Nowadays they talk about baby booms as occurring nine months after a specific incident – such as a national blackout – but the baby boomer generation refers to those born after the end of the Second World War. In the US they give it a 20-year span with the first boomers born in 1946, basedContinue reading “We’re baby boomers ‘cos our parents went to war”
Category Archives: My life
Poetry Please because poetry always pleases
I have a large collection of books, even some going back to the 1800s. and amid them are many poetry books. Some I inherited from my father, school prizes won by him and by his sister, Dorothy, who died very young. There is Longfellow, Yeats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning – running on to Rossetti, to whichContinue reading “Poetry Please because poetry always pleases”
Hello, fancy meeting you here after all this time!
On my path through life I have met many people – at school, at work and in my leisure time. Some have entered my life and after a few years exited it again. Some school friendships ended when I left school (although there were a few which lasted longer – my dear departed friend RogerContinue reading “Hello, fancy meeting you here after all this time!”
You can take the boy out of Wales but you can’t take Wales out of the boy
When I joined the team at the Basildon Standard Recorder I believe my editor, Tony Blandford, saw a chance to inject some fresh blood into features about the new town. What was even better, as far as he was concerned, was that I was not just not from Basildon but I was not even fromContinue reading “You can take the boy out of Wales but you can’t take Wales out of the boy”
I turned down ‘a fortune’ after going undercover
As I have said before a general news reporter has to handle a wide variety of news from golden wedding anniversaries to major fires, even murder. Sometimes feature work might just concentrate on a new attraction opening in town, at others it could be a piece of serious investigative journalism. An opportunity for the latterContinue reading “I turned down ‘a fortune’ after going undercover”
New town residents were servants of two masters
In the early 1970s Basildon New Town (officially Basildon but as it was just over 20 years old people still added the New Town tag) control was in the hands of two organisations – Basildon Development Corporation and Basildon Urban District Council. By the time I arrived in 1972 the council was the civil administratorContinue reading “New town residents were servants of two masters”
Jack of all trades – and at times master of many
When it comes to daily regional newspapers and the nationals everyone seems to be a specialist. Court reporters; entertainment reporters; finance journalists; political journalists; science journalists; sports reporters – and even then there can be subdivisions with reporters only dealing with football, or golf, or cricket, hockey, rugby etc. etc. Life is not so neatlyContinue reading “Jack of all trades – and at times master of many”
Remember the swinging 60s? I do – I was there
It has been said: “If you remember the 60s then you weren’t there.” Those of us who grew up in that swinging decade are looked on as survivors of a period when speed and weed and even acid flooded the clubs and the streets not just in London but out in the sticks as well.Continue reading “Remember the swinging 60s? I do – I was there”
Road Rage – a modern phenomenon?
The more things change the more they stay the same. Almost 50 years on from my time as a reporter in Basildon, Essex, I have been looking at my scrap books of stories I had written then and think how often the same things happen now and the bad ones are often worse than inContinue reading “Road Rage – a modern phenomenon?”
Dipping my toes in the murky waters of politics
When I returned to my desk on that mid-November Monday, following the funeral of my last grandparent, I was determined to throw myself into my work and become part of the Basildon community (although to do that fully I would need to wait until I was allocated a flat). Basildon was born out of theContinue reading “Dipping my toes in the murky waters of politics”
Robin's Nest 