The Land of the Gillybongs

By Denise Morton

The Cherrywood Bowl

By Dan Janoff

Time

By Kevin Deeming

Jackdaws

By Jane Varley

The Fall

By Karin De Novellis

Revisited

By Dr. Anthony Mitchell

Dignity

By Martin Hughes

The Last Love Song

By Carole Martin

Dancing to the Music of Time

By Sue Marshall

Undefined

By Malc Fritchley

(Under the Skin) We are Kin

By Carl Heap

Diaspora

By Derham O’Neill

Graham Adcock - Bikes Without A Bell

Leo Appleton - Toby The Tiny Detective

Nicola Aven - Hidden Wisdom

Steve Baker - Bedsit 2

Michael Baum - Reflections On A Mirror

Elaine Bee - Remember Me

Cherry Bell - Waiting To Fly

Graham Bell - Deathbed 

Graham Bell - Half Full

Liesbeth Bennett - The Seasons

Fiona Bennetton - Kuranda Sky Rail

David Bentham - My Knife

David Bentham - Come With Me

Tim Boardman - Scythe 

Judy Bowles - Winter Poem

Maxine Broadbent - Ode To Joe Mace

Lesley Brooks - The Hare

Jean Buck - For Ildete

Jean Buck - Oh, Well...

Kathryn Campbell - Dream Lyric

Kathryn Campbell - The Open Top Bus

Ken Cannaby - Blue Lane

Jan Cantle - The Cost Of Living Blues

Chris Clark - Anastasia's Dream

Alexandra Clarke - Tell The Bees! A Coronation Sonnet

Margaret Clarke - What If?

Boakesey Closs - Six Glossy Legs On An Armour-Plated Carapace

Frank Colley - My Dearest Darling

Hugh Colvin - The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Daphne Constantine - Forest Ghosts

Laurence Copeland - Biopsy

Ros Cordiner - Leaving Ukraine

Thea (Cynthia) Couldwell - Swallows

Ian Currie - This Skin I'm In

Janet Curtis - Untitled

Dawn Davies - Songfire

Jeremy Davis-Marks - The Coronation Chickens

Jenny Dean - Truth In Hiding38

Kevin Deeming - Spring

Rosemary Dixon - New Light Out Of Old Windows

Rosemary Dixon - Trees Tease Us

Ann Marie Dunn - Remembering

Angela Edmondson - My Pain Or Yours

Linda Elliott-George - Memories & Sister Love

Valerie Emblen - Understanding Should Grow With Age

Sue Evans - The Visit

Paul Ewan - Sunday In Autumn

Ruth Fabby - Deaf And Death

Anthony Firth - In Memoriam

Mike Fisher - Salt Spray On Lips....

Sally Frost - A Sycamore Leaf

David Fullerton - Hold On To Your Hat (Dr Rank Speaks)

David Fullerton - Waiting Tree

Ruby Gamble - Instructions For Viewing

Roger Garrett - Bumble Bees

Roger Garrett - Table Manners

Glenda Gibson - It Felt Sacred

Veryan Gibson - The Swifts

Lorraine Goodison - Days Like This

David Gorham - A Poem Is A Parcel Of Words

Tessa Grandi - Full Circle 

Elizabeth Greensides - Ghost

Roger Griffin - Duolingo Blues

Simon Haines - Fish And Chips

Patricia Hamilton - The Shamrock And The Rose

Susan Hanbury - Waves

Dave Hanson - I Once Had Tickets For Deep Purple

Anne Hastings - Something Is Going To Happen

Julia Heathcote - The Thread

Robert Hershkowitz - Fistful Of Haikus

Norman Hewston - The Salmon & The Fly

Peter Heydon - Salad Days

Peter Heydon - Egg

Margaret Hooper - Coronation

Kim Hope - Five Ties On The Downs

Carol Hopkins - Sisters In Arms

Carol Hopkins - Revolving Door

Stella Howells - The Onion Pickers

Bill Hughes - Elegy In Times Of Plague

Bill Hughes - The Commerce Of Light

Sally Hyde Lomax - Light A Bonfire In May

Russell Jacklin - In An Attic Room

Linda James - Leaving Me

Linda James - Black Light

Dan Janoff - Small Acts Of Hope

Eileen Jeffers - Hello To The Big ‘6’ ‘o’

