It is touching to look back on some aspects of Arthur’s life, both in poetry and prose, as he saw them from the perspective of the 1980s and 1990s and then to walk alongside him during the routine of his days up to May’s death. His grief was raw.
The book contains the following:
(1) 32 printable poems.
(2) Prose pieces: ‘memories’, ‘events’, ‘my 16th birthday’.
(3) A diary from November 1988 to June 1992. There were three entries nine years later and none since then. It is an account of how he tried to adjust to retirement which included writing. He wrote about the weather, walks, the local club (presumably WM), birds and other wildlife, fishing, health, home brewing, gardening and holidays. There are reflections on aging, going out to bingo, pit work, Maggie and the tories, climate change, being robbed and sadly, death.
What comes across is a Barnsley lad with no great start in life who made the best of his opportunities: in work, in leisure, in marriage and in retirement. Trying to express himself in writing he sounds proud, cheeky and child-like. His big 1980s and 1990s issues were growing old, filling his time and May’s death, all within the context of the Thatcher years. He was sanguine about his health and honest and dignified in his despair.
Just another Barnsley poet.
Shalliley Books 