Countdown (19)

I am often asked who has been the greatest influence on my poetry. It is a difficult question to answer. Although I have written a lot of poetry I have to admit I have not read a lot of poetry. It is something I am slowly trying to rectify.

When I was fifteen I studied Seamus Heaney and Robert Morgen at school. That is the extent of my poetry education. Whenever I perform my poetry, and someone comments that this or that poem seemed to resemble the work of a famous poet, I have to admit I do not know that poet’s work. Then I might go and do some research and read one or two of their poems.

I suppose it is poetry education by default. Despite that I was an avid reader when younger. Often reading a book a day. One of my early English teachers had introduced us to speed reading. We learnt techniques to enable us to read faster and we wee encouraged to keep a record of how many pages we read in an hour.

I took to speed reading rather well, and this this helped me churn through books at a great rate.

I remember the Henry Treece historical novels involving the adventures of the Vikings captivated me. I was also big fan of the Biggles series written by W E Johns.

I would often latch on to an author and read most of their books before moving on to someone else.

I had a Dennis Wheatley phase, a John Wyndham and Brian Aldiss Phase. I loved reading books by Richard Adams and I even read every book written by Jacques Cousteau the famous marine biologist and conservationist.

I then moved on to Stephen King, James Patterson, Tom Clancy and more recently Gregg Hurwitz. I suppose the list would be quite long including some I might not want to admit to now.

I also have read countless non-fiction books, particularly related to history and scientific discovery. I have been fascinated (and disgusted) by the history of slavery and went on to read many books about the Civil Rights movement in the USA.

Amongst all the books I have read there are some I have returned to numerous times. If I had to compile a top ten list of books I have read several times over, two authors would featured more than once in the list.

They are George Orwell and Douglas Adams.

I have read all of Orwell’s novels and also his non-fiction books although strangely enough have never sought out his poetry. Perhaps that is something I will do during the summer months. Three of Orwell’s books I have read more than once. Not surprisingly 1984 and Animal Farm are on the podium and Keep the Aspidistra Flying joins them.

As for Douglas Adams, I have read each of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently series at least twice. With the first of each series amongst the handful of books I have read at least five times. One could say I am a fan.

I am pretty sure Adam’s unique style has influenced some of my poems. Although I will let the reader be the judge of that. In fact I could not resist including a Douglas Adam’s quote at the front of my book.

This blog is the nineteenth in a series of 30 leading up to my sixtieth birthday.  Thanks for getting this far. Please consider subscribing to my blog to keep up to date with my posts.

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