Mindfulness, as I have long understood it, is being in The Moment, whatever you are doing, whether washing the dishes, or something more enjoyable. For whatever you are doing, normally your mind wanders. I guess watching television could be described as mindless. It is certainly a lazy occupation. Other activities may require you to turn […]
Poetic Writing
In the introduction to my poetry collection, I named T S Eliot as my favourite poet; and my favourite poems of his as first Prufrock, then Ash Wednesday, Portrait Of A Lady, and finally Burnt Norton. Eliot has been my favourite for half a lifetime, since being introduced to him at school, but in the last few […]
To Bin or Not to Bin 2
From time to time my son comes round to do what he calls ‘jobs’ for me, jobs that answer to the description of minor maintenance and repairs. He came two weeks ago, so I knew who the culprit was., when I found a few bent screws, an empty glue tube and a dead battery in my […]
Different for Girls at the Courthouse
Jacquie Lawrence hosted a Press Evening in West London last night to promote her new show Different for Girls, a web drama adaptation of […]
Bathroom Surprise
My friend was alarmed when, upon arriving at her hotel, she went straight to the bathroom and saw something, well, not very pleasing. There were the little soaps, the small bottles of shampoo and shower gel… …and the loo roll holder. Well, the loo roll had that welcoming pleat a well-organised environment often sees fit to make for you […]
Trumpton
Poem to recognise an Inauguration Toys in the cupboard Puppets Dummies Stuffed ones all Not real But tho sawdust brains Somehow they move Maybe some little imp Of man Our humans dark side Wanted mischief. People in history Like cruelty Don’t they Public executions Social bullying. So here they come. Marching Sawdust brained But powerful. […]
How to be Human in 2016
Throughout the ages mankind has had to cope with change. New rules, new laws, new discoveries. New faiths. New ideas. In more recent history there has been foreign travel, with the discovery of new foods, new materials. The arrival of train travel broadened horizons. The industrial revolution overall made massive changes to life to working people […]
Old Lady’s Hat
My youngest daughter, once said to me, ’I would eat anything. I’d even eat you!’ She curiously later developed a phobia about Baked Beans. It got to the point where you couldn’t even say those two words, never mind show her a can. So in the event of the world’s end with nothing but me […]
Polari First Book Prize 2016
Polari First Book Prize 2016 – Winner Announced Tonight! The announcement of the winner of the Polari First Book Prize 2016 competition will be made tonight in London’s Southbank Centre at the South Bank’s London Literary Festival by founder and chair of judges Paul Burston. The shortlist for the Polari First Book Prize was announced back […]
Grammar Check
There is so much which needs to be said on the issue of grammar schools. The subject is a minefield. It is presented as a healing blanket under the ‘opportunities for all’ banner, covering the world of education for a society which is itself already in no way equal. Take the child who is so very bright […]
Television has been found guilty of murder in the first degree
Different for Girls is a novel by Jacqui Lawrence, now shortlisted for the esteemed Polari First Novel prize, the winner to be announced in October 2016, and it is also now going to be made into a twelve part television series for the web. But it’s never been charged. The victims have one thing in […]
The Web
For this, the final blog on my poetry, I am giving you just one example of my work. By now, I hope that you have seen enough to whet your appetite. The story of the spider’s web, in this poem actually happened to me. I went out to put something in my dustbin one morning and, discovered […]
Adult Playtime
I saw a notice in my library telling us that one of the librarians was reading to a group of adults. Just as they do to children. He would be reading from The Hitchhikers` Guide To The Galaxy. I had never been interested in that series but joined the group thinking that having it read […]
Some Even More Of Me Poetry
Some Even More Of Me Poetry I am continuing this introduction to my poetry collection with two poems about romantic regret. Some examples of my work, which I have chosen for these blogs, are favourites of our youngest writer, Simon Jay. An achievement to have your work admired by someone at a vastly different […]
Some More Of Me Poetry
SOME OF ME POETRY Pam Ayres titled one of her collections: Some More Of Me Poetry. Here is some of mine. When I first heard of Pam Ayers’ work, apart from having always loathed the shorter form of my name, I decided I could easily write in her style. I stood at the kitchen sink (lots […]
Women of the World Festival 2016