Christine Jones - My Wild Place

Jenny Jones - Psych Ward

Michael Joseph - Sortir Ses Histoires

Margaret Keane - The Thoughts Of Mary

Theresa Kelleher - Scented Promise

Ivan Kent - Patterns In Mind

Francis Kirkham - The Honorable Schoolboy

Dermott Knox - On Shap Fell

Dermott Knox - Coronation Forests

Carol Landon-Brown - Night SeaJean Lane - "Life"

Jean Lane - Birmingham

Sally Lang - Hobbies, A History

Dave Laws - The Snow White Moon

Fiona Legh-Ellis - The Window

Stuart Lindsay - If

Stuart Lindsay - The Room With Many Doors

Stephen Lloyd - A Covid Birdwatcher

Elizabeth Lockhart - Empty House

Ricky Lowes - Do Not Set Sail Too Soon

Julie Luvaglio - Clouded Vision

Elaine Mairis - The Night Garden.

Roy Marsh - My Lip Bleeds

Michael Martin - Forest Walk

David May - I Saw A Coronation Skylark

Chritine McIntosh - The Mind Thief

John McCluskie - A Wee Bottle Of......

Pamela McInally - Villainous Zoo

Joan Mills - A Seaside Song For Lilith

Anthony Mitchell - Shakespearean Sonnet On Spring

Sylvia Moore - Urban Poetry

Catherine Morrison - Easter Sunday

Elaine Nester - Woman

Elaine Nester - Circles

Elaine Nester - The Old House

Glenis Newton - Daring Not

Glenis Newton - Spinning Yarn

Yvonne Nicola  - The Cost (Haiku)

Angela O'Connor - Haiku On Bidston Hill

Angela O'Connor - Sunrise

Alan Ormiston - Time And Tide

Richard Orritt - Little Boy

John Paris - When You Were There With Me

Frances Parsons - The Kindness Of Breath - Persistence

Louise Peregrina - Street Party Planner

Kate Platt - My Grief

Liz Platt-Wood - Hidden Treasures

Christine Pocsai - Goodnight

Laurie Prime - Tick Tock

Elaine Pryce - This

Sharon Richards - For Sale By Auction

Susan Rickard Liow - Borneo Gibbon

Chris Rickards - A Walk To Primrose Wood

Jo Riglar - For Sale

Jill Sansum - Room One

Marianne Scarfe - Rain 

Yanina Sheeran - Midsummer's Eve At Burton Agnes Hall

Sheila Shepheard - A Fresh Look At Mona Lisa

Sheila Sly - Refuge

Ian Soane - The Far Hebrides

Krysia Sosna - Fear Before Dawn

Krysia Sosna - The Care Home

Sandy Spencer - Imposter Syndrome

Barrie Steele - Sonnet 18

Jennifer Stewart - If I Were A Place

Jennifer Stewart - Lampooned

Jayne Stinton - Leader

Marion Sweeney - Bright

Irena Szirtes  - Paused Time 

Irena Szirtes  - Under A Shropshire Sky 

Malcolm Tait - The Starling

Brian Taylor - Chieftain Of The Clan

Eileen Thompson - Moving Meditation

Julie Tonkin - Flying Roses

Claire Topp - My Mother Wasn't Perfect

Susan Treeton - Black Marble

Sandra Tubey - Sleep

Jane Varley - Winter Poem

Debby Wakeham - Feeding Of Cats (A Parody On Naming Of Parts)

Helen Ward  - Like My Pet Hate 

Patricia Watkins - The Poetry And Other Trees

Tony Wells - Creation

Barbara Whitehead - A Penguin's Eye View 

Liz Whitmore - A Move With A View

Derrick Wilkinson - Each Day

Simon Williams - Waiting For Hugo

Rachel Williams - Who Is The King?

