Art's Trojan Horse

Send a text The Haverhill Echo was an independent newspaper in Suffolk. Now long gone, I look back at my highs and lows working as a trainee reporter there in 1972

Send a text Here is part one of my autobiography (1967-1971). This autobiography will cover my enthusiasms  in drama, art and poetry over the years. In part one, an English teacher saves me via a play,  a drama course makes me and a spell in Liverpool finds me eating supper with Adrian Henri.

Send a text A diary exploring playwriting. In this edition: theatre courses, psychology in plays, 1968, Silent Witness and remembering Max Wall.

Send a text A fortnightly diary on playwriting and culture. First episode: Line of Duty, the existential threat and writing an audio play. Coming up: my journey in staging a play.

Send a text An appreciation of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died this week. Through him, I discovered poetry and a lot more besides. Note: apologies for pronouncing the poet Rimbaud as Rambo - but hey, Rambo The Poet is quite cool...

Send a text Raised in Clare, West Suffolk, here are some characters from my childhood and other encounters as  I attempted to leave the village, mostly using my thumb.

Send a text I grew up near Poslingford Corner, Clare, Suffolk, close to A.L. Morton,  communist historian and author of 'The People's History of England.' Here is a recollection from the time I was six, 1959.

Send a text An encounter with a dinosaur and all the world in a sharpened pencil: an exploration of why I like to write "through objects."

Send a text These four poems were written in the late 1970s/early 1980s and are variously about the "other side" of countryside. Includes Stubble Fires which became part of the narration for my BBC Radio 4 play 'Overspill,' 1993. I 've purposefully left this recording rough and ready because it is, after all, live. A transcript of the poems is included.

Send a text I began writing poetry at fourteen (1967) and here are five short, early love poems.

Send a text This Christmas. Phil of NR3 is listening to BBC Radio 4, counting out his money to see if he can afford jam from the corner shop. He puts on his mask but will he make it out of the door?

Send a text From conspiracy theories and sabbaticals to the seat of government itself; from lockdowns and hardships to Boris's imaginary friends, here is a look back at the year, to look forward to the next.

Send a text Two monologues from a group of interlocking monologues. Though there are four characters, it can be played by two actors.

Send a text I have written plays since 1980. Despite some success in the 1990s, work cut me off from my life-long interest after the crash of 2008. Whether my new plays find success or not, I love the process of writing for performance. Here is both my journey and some home-grown techniques I use in my writing. 

Send a text This is the concluding monologue of Bag Man Clive. Will he eat his Big Meaty? And what's he doing with those matches?

Send a text A sequel. Bagger Clive encounters the CEO's nephew in the factory's bagging station.

Send a text Clive returns from a long shift in 'bagging.'

Send a text This is my last nostalgic trip back to the 1960s for a while. This piece is largely improvised so I've left the glitches and stumbles in!

Send a text A recollection of the Weeley Music Festival, August 1971

Send a text Back in a small Suffolk town in 1969, at a gig in the town hall, I lost God but found The Eyelid of God!

Send a text Pubs I remember - and don't remember.

Send a text Muriel Mallin was born in Chicago but was brought up in London. Here are her early years, from the Downham Estate to the Central School of Art and Kilquhanity Free School.

Send a text Tom Mallin 1927 to 1977 - painter, printmaker, sculptor, novelist and playwright - from dating Hazel Court to smuggling paintings abroad!

Send a text Looking back in Lockdown - here are three letters to Heather. Many were published in magazines such as joe soap's canoe and Ambit. 

Send a text I am presently constructing a long play set on the East Coast and am looking back at some poems from the 1990s/2000s for some 'leads'