London

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”

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”

Ten years between tasty tipples

I don’t drink much alcohol these days, not that I was an inveterate boozer getting plastered every night even in my heyday. I do know I never drank just for the sake of drinking, or to keep up with the crowd. I also did not drink just anything on the basis that it was alcoholic.Continue reading “Ten years between tasty tipples”

by William Blake I wander thro’ each charter’d street, Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweepersContinue reading “London”

Contemplating Hell

by Bertolt Brecht Contemplating Hell, as I once heard it, My brother Shelley found it to be a place Much like the city of London, I, Who do not live in London, but in Los Angeles, Find, contemplating Hell, that it Must be even more like Los Angeles. Also in Hell, I do not doubtContinue reading “Contemplating Hell”