Simon Wood - Oglet Shore

Tessa Woodward - Never More Than Twenty Feet From A Rat 

Jenny Wright - My Father's Chair

Reg Wright - Broken

Frank Ying - The Vamp

Juliet Abrahamson - Finding My Way – A Villanelle For Doubt

David Allard - Memory Loss

Roger Allen - Issues

Carolyn Amado - Heptonstall

Alex Anderson - Am I Asking For Too Much

Yolande Armstrong - Noli Me Tangere

Linda Baker - The Buzzard

Jacqueline Balfour-Breach - Call Me A Bean

Pru Bankes Price - Misconception Of A Pair Of Shoes

Douglas Bannister - The Marmalade Tree

Martyn Barlow - Dandelions

Rory Barnes - Inside My Love

Rory Barnes - A Bad Day

Maureen Barrett - Two Continents On Fire

Peter Bates - Hapless Valley

Neil Beaton - Glitch With The Satnav

Salli Belsham - Half Life

David Benson - My Darling

Val Binney - Call Me Frida Kahlo

Hilary Birch - Mother And Child

Keith Bolton - Two Rivers

Kathryn  Booth - Cruise Ship

Nicola Branson - Tiffany Box

Peter Bray - Hush Money

Jude Brigley - Agnes Alice At Landshipping

Eleanor Broaders - Song Of The Wind

Susan Burgess - Coronation

Pamela Carr - Wasted Words

Elizabeth Cartwright-Hignett - Compost

Pratibha Castle - Giorgio Morandi - Self Portrait

Kathryn Castle - In The East

Sandra Mary Chambers - Homecoming

Sandra Mary Chambers - Perhaps

Clair Chilvers - Electric Rickshaw

Fiona Clark - A City Childhood

Richard Clark - Aspergian Lament

Simon Clarke - For Ever And Ever

Alison Clayburn - My Egyptian Homecoming 

George Clayton - Savages

Pam Cocchiara - On Duty

Christopher Collier - He Vivido

Naomi Collyer - The Cliff House

Helen Cook - Bwthyn, Nant Gwrtheryn

Irene Cunningham - Magical Realism

Jane Dansie - Touching History

Hazel Davies - Koi Carp

Jefh Davies - How Were They To Know?

Jefh Davies - It Will Never Be About Time

Jefh Davies - Out There In The Rain With The Dog

Christian Donovan - The Undertaker

Gwyneth Duhy - The Beach

Liz Eastwood - Intensive Care Unit January 2023

Suzanne Egerton - Green Time

Barbara Evans - The Man Of The Sea

Simon D Evans - 'god Save The Queen'

Christine Fairclough - Just Like The Movies

Heather Falconer - Angry With Cows

Scott Fellows - Going Back

Angela Fish - Retrieving

Angela Fish - Voices

Grace Gant - Not Now

Frances Gaudiano - I Am Not A Pinniped

Leela Gautam - Is This The Start Of The Worst?

Siobhan Gifford - Gin Fizz With Charon

Barbara Gillett - Villanelle

Linda Goulden - Relatively Speaking

Christine Griffin - Ode To Moor Street Surgery Waiting Room

Roy Haines-Young - Bankside

Rosemary Harle - Favourite Poem

Alan Harris - Forgetting

Phyl Harris - Opera In The Dark

Gary Hawker - Sylvie

Gary Hawker - A Curious Frankenstein 

Gary Hawker - Sunrise At Matera

Barbara Hawkins - Netting Memories.

Anne Marie Hawkins - Aunty Rosie, Star Of The Sea

Carl Heap - Sunday Service

Carl Heap - Dream Sweeper

Brenda Henderson - We Knew

Malcolm Henshall - An Aubade

Malcolm Henshall - Barrer' Boy

Anthony Hentschel - Cissie Klein

Bill Hilton - The Stones Of Inish-Mair

Marion Hobday - Field Trip

Marion Hobday - First They Came For The Teaspoons

Marion Hobday - Lots Of Folk Live Up Lanes

Martin Hughes - This Space

Martin Hughes - Tiny Paw Prints

Robert Hume - The Species Not The Gender

Chris Husband - Positivity Jar

Phil Isherwood - The Wave In A Bottle

Sheila Jacob - Coronation Volumes

Caroline Johnstone - The Pursuit

Helen Kay - Silent-Is-Raw 

Claudia Kelly - Fragile Yesterdays

David Kennard - Spring Visit

Igor Kennaway - Tell Me Anything You Wish'

