Author Archives: Robin

A great day to be Welsh and proud

Today was a very good day to be Welsh. The chariots headed to Cardiff and were destroyed by the dragons. A Triple Crown already won and a Grand Slam on the horizon. It takes me back to those glorious days in the 60s and 70s when if we couldn’t make it to Cardiff a groupContinue reading “A great day to be Welsh and proud”

The Mirror crack’d from side to side

There was a time you could hold the Daily Mirror up to the world and see real life reflected in it. Hold it up now and all you will see is the fantasy life of plastic people who, we are told, are celebrities. To my mind a celebrity is an outstanding person in their fieldContinue reading “The Mirror crack’d from side to side”

An Elegy On The Death Of Kenneth Patchen

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021) A poet is born A poet dies And all that lies between is us and the world And the world lies about it making as if it had got his message even though it is poetry but most of the world wishing it could just forget about him and his awfulContinue reading “An Elegy On The Death Of Kenneth Patchen”

Following up on a historical story

If you work on a weekly newspaper long enough it is likely some of the people you meet and write about will go on to be famous in the field of their choice. While working in Rhyl many of the people I knew socially, or met as part of my work, were either already knownContinue reading “Following up on a historical story”

Oh mummy, that’s not Boris Karloff

Celebrating the New Year in the Austrian Tyrol was quite a start to 1971 and my time in the classroom was finally over, almost six years after I parted company with my arch-enemy – the demon headmaster of my old grammar school. I still had to sit for my NCTJ Proficiency Certificate but that would,Continue reading “Oh mummy, that’s not Boris Karloff”

Never mind the windmills – look for the memories

Noel Harrison once sang about “The Windmills of your Mind” – a place where you turn and keep turning like the sails of a windmill, chasing yourself in circles. In a way our minds really are like this, labyrinthine corridors with doors wherever you turn – each requiring a special key before you can openContinue reading “Never mind the windmills – look for the memories”