Remaining

By Patricia Griffin

Snape Maltings

By David Bramhall

 Risotto

By Diane Chorley

Nan’s Bones

By Martyn Barlow

Hell’s Angel

By Jane Jones

Midnight Raiders

By Dick Hayes

Don’t Talk to Me of Love

By Elizabeth Parish

The Little Grey Lady of the Sea

By Rick Summat

Patricia Griffin

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

I live in Whitstable, Kent. I was born in Hampshire but spent most of my early childhood in Singapore. When I was a teenager I lived near Folkestone.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I enjoy writing poetry and hoped I could write something worthy to win a competition.

What inspired your work?

Spending more time at home and sorting cupboards brought back earlier memories of home and family.

What else have you been doing to keep busy in lockdown?

During lockdown I've been managing and redesigning my big garden, as well as going on long walks with the dog.

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

I’m looking forward to being reunited with my young grandchildren at the end of lockdown.

David Bramhall

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

I live in Harleston, a small market town in the Waveney Valley on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. I am married and have two grown-up children and two grandchildren. I was originally a musician and for many years worked as a music teacher, conductor, arranger and choir-trainer. Latterly I founded and directed a well-known children's choir. Since retirement I have gravitated from music to the written word, and have self-published a number of non-fiction books, novels and short stories.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

Very few people read the books I write, although those who do are … well ... polite, anyway. Most of them. On the other hand, no one reads my poetry at all. I could hardly pass up the opportunity to reach a wider audience, and to see if my verse is actually any good.

What inspired your work?

In my musical career I performed and conducted many times at the magnificent and atmospheric Snape Maltings. The sensation described in the poem, of being in a great reservoir of stored up music from the past, is a very real one to me. Expressing it succinctly in verse was a challenge.

What else have you been doing to keep busy in lockdown?

I have very nearly completed my next novel, and done plenty of research and preparation for the one after that. In between times, I have enjoyed watching my wife do the gardening, offering generous encouragement and advice - which often falls on stony ground, I find. I can't think why.

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

If I'm honest, lockdown has bothered me very little as I am not a particularly social person. One thing I do look forward to is being able to take my very charming mother-in-law (95 years old and self-isolating from the very start) to the supermarket for the first time!

Diane Chorley

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

 live in the sleepy seaside town of Seaton, Devon. I grew up in Surrey and in Devon, but I have lived in London, Hertfordshire, Scotland and now happily retired in Devon.

I first caught the writing bug when I won a prize aged 7, in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories.  The prize was a 2/6 (half-a-crown) postal order.  My life's work, however, has been raising a family and working in libraries, although I have always had one or two writing projects on the back burner.

What inspired your work?

I saw Risotto like a silent film, with images drifting across the screen, and tried to capture the scenes with words.

What else have you been doing to keep busy in lockdown?

We are three generations in my home, so during lockdown I have still been on granny duty, but have also been learning to paint with acrylics, and practising my calligraphy on birthday cards, which I make for friends and family.

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

When lockdown finishes I am looking forward to our town hall re-opening, as this is where we meet for many of our social activities, like Scrabble, Wine Appreciation, Scribblers Writing Group, the Art Society, and lots of Live Screenings.

Martyn Barlow

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

Two years ago we moved from North Staffordshire to Jarnac in south-west France. I lived most of my life in Newcastle-under-Lyme in North Staffordshire. I went to a Secondary Modern school, having failed my 11 plus exam, and started work at 16. I worked in the pottery industry and later in Stage Management in professional theatre. At 66 I graduated with an MA (with distinction) in Creative Writing from Keele University.

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I was told about the King Lear Prizes by a friend and it’s always good to have some work floating around ‘out there’ … one never knows!

What inspired your work?

I am a member of a Zoom poetry group and we read and discussed Seamus Heaney’s ‘Clearances’. I liked the idea of linked sonnets and thought I could explore the relationship between our past and present; how physical contact, sounds, sights and smell conjure ‘place’ and how replacing this with digital contact is a poor substitute.

What else have you been doing to keep busy in lockdown?

Like many people who move to France our ‘ideal bungalow not requiring any work’ turned into a two-storey house in need of TLC! So, we’ve been trying to establish a garden whilst the weather is good (most of the time!) and the endless list of painting and decorating is … well, endless!

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

I now look forward to a time when we can safely travel back to England to re-establish a proper relationship with family and friends and go to the theatre once again.

Jane Jones

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

I was born in Liverpool and via London and Oxford, came to live in Edinburgh at the end of the 1970's with our two young daughters. My father's family came from Ardrossen and Arran and I think his love of islands and the sea has become part of me too. I fell in love with the island of Corsica over 40 years ago and go there as often as I can.

I've always liked poetry. An old school friend and I were laughing recently remembering that we sometimes skipped classes at school and read poetry sitting on a radiator in the toilets!

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I joined a small poetry writing group about eight years ago - which has become an important part of my life - encouraging and inspiring us all to write. I have never entered any competition before until one of the group circulated the news about this prize.

What inspired your work?

I like observing people and quirky moments which fire my imagination and now keep      a notebook of many! I noticed this elderly lady on her scooter in Corsica and thought           about her for days afterwards - where was she going with a pinny on a scooter?!

What else have you been doing to keep busy in lockdown?

Zooming with daughter and grandaughters in Spain. Walking with real       appreciation for the green parkland and hills which come into our city. Got a second   hand old bike and started to cycle again, having fish and chips on Portobello beach           with an old friend was an early highlight!

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

Hugging my daughter and granddaughters who live in Barcelona and who haven't been able to get over this year and the really good friends who keep me going.

Dick Hayes

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

I live in Liverpool and with the family moved from South London in 1983. I have been a Liverpudlian longer than a Londoner and love the city of my adoption!

I worked for the NHS until retirement and have also been an unpaid Church minister for many years. I took up poetry in my early twenties and read widely from Spencer to Betjeman and have written many poems short / long / serious and comic. I am definitely not sporty!

Why did you enter the King Lear Prizes?

I felt you would appreciate the more gentle and reflective work that I compose. 

What inspired your work?

Recollections of those moments of tenderness, when we lay awake on a summer night with the window open, aware of the distant sounds and lights of the City.

What else have you been doing to keep busy in lockdown?

Scrabble! Gardening! and reading from my small, but varied library, titles such as: ‘George Fox’s journal’ , Bunyan’s ‘The Holy War’ and Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’.

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

Spending time with our grandchildren and returning to church.

Elizabeth Parish

Tell us a bit about where you live and about your life?

I live in Manchester, and am a member of two writing groups, both of which are keeping in touch by e-mail during lockdown.

I am now retired, but I was for 30 years an English teacher, and found your group while looking for on-line exercises/competitions during lockdown.

What inspired your work?

The inspiration for this poem came from an exercise – writing in response to a well-known first (or last) line.

What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?

I am looking forward to seeing friends and going places once lockdown ends.