Melanie Kerr - Aging

Gill Learner - Acceptance

Gill Learner - The Last Of The Whitby Whalers

Audrey Lee - Song For A Funeral

Janet Lewis - Beginning Of The End

Janet Lewis - The Yard

Vicky Lloyd-West - The Afterdrop

Melville Lovatt - A Basket Instead Of A Trolley

Alan Lusher - White Collar Slaves

Janet Lynch - Windrush Morning

Janet Lynch - Murano

Bernadette Lynch - There Has To Be A Healing 

Jane Mackinnon - Unforgettable

Steven Marshall - Phil And Mel

Sue Marshall - The Bluebell Wood

Jean Maskell - The Rape Of Artemesia Gentileschi 1611

Jean Maskell - A Home For John O’donnell

Jean Maskell - Sunday After The Rain: St Deinol’s Church Hawarden

Kenneth Mason - The Spring

Patricia McCaw - Petitioning My Neuropathic Feet

Carmina McConnell - Cancer

Liz McPherson - My Mother And I Are Both 18

Liz McPherson - Crossing Place

Ron Millet - Staring

Patricia Minson - Strangers

Karen Mooney - Late September Fly Past At Hillsborough Castle

Ros Moore - Gravity

Paul Morgan - Algorythm

Debbie Moss - Sienna's Sestina

Debbie Moss - The Complexities Of Complexion

David Mott - Statues

Rosalind Napier - Morning Sun

Patricia Newman - Finding Myself

Michele Noble - Dragonfly

Justin O'Doherty - Taking A Poem For A Walk

Justin O'Doherty - The Rustlers

Gabrielle O'Donovan - Ode To Ginger

Susan O'Neal - The Comfort Of The Familiar (Sestina)

Derham O'Neill - Honey Bee

Iris Parrott - British Institution

Pam Pellen - Perfect Pastry

Anne Pilgrim-Green - If Jesus Had Been Born In Yorkshire

Deryn Pittar - Gravatt Road

Carole Pluckrose - Electra 

Hilary Price Jones - I Wish I Had Told You

Bruce Prince - Brain 1: A Bit Of Archeaology

Christine Ractliff - Morning Ride

Ian Renwick - Lavender

Ian Renwick - Lavender

Joe Reynolds - The Circus Lion's Tail

Edward Richardson - Sleeping Passengers

Alan Roberts - National Library For Children, Ukraine

Christine Roberts - Two Rose Gardens

John Robinson - Poem On Father's Day

Michael Rogers - Relief

Lisa Rossetti - Sashiko For The Soul

Margaret Royall - Monet Pursues His Obsession With Waterlilies

Margaret Royall - A Shopgirl Is Transformed By A Recent Purchase

Sue Ruben - A Holey Plant

Christine Saunders - Left Cackhanded

Ann Seed - Spring

Ann Seed - The Hill - Crown Jewel

Robert Smith - Fritillaries

John Smith - In The Body

Theresa Sowerby - Earth Song

Sue Spiers - The Snowdrop Campaign

Martin Spiller - Two Minutes In November

Karenza Storey - Inheritance

Linden Sweeney - Remainder Of The Day

Mark Temple - The B Word

Carole Thewsey - Wildflowers

Errol Tompkins - Four

Judith  Tremaine Drazin - Time For The Clowns

Olabamiji Yemi Tubi - Climate Change

O Yemi Tubi (Moyat) - Alkebu-Lan Africa Shall Rise Again

Eve Turner - Backwards In High Heels

Sharon Elizabeth Tyres - Vessel Of Nowhere Love

Keith Warner - In Italy

Martine Wates - The Terrible Two Celebrate The Coronation

Peter Watson - The Road Taken

Julie West - Ghost Child

John Whitehouse - Fugitive Dust

Frances Whiteman - Lily And Me

Frances Whiteman - Blow Wind Blow

Nicola Wood - Katie Grey

Tim Woodcock - The Ruthin Road

Angela Young - Mother

Denise Morton

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I’ve lived in Nottingham for the last thirty years, having previously lived in Middlesex (too young to remember much about it), Kent (ditto), Chorley, Bath and then Bristol. Nottingham feels like home, and my little Victorian terraced house on a hill is my sanctuary. There’s a lovely park with two lakes nearby and I love walking there. It’s where many of my ideas either begin or are pondered over as I walk around talking to myself. I have a lovely little garden and when the weather is warm enough, you’ll find me sitting outside typing away on my laptop.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

The main reason that I entered the King Lear Prize was because it offered feedback on the entries submitted. I had no pretensions whatsoever that I would get anywhere in the competition. I’ve only been writing creatively on and off since 2019, so, to be honest, the chance to get some professional feedback felt like a prize in itself.

What inspires your work?

