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Poet, author, actor, director, broadcaster,
& screenwriter
POET PERFORMER:
COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, COMMUNITY
GROUPS, AND PRISONS
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Performing to a youth club
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Universities
He has read to many university poetry societies, including Oxford, University
College London, King's College London, L.S.E., Bath, Bournemouth, East
Anglia, Exeter, Lancaster, Loughborough, Warwick, University of Wales
Aberystwyth, University of Wales Bangor, University of Wales Lampeter,
and the Cambridge University Shirley Society.
Schools
He is much in demand to perform his poetry in schools, where he presents
programmes tailored to the schools' individual requirements.
He regularly appears as part of a Sixth-form General Studies programme
where his poetry entertainments are much appreciated even by people
for whom poetry is normally something to avoid at all costs!
Another regular commitment is to perform for Key Stages 3 and 4.
He has given hundreds of performances to both these kinds of audience.
Particularly with KS 3 and 4 pupils, he is often invited to give follow-up
workshops in creative writing.
He has also given lectures to specialist English classes.
In addition he has often performed in public libraries, to youth clubs,
and to pensioners.
He has also performed in prisons, mostly to the inmates, but, on occasions,
even to the warders.
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The Tracy Morgan Gang
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Speck of Universe
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"Who cut him, Tracy?"
"Well .. me .. like ..
We was playin' 'Uman Sacrifice
Wiv the knife for peelin' carrots."
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My lililee is shleeming from the harmer
to the hame.
And I shall fetch her sooling
Plocks of donnymock and dooling
For my lililee to podisnap
And tarrel in her prame.
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Les Pickett's 'orrible teef, a true story
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Leslie Pickett 'ad 'orrible teeth -
Black and brahn and yeller.
As ultrabrite as Danish blue cheese,
As strong as a melted jelly.
***
"I'm terrified of dentists, Bert.
Couldn't you swing a punch
And knock the tooth clean out of me 'ead.
Then I can 'ave me lunch."
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Well Bert, 'e scratched 'is 'ead a bit.
But Les was moanin' wiv pain.
So Bert rolled up 'is sleeve, and smashed
Leslie's jaw like a winder-pane. |
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Is the moral of the story that the dentist's drill
Is neater than your mate's fist?
Or is it that if you're really determined -
come
what may,
by
'ook or by crook,
to
work yourself somehow or other into the papers -
There must be better ways than this.
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Also see under POET-PERFORMER:
CHILDREN for work with children and teenagers in schools.
Current Activities
Teachers, students, prisoners, others, have said -
| What a magnificent day you gave us. I shall spread
the word about you amongst my fellow headmasters. You should be
a must in every school at regular intervals. |
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The Warden, Radley College
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| You showed the students vividly - what few of them had little
conception of before - the power and delight that poetry can have. |
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Thanet Technical College
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| I have never experienced such a vigorous, well-managed, rendering
of poetry; it was splendidly varied and pitched exactly right
for our audience. |
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Malvern Girls' College
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| I learnt a lot about poetry in your short visit, and I'm
sure that no one will easily forget the occasion. |
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The Rector, Edinburgh Academy
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| We all enjoyed it tremendously and appreciated the hard work
that goes into the mastery of such skills - poetic and dramatic
- that you possess. |
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St Mary's Convent, Ascot
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| Such scholarship and humanity. The variety of poems brought
before us so many facets of today's living. What appealed to me
most was your depth of understanding and tenderness so beautifully
expressed. |
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Kilgraston School
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| A memorable performance. Your enthusiasm for literature,
poetry, painting, shone through, as did your scholarship. |
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Framlingham College
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| You have succeeded where others have failed. The girls refer
to your work daily. |
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Rickmansworth Masonic School
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| After seeing your performance I went home and wrote out seven
first drafts for seven different poems and sketched the outlines
of the next great novel of the century. |
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A student at University of Wales, Aberystwyth
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| I really enjoyed it. Can we leave Eliot today and talk about
Leo Aylen's poetry? |
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Frome College (Comprehensive)
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| Your performances were much appreciated. |
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Highpoint Prison
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| Until I heard Leo, I imagined poets as upper class people
who were boring to hear and a complete waste of time. But Leo
was great at putting his thoughts across to you clear and understandable.
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A motor mechanic in Bolton
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