Anyone for poetry? I am
absolutely delighted to welcome poet, Greg Freeman and his collection of poems,
‘Marples Must Go!’ to Writers at the Gate.
Read on to find out more…
About the book…
A mysterious slogan
on a bridge across the M1 that remained there for decades denounced a 1960s
transport minister who had a finger in the pie of motorway building, and
oversaw Beeching’s vandalism of Britain’s railways. Ernest Marples was a
politician on the make who also liked to be chastised while wearing women’s
clothing. Greg Freeman’s wry and bemused poems meander around this and other
subjects such as free school milk, Juke Box Jury, Space Patrol, and the curious
appeal of Andy Williams, as well as the first proper sentence of a two-year-old
child: ‘Jack see Mrs Thatcher.’ As the years go by, the poet
finds himself remembering the cartoon comic heroes of Beano and Dandy,
picturing what might have happened to them in later life, and wondering plaintively:
‘Why can’t life still be hilarious?’
About the author…
Greg Freeman is a
former newspaper sub-editor, and now the news and reviews editor for the poetry
website Write Out Loud. His debut pamphlet collection, Trainspotters,
was published by Indigo Dreams in 2015. He co-runs a monthly open mic poetry
night in Woking, Surrey. He watched the second half of England's World Cup
drubbing against Germany in a pub in Ludlow with the-then poet laureate, Carol
Ann Duffy; and with hundreds of others, contributed vocals on Chuck Berry's no
1 hit, My Ding-A-Ling.
BUY THE BOOK
(Publisher's Website)
Brief Interview…
When did you start writing your
new book?
Some of the poems were written
several years ago, and some much more recently. I started assembling the
collection around the back end of last year, and it was accepted for
publication early in 2021. Many of the poems were 'road-tested' at Woking
Writers Circle and at Write Out Loud Woking open-mic poetry night, which used
to meet at the Lightbox gallery in Woking, and has been sharing poems on
Zoom since May 2020. (We hope to return to the Lightbox at the end of
September, but to carry on with Zoom as well)
What was the inspiration behind
the book?
The title poem refers to a dodgy
Tory politician from the 1960s. It's not for me to comment if anyone
thinks there are any parallels today. There are other political poems in
the book - politics is one of my interests - but the subject matter
stretches far beyond that to encompass 60s pop music, football, newspapers, the
Sean Henry sculptures in Woking town centre - and, of course, Covid.
What ideas do you have for any
future books?
I hope this doesn't sound too
morbid, but I recently had to have two surgical procedures to treat my angina.
I've already written quite a long poem about that process and would hope to
include it in a future collection.
Which publishing services (if
any) would you recommend?
My first poetry publisher was
Indigo Dreams, which produced my debut pamphlet Trainspotters in
2015. Guildford-based poetry publishers Dempsey & Windle have produced my
first full collection Marples Must Go! Both publishers work
very hard, publish lots of books, run competitions as well, and in my case have
come up with two smashing covers that I have been delighted with. Janice
and Donall and D&W even run their own monthly poetry open-mic night in
Guildford - and have been doing so since 2010, I believe.