My poem was inspired by a session in my writing group where we shared a selection of nonsense poems by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll (I loved their poems when I was a child) and Spike Milligan (who I read when I was a little older). I wanted to write a piece that was fun and full of energy with made-up words, which, although it was set in an imaginary world, felt like a real and wonderfully joyous place to be, and one where the inhabitants were having the best time ever! I thoroughly enjoyed writing it.

Dan Janoff

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in South Woodford, a suburban neighbourhood in the London Borough of Redbridge on the edge of the lovely Epping Forest.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I heard about the prize from a member of the Forest Poets group in nearby Walthamstow which I joined last year and attend monthly.

What inspired your work?

I set myself the task of writing about an object that was important to me - the wooden bowl being a physical link to my deceased mother and grandmother, and serving as a kind of metaphor for our relationship.

Kevin Deeming

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in the lovely area of Frensham Common, just south of Farnham, Surrey.  I am retired, having spent my working life as an oceanographer in the offshore wind, oil & gas, and water industries. 

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I received an email from King Lear Prizes a few months ago inviting submissions.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I submitted two of my poems, Spring and Time. 

What inspired your work?

I have not written a great deal of poetry but have always been interested in it.  In recent years I have compiled two anthologies of my favourite poems in the English language: ‘Flowers of the Heart and Mind, Volumes 1 & 2’.  150 copies of each have been printed and given to friends.

‘Spring’ arose from my environmental convictions and ‘Time’ from reflections on my life, family, friends, and loves over the years.  I wrote it in a very short amount of time.  Two of the words most used in the English language are “If only”, but they are imposters and lead us down an emotional cul-de-sac.  As T S Eliot says in his poem East Coker:

“What might have been is an abstraction

Remaining a perpetual possibility

Only in a world of speculation.”

Jane Varley

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in the beautiful Hope Valley in the Peak District. It was always my plan to return to village life when I retired.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I entered the King Lear competition to support my friends in our small writing group.

What inspired your work?

At school in Devon we had a wonderful English teacher who enthusiastically helped us discover English literature. She often set poetry writing for homework. Since my childhood on a farm I have felt close to nature. I am happiest just ‘being’ and observing the wildlife around me, the changing seasons, the light chasing across the hill sides, flowers, foxes, hares – cows even! And trees. But birds have always been my special love. In winter, as dusk sets in, I often see jackdaws wheeling and gathering for their return to their roost.

Karin De Novellis

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in a typical north west London suburb; in a semi with the ubiquitous strip of garden which I adore tending.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I attend a writing group for seniors, facilitated most brilliantly by Bunmi Ogunsiji. One of the other participants mentioned the King Lear Prizes and suggested we give it a go.  So I did and promptly forgot all about it until I received the email saying I had been shortlisted. Needless to say, I am thrilled to know my poem has touched people and my writing is judged to have some value..

What inspired your work?

In class, Bunmi gave us the prompt, " a special journey" and the poem came out of that.  I am a nature lover and gardener and notice the small things. Climate change is so much in the air and I think that, on an unconscious level, this also informed the poem; a fall from Eden perhaps.

Dr. Anthony Mitchell

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I have lived in Gillingham, North Dorset for the last five years, previously Cornwall.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I heard of the King Lear Competition through the writing group to which I belong

which meets weekly in Gillingham Library.

What inspired your work?

I also belong to a poetry group which meets monthly at Shaftesbury Arts Centre.

It was in studying Thomas Hardy in that group, that I found the inspiration to write Revisted.

Martin Hughes

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in Pelsall, a village in the West Midlands where I'm lucky enough to find friends, family and occasional inspiration. I help to run a poetry and performance evening at a local community centre.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I entered King Lear Prizes as it had been a little while since I wrote and read my work as my writing group no longer met post Covid. I was having doubts about my writing, what it did for me and whether in fact it was any good. Something told me to give the competition a go...

What inspired your work?

'Dignity' was inspired by a day at the beach, somewhere on the Isle of Wight. The idea had nagged at me for some time, either as a poem or short story, eventually finding form in a juxtaposition of the observed and the observer that might tell us as much about the latter as it does the former.

Carole Martin

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in a little town in the north of Greater Manchester. There’s a river nearby and green spaces within reach, but basically it’s a semi-detached house in a suburb. Here I’ve been for nearly eighteen years with my son and my rescue cat. I like the sense of being part of Radcliffe; I know by name the market stall holders, the dentist, the hairdresser, the vet, and why there’s that ongoing argument about the use of the old library. It’s nice to belong.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I entered the competition for I think it’s the third time. Writing poetry feels like an essential part of me; practising art is inescapable, but like all artists I like recognition, to have someone see what I produce and find some meaning in it. That completes the circle and gives me joy. And this competition gives us a chance for that to happen.

