Oliver's Poetry Garret

MY LIFE AS A KEEN PHOTOGRAPHER STARTED SOME 53 YEARS AGO - IN 1970. AND SO IT SEEMS APPOSITE TO FEATURE 53 OF THE FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPHS I HAVE TAKEN OVER THIS PERIOD OF MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY. ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2023/11/52-photos.html

Devastated to hear of the death of my old friend Tim Cornwell, a fellow trainee reporter at the Hull Daily Mail from 1984-86. I am not going to repeat Tim's obituary  - The Scotsman, where ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2022/08/tim-cornwell-rip.html

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2022/06/sun-sets.html

  OVER THE TORRID PAST 21 MONTHS, BRITAIN HAS CHANGED ALMOST BEYOND RECOGNITION - AND NOT REALLY FOR THE BETTER. One of these horrid Covid trends is what I call "cashism"  - the refusal ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-fight-against-cashism.html

  THIS IS NOT AN EASY ONE TO WRITE. AFTER ALL THE TERRIBLE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED THIS YEAR - TO ME AND TO MILLIONS OF OTHERS - IT WAS MOST PLEASANT TO VISIT MY DEAR FRIEND DORIAN VAN BRAA...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2021/01/dorian-van-braam-elder-rip.html

THE REOPEN MADEIRA DRIVE CAMPAIGN - LAUNCHED IN EARLY JUNE BY MYSELF AND MY PARTNER LAURA KING - HAS BEEN VICTORIOUS! BRIGHTON & HOVE CITY COUNCIL LAST NIGHT (TUESDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2020) VOTED ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/09/victory-in-battle-of-madeira-drive.html

FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PASS MY MOTORCYCLE TEST, AND WHEN LOCKDOWN STARTED I SAW IT AS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO GET THE EXPERIENCE I NEEDED. Back in the 1970s and 1980s,...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/08/150-consecutive-days-of-motorcycling.html

SUNDAY, 9 AUGUST UPDATE: GREAT PROTEST TODAY BY MODS AND ROCKERS AT MADEIRA DRIVE! Large numbers of Mods and other scooterists and Rockers and other bikers gathered from 10am - and were in...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/08/reopen-madeira-drive-campaign-part-2.html

IN MAY, I WROTE THE BLOG POST ATGET'S PARIS AND OLLIE'S BRIGHTON , IN WHICH I LIKENED PHOTOGRAPHS OF EMPTY STREETS DURING LOCKDOWN TO PHOTOGRAPHER EUGÈNE ATGET 'S WORK IN PARIS IN THE LATE 19T...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/08/brighton-hove-comes-out-of-lockdown.html

SIGN PETITION. DO BRIGHTON & HOVE CITY COUNCIL'S MADEIRA DRIVE SURVEY ! BRIGHTON'S ICONIC MADEIRA DRIVE FACES A PERMANENT BAN ON ACCESS BY ALL MOTORCYCLISTS, SCOOTERISTS AND OTHER MOTOR ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-scandal-of-closure-of-brightons.html

ONE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHER HEROES IS EUGÈNE ATGET WHO IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY METHODICALLY CAPTURED OLD PARIS, PHOTOGRAPHING IT STREET BY STREET. I HAVE A TREASURED BOOK,...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/05/atgets-paris-and-ollies-brighton.html

IT HAS BEEN A TRAUMATIC TIME. ON TUESDAY NIGHT (28 APRIL 2020), I SLEPT VERY BADLY, RACKED WITH ANXIETY ABOUT VARIOUS MATTERS, AND AWOKE AT 7AM ON WEDNESDAY MORNING FEELING TERRIBLE. I LOOKED O...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-goodness-of-mod-kind.html

TODAY (20 APRIL 2020) IS THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF MY MUM HEIDE WILSON 'S DEATH. I MISS HER ENORMOUSLY - EVERY DAY!

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/04/mum.html

DURING THESE DARK DAYS, AT LEAST WE HAVE BOOKS. I have been filling my time with a catholic array of reading matter, which is seeing me through the Coronavirus Crisis. As we went into the ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-reading.html

LIFE IN BRIGHTON & HOVE, LIFE IN BRITAIN, LIFE ALMOST EVERYWHERE IS SURREAL IN COVID LOCKDOWN. In my exercise hour, I have taken some pictures of what it looks like where we live: the beautif...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/03/lockdown.html

WE LIVE IN EXTRAORDINARY, ALMOST INCREDIBLE TIMES. IN MY LIFETIME, I CANNOT RECALL A STRANGER SITUATION: BRITAIN IN LOCKDOWN; CAFES, PUBS, CLUBS AND RESTAURANTS CLOSED; NO LIVE SPORT; THE GOVERNM...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/03/our-war-with-coronavirus.html

ON THE 120TH BIRTHDAY OF THE LABOUR PARTY, A SMALL GROUP OF ACTIVISTS GATHERED IN THE SLIGHTLY FADED GLORY OF THE HOVE CLUB WHERE, BENEATH OLD PORTRAITS OF HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN AND HRH PRINCE P...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/03/labour-leadership-and-deputy-leadership.html

THE LABOUR LEADERSHIP CONTEST IS IN FULL SWING - AND I HAVE MADE UP MY MIND, SUPPORTING KEIR STARMER AS THE CANDIDATE MOST LIKELY TO PUT THE PARTY BACK ON TRACK. There is much campaigning to...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/02/why-i-am-backing-keir-starmer-for.html

MOST SADLY, MY FRIEND AND ALLOTMENT NEIGHBOUR GRAHAM GROUCUTT HAS DIED. Although I knew he had been ill, news of Graham's death still came as a shock. Until a few months ago, he had been a vi...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/02/graham-groucutt-rip.html

THIRTY-SIX YEARS ON SINCE MY FIRST GRADUATION, I GRADUATED AGAIN YESTERDAY (MONDAY, 20 JANUARY 2020) WITH AN MSC. IN VOLUNTARY SECTOR MANAGEMENT FROM CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON . It was a wonder...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2020/01/graduation-36-years-on.html

I HAVE REALISED THAT NEXT YEAR - 2020 - I WILL HAVE BEEN TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS FOR HALF A CENTURY. I started in late 1970, after persuading my mother to buy a Kodak Instamatic Camera from an offe...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2019/10/my-1970s-images.html

IT IS NEW YEAR'S EVE 2018 AND SO A NATURAL TIME TO LOOK BACK OVER THE YEAR. This year has been dominated by the death of my dear mother, Heide Wilson (nee Loblich). Mum (pictured left at my ...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-2018.html

IT IS SOME 33 YEARS SINCE I LAST DID ANY ACADEMIC STUDY BUT, SUDDENLY, I AM A STUDENT AGAIN! A strange feeling. From 1980-83, I was an undergraduate at the University of Hull where I was rea...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2017/10/back-to-school.html

WHEN I BEGAN "BREAD", THE SECOND CHAPTER IN DELIA SMITH'S COOKERY COURSE, I FELT A LITTLE NERVOUS BUT REALLY HAD NO IDEA OF THE HORRORS AND HUMILIATIONS THAT AWAITED ME. SOON I TRULY UNDERSTOOD W...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2017/08/cooking-delia-2-bread.html

AT THE TENDER AGE OF 55 I HAVE DECIDED TO TAKE UP COOKERY. WHY? A FEW REASONS REALLY. FIRSTLY, I FEEL BAD AT HAVING SPENT MOST OF MY ADULT LIFE RELYING ON OTHERS TO COOK FOR ME. WHEN I WAS MARR...

https://oliverspoetrygarret.blogspot.com/2017/03/cooking-delia-1-eggs.html