Born and schooled mostly in London; degree in Social Anthropology at London School of Economics. Worked in human resources management, then general management, and finally CEO of UK subsidiary of Canadian mining company before taking early retirement to assist my wife with her B & B business. I then spent 10 years counselling and coaching chief executives before finally retiring.
I have had a lifelong love of poetry, writing it, reading it, and reciting it. There is poetry to be found in practically every aspect of life and I strongly believe that a wide range of folk can respond to this. At university I started a literary magazine biased towards poetry. Currently I attend 2 poetry- reading circles in Malvern where I can both listen to other peoples’ feelings about the poems they love, and offer my own choices including my own poems. The effective recital of poems is a challenge beyond many and my belief is that a poetry laureate must be able both to comprehend verse and deliver it with its full meaning and passion intact.
My wife Jutta and I have been married for over 50 years and have been blessed with three sons. Our eldest, Robert, managed compliance affairs for a French investment bank prior to his early retirement. He and his wife, Diane, have given us two grandsons and a granddaughter. Adrian's talent is in cooking and he has worked as a professional chef for many years. Martin's skills lie in IT and he is almost entirely self-taught; he has been responsible for developing this website, one of his specialities. Advancing years obliged Jutta and I to relinquish a large home and garden and we moved to an apartment in Malvern in 2013 after living in the Ross-on-Wye area for over 50 years. I used to be a bridge player, playing regularly at clubs in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, and am a past Chairman of the County Association. Other activities are croquet, in the summer months, a daily game of Scrabble with Jutta, similarly reading with her, and walking, at all times.
My relationship with Jutta has been at the very heart of my life. At the time of our first meeting I was working in Bristol, a city I grew to love. She had come to Bristol from Munich to work as an au pair and we met at a social evening of the Bristol Anglo-Scandinavian Society. I never let her go after that and she has been my inspiration ever since.