today is my 26th wedding anniversary. Oh how I miss…
Built in 1932, HMS Swordfish was one of the first batch of S-class submarines to be built. With a normal crew of thirty-six, these were primarily designed for British coastal patrol duties, and as a consequence were smaller and far more vulnerable than later boats (in naval parlance submarines are always known as boats, not ships). Of the twelve that started the war, only three made it to V.E. Day. After eleven relatively uneventful patrols,…
In other circumstances I would be at Wembley today, along with another 50,000+ Portsmouth FC fans, for the final of the Leasing.com Trophy. Blue skies, a beautiful spring day, the stuff of memories (or nightmares depending on the result!). A real shame – though the stadium’s empty silence today is of course of minor consequence compared to what else is happening in the UK and around the world right now. I’ve been lucky though. If…
A very quick post to share a tweet with the first of three poetry films created as a result of the Places of Poetry project. Hope the link works !
I’ve had a few computer issues hence no post here for a while. This particular post, and poem, is prompted by a tweet today by Portsmouth FC, with the title my first Pompey memory is….. It reminded me of a poem I posted on the Places of Poetry website, entitled Followers. The poem uses Anadisplosis, a poetic and rhetorical form where the end of the last line is repeated as the start of the next.…
On Monday 18th February I interviewed Margaret Jennings at an event hosted by T’Articulation as part of this year’s Portsmouth Bookfest. The interview seemed to go down well (it was my first attempt at interviewing someone!), and I have subsequently found out that it was recorded and will be played on Portsmouth’s QA Hospital Radio sometime soon. I’ll post the link when it is available. The event, which happened at 113 Art House Coffee (which…