2000-2009
‘Discover a local Golden Moment’: advertisement for Symonds cider, on the bus stop outside the entrance to King’s College London, April/May 2011 (now removed). Read more »
A tranquil image of Pushka sleeping
An image of Pushka - the inspiration for my poem Pushka - also on Strandlines
My son Cosmo Davenport-Hines was an undergraduate studying English and film at King’s on the Strand from 2005 until 2008. His tutors there have told me that he was a brilliant pupil in his first two years. His zest, his piercing intuitions, his leadership among his contemporaries, his gentle percipience about people, the arresting and precise way he spoke, his wittiness – all these were for a time undiminished in seminars. He was an omnivorous reader, who found joy in many kinds of literature, from Shakespeare’s sonnets down to Bill Burroughs. Read more »
On the morning before the celebrations of the queens Jubilee we were woken at 5:30 am by the sound of soldiers shouting and horses hooves trotting along our part of the strand - we quickly threw on some clothes and had a full dress rehearsal of the celebrations to ourselves and a couple of bemused japanese tourist san Queenie though!
Wayne stopped me short in the Strand in 2001. I walked past him while he was sitting on his blanket, long greasy hair and angry skin with his sickly dog, soliciting contributions, and I paid no attention: I was deep in conversation with one of the Vice Principals at King's on the impending merger of our academic departments. Wayne wasn't happy about being ignored, and observing my portly build and man-boobs, called after me: "Oi, if you didn't have a beard I'd think you were a woman". Read more »
My room in King’s College faces out on to the quad and throughout the day today I kept hearing a single shout , that sounded like ‘coaaal...’ coming from the building works on the east wing of Somerset House and repeated every few seconds. From ground level it was inaudible but from the fourth floor of the South Range it was clear. The sound seemed so ‘out of place’, so unusual, so elemental. It was such a human - and in that sense alien - addition to the normal Strand soundscape of traffic noise. Read more »
