Paul was born in 1956 in the city of Salford, in the North West UK in what was then part of the county of Lancashire. Salford was the archetypal ' Dirty Old Town', famed in a song of the same title. People were poor, but there was something about the place that made them rich...
Childhood days of hand-me-down clothes, and that ever worrying phrase, " Stop moaning lad, you'll grow into them!" ringing in every younger brother's ears.
No CD player's or DVD's, and the game console of the time was balancing a tray with your dinner on your knobbly knees, trying to keep the peas from rolling onto the fading lino on the kitchen floor. It was just black and white T.V., playing ' Kick Can' and scuffing your boots, (and knees), on the cobbled streets as you imagined scoring a goal at Manchester United's Stretford End at the clubs Old Trafford football ground...happy days? Looking back over the years he'd say yes.
Education was the norm for the time; primary school, Secondary Modern, (he failed the old 11 plus exam for entry to Grammar School), and then, having moved to the then new town of Milton Keynes with his parents, serving his apprenticeship as a coach painter at the Wolverton Works site. Here he worked on painting and maintaining the rail network rolling stock, seeing the comedy of life in the microcosm of an engineering factory!
During his two periods of employment at Wolverton, he worked on the rolling stock making up the Royal Train, where his one claim to fame from those days was eating a salmon paste butty sat on the Queens bed!
Having had what he would describe as a mainly uneventful life, the last few years have been ones involving major life changes, which brought about the need to write and started with the poem Journey's End, written to show that we never lose those we love and who have loved us.
Lost In The Moment is a collection of poems previously published by Paul on line at www.paintedperfectly.com, a free poetry community that gives writers the opportunity to develop their skills by showing their work to a wider audience.
Encouraged by this, in celebration of their inspiration, and of reaching a personal milestone, (hitting his half century!), those same words are shared here in the hopes the reader will enjoy the tumbling range of emotions that are part of our lives.
The one thing he's learnt? Age doesn't bring wisdom, just a few more creaking joints…
For a preview of the books table of contents, and a selection of poem extracts click here. |
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