What inspired your work?

Mostly I’m intrigued by other people’s lives and trying to understand what they feel like. My poem ‘The Last Love Song’ was inspired by knowing some friends in a similar situation and seeing what long-term love really means. Dementia menaces such a couple; it's like being in a war zone. For the pair in my poem, it began long ago with that heady, glorious sense of being young and in love and lasts through the years to the very end, where love is expressed by cleaning up the shit in the early hours. I find it unbearably touching.

Sue Marshall

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in Mayfield, East Sussex, a small village in the High Weald.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I entered the King Lear prizes as part of a group entry. I am a member of Crowborough Arts Poetry Group which has been a source of huge support and inspiration to me.

What inspired your work?

At each meeting we have a theme for our poetry. On this occasion the theme was ‘Dance’. I was inspired by Nicolas Poussin’s painting ‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ and by the synergy between the seasons  and musical expression.

Malc Fritchley

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I live in North Nottinghamshire in the village of Shireoaks near the town of Worksop. The borders of three counties meet on the edge of the village  - Nottinghamshire,  South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, counties having some amazing scenery and steeped in history.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I had already heard of the King Lear Prizes a couple of years ago. It was my wife, though, who encouraged me to enter 'Undefined'. 

What inspired your work?

The poem was inspired by the news that as part of the regular updating of the Oxford Children's Dictionary, one of the words being excised was 'piglet'. It seemed a strange choice to me...

Carl Heap

Tell us a bit about where you live?

I have lived in Crouch End, North London for more than three decades, and two of my four grandchildren live upstairs. I have sung with the celebrated Crouch End Festival chorus for more than two decades and am a veteran of the London Heathside running club. Crouch End is one of those London villages, and you can't go into the centre without bumping into people you know and have brought up kids alongside. Lately the place seems to have become full of actors. I have been at various times an actor, teacher and theatre director.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I have been entering other poetry prizes for a few years now and almost need a spreadsheet to keep track of the dates and poems submitted. No column needed for the entry fees, which I just suck up. I entered the King Lear Prizes in the hope that it might narrow the field enough for me to get a look-in. It’s not just that one wants the affirmation, or indeed the money prize – the really exciting thing is to be able to reach other readers beyond the handful of family and friends that put up with the sharing.

What inspired your work?

The unconstrained creative joy and playfulness of my children and grandchildren and their appetite for nonsense.

Since just before Lockdown I have been taking courses at writingroom.org.uk which is a wonderful supportive community of aspiring writers led by excellent tutors. I’ve been working on a children’s novel and a running memoir. Poet and poetry tutor Paul Lyalls has cunning ways of opening up avenues to new material.

Lately I’ve been doing open mic spots at poetry clubs – feedback from a live audience is wholesome and nourishing. My comedy alter ego Professor Richard Pickings writes exclusively about Fruit and Veg.

Derham O’Neill

Tell us a bit about where you live?

For the last nearly twenty years I have lived partly in England, in central London, a stones throw from Buckingham Palace and the fowl and the fish in St James Park.  In contrast, I live also partly in France on a small island called L’Île d’Yeu, once one of the busiest tuna fishing ports in Europe, but no more.  L’Île d’Yeu is situated in the Bay of Biscay, some decent distance from the continent.  It is blessed with magnificent beaches, fresh ocean waters and on a clear day you might, after a good lunch, dream you can see America beyond the western horizon.  

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I rarely enter competitions as the formal processes are often the very opposite of the creative and poetic.  I found the King Lear much more welcoming and engaging, more encouraging, not bureaucratic, and very helpful as when the would-be entrant blunders with the paperwork or the technology. 

What inspired your work?

“Diaspora” was written twenty-eight years ago, when wars in former Yugoslavia and in Chechnya, and characters such as RadovanKaradžić, were still newsworthy.   I am old enough to remember being taken to the cinema by my father in the later 1940s and, despite my tender years, seeing vivid scenes of the liberation of Belson by the British Army.  I also heard some reportage of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army in the newspapers that my father read to me in the mornings.  Some things stick in the mind of a child.