Pete’s Birthday

The Pete in ques­tion being Pete Mor­gan, the poet, who seems to have lived in more places around York­shire than is entirely reas­on­able — but then, he is 70 and has had time to move about a bit. This cel­eb­ra­tion was at the Jack Lyons Con­cert Hall and was a very wel­come oppor­tun­ity to hear Pete read — his latest work is excel­lent on first hear­ing — and to dis­cover he is now a fairly near neigh­bour.  May see him in our local deli !

It was really inter­est­ing to hear two very well known poets, Ian McMil­lan and Carol Ann Duffy relate the influ­ence Pete had had upon them as young would-be poets.  He appar­ently tutored a num­ber of courses and was unstint­ingly help­ful.  Both the other poets read — includ­ing C.A.D from “The World’s Wife” and “Rap­ture”.  And Mar­tin Carthy from Pete’s Robin Hoods Bay days brought Brass Mon­key along to fin­ish off the even­ing with some Brit­ish oom­pah music.  Good to have a sell-out for a a poetry event.

CAROL’S COMMENT. John Fitzpatrick on the accor­dion and other instru­ments is hardly “oom­pah music”! Nor is Mar­tin Carthy’s won­der­ful singing.