Matthew Paul and The Past

Not a huge amount to add to proceedings this week, it’s been a week of bobbing around back roads in Norfolk (more than intended on Wednesday due to some bizarre diversions between North Walsham and Coltishall) and being back at work.

However, I did find time to read Matthew Paul’s excellent post on Writing the past. I heartily concur with just about everything in this post, and the stuff I don’t concur with is because I’ve not read Ivor Gurney.

There’s so much to unpack in this post that I can’t do it justice here, but I can vouch for reading HG Wells’ Kipps and The History of Mr Polly. I’ve long believed that both of these novels as well as Tono-Bungay, would make excellent films or TV adaptations that could speak volumes about the era we’re in now.

It’s also a fortuitous post from Matthew as I discovered this week that my maternal great grandfather was a druid. His certificate of membership was among some old paper work my mum had, and even she didn’t know he had been a druid.

He was the man that started our family off as being Freeman of Norwich and, thanks to my Grandmother, I have followed in his footsteps – it’s worth it for the offer of a silk rope to be hung by and the chance to drive sheep through Norwich. Now I may have to become a druid.

I’ve no idea whether this will find its way into a poem at any point, but it’s going to be fun finding out more.

TITLE GIVEAWAY

1. People Can Act Like Rivets If You Need Them To
2. The Unbearable Lightness of Beading
3. Blanket Bans
4. Stalking the Back Roads
5. The Inventor of Ironing

The week in stats:

21k ran –  A slower week post half-marathon.

1 poem accepted

2 poems worked on: Lighters and Waking Up

1 sniff of a draft- I doubt it will amount to much