Women of the World Festival 2016 Jacquie Lawrence was one of the five women writers playing to a full house in the Weston Roof Pavilion room as part of a Polari event at the WOW Festival (Women of the World) at the Southbank Centre in the Royal Festival Hall, hosted by Paul Burston. The women writers on […]
To Bin or Not to Bin
TO BIN OR NOT TO BIN? Sitting in a hospital waiting room recently, I decided to visit the Ladies before my appointment. Sitting on the loo – please excuse me, but part of the story – I looked at the large bin in front of me. We are all familiar with bins plastered with notices […]
At Home
There used to be a saying , when I was a girl, ‘ Who’s she when she is at home?’ If you mentioned someone to your parents and their opinion, especially if their opinion was aggravating to your parents, they would ask you to repeat the person’s name, and then say: ‘Who’s she when she’s […]
Show Business
When she discovered that she was, unusually, not going to be with her children for Christmas Day last year, my friend decided she would offer her time to our YMCA, to serve Christmas Day lunch to the homeless and the lonely. Although her children were either abroad or needed more by younger in-laws, she was not […]
Flat Earthers and other twits
There are degrees of uncomfortable conversation where your host might sometime raise the subject of the flat earthers society. Dinner parties where one previously unassuming character pipes up about the divinity, or veganism or even worse, homeopathy. Or there is the awkward racist who tries to pretend they aren’t racist. The unapologetic bigot is, in […]
Who Pays The Ferryman?
The news item about Google and Income Tax, urged me to blog what I have been wondering if I dare write for some time now. Is income tax the last taboo? We were told never to discuss religion or politics. The subject of death has been taboo. Homosexuality was not accepted until recently… Taxation is […]
Bowie – Advisory Content
It’s now exactly a week since the news of David Bowie’s death reached the world, and with seven days to reflect on his life and his work, the event seems to have grown in spirit and grandeur. Artists of all descriptions and practices reach their audiences and fanbases through their work. Bowie seems to have reached […]
All Over By Christmas
…or ‘No Room at the Inn’. It was Christmas and I was seventeen. My father managed a newsagents’ shop which we lived above, and which was tied into the property. There were six of us, Mum and Dad and we four children. The owner sold up and the new owner decided they wanted to live there. We […]
Have a Good Time
The phrases ‘enjoy yourself’ and ‘have a good time’ have always baffled and, on some occasions, actually annoyed me. ‘Having a good time’ is not the same concept for everyone. Not everyone goes out to enjoy themselves in the same way, and we might well be relieved at that fact. There is an assumption, I […]
People Knowing My Personal Business
I was just drifting off the other night, listening to the dulcet tones of Mylene Klass and her inane chatter on ClassicFM, when I had a sudden realisation. She was in that awful band. Then I had another realisation, ‘I can be googled’. Now we can all be googled, social media, gmail accounts and profiles, […]
Only the River
Only the River Sweet Thames run softly, for I sing not loud or long… I am not a scenery girl, or landscapes or country. More an ‘in the head girl’ – poems and stuff, as with the Spenser quotation above. It was while at Twickenham County, the girls’ grammar school (the building in Clifden […]
The Wrong Burrow
My son was born in our house, in Bushy Park Road. His Christian names are Lindsay James. He was born early Saturday morning, and soon after he was delivered, followed shortly by our daily paper – the Surrey Comet. On the back of the Comet that day, on the sports page, was an article entitled ‘BUMPER […]
The Ugly Duckling
The ugly duckling song came into my head this morning. For those who do not remember the old story, it is about a duck who is disliked because he is ugly – but he turns out, in the end, to be a beautiful swan, whereupon he is admired by all. And I thought – there […]
Belfast and Beyond ‘Writing’
I’ve always wanted to go to Northern Ireland. I find the accent sexy. Guys with a real Belfast accent – that clipped, fast, adenoidal and charmingly aggressive burr – gets my motor running. So it was no accident that I was taken to a city as aphrodisiac to rewrite and reproof Bastardography. The Editor and […]
Even the Boss should clean the Loo
Watching Master Chef earlier this year, something happened which gave me, if you’ll pardon the pun, food for thought. At one point in the penultimate episode, one of the contestants was running late, and one of the others went to help her. He had a deadline too and this episode would put him into the final […]