Other Writing

The Safest Place

When I was little the safest place to be

Was on the hearthrug by my granddads knee,

Fire blazing brightly, ashes falling in the grate,

Smell of Woodbine and cotton mill,

His dear old face smiling down at me.

When I was small the happiest times

Were spent in the fields by my granddad’s side

Cares all forgotten, rough hand holding mine,

One long endless summer without need of time,

Gathering blackberries to take home for our tea,

My brother, Granddad, and me.

Summer days c1954

Cracks

...

Where were you born, and what was your childhood like?

I was born in 1946 in a place called Hollinwood. From the name you might imagine this was a pretty place deep in a forest. Not a bit of it. It was a small area on a main throughfare halfway between the smoky northern towns of Manchester and Oldham, in Lancashire, England. My family had a little shop selling sweets and tobacco, just by the side of the very busy road, where cars and buses sped past my bedroom window at all times of the day...