Denis Law – d. January 17th 2025

Once I saw a peelie-wallie ghost,
blond gangler with eyes like steel.
A sway of hips and a deft one-two,
a swivel, a shot goes in off a post.
The stars align with a curving heel
that turns a young boy’s heart to blue. 

Read about Denis Law here

Joan Plowright – d. January 16th 2025

I, who have kept to the script of my life,
sanctify such as you who live off-book,
with your wardrobe of a thousand roles,
your alchemy of voice, poise and gesture,
your lines ringing as my house lights dim.

Read about Joan Plowright here

David Lynch – d. January 15th 2025

I woke up screaming and saw you
in a velvet haze, camera lenses
for eyes, cigarette in one hand,
severed ear in the other. You sang
to me: Don’t be afraid; I’m just here
to oil the machinery of your dreams.

Read about David Lynch here

Diane Langton – d. January 15th 2025

I have a confession; I once pledged
myself to the unreality of television,
to girls like you, archetypes of ditz
and froth, the brash and brassy,
who have it, but don’t know what
it is, yet know what to do with it.

Read about Diane Langton here

Linda Nolan – d. January 15th 2025

I bet we looked good on the dancefloor;
pastel jumpsuits, flick-perms, Revlon
pouts, perfecting moves we saw on
Top of the Pops, sparkle-eyed sisters,
harmonising while we still knew how. 

Read about Linda Nolan here

Eddie Stobart – d. November 25th 2024

I passed you on a lost highway,
heading southbound in a convoy
of Scania 18-wheelers, your name
in my rear-view mirror, a sure sign
that home could not be far away.

Read about Eddie Stobart here

Tony Slattery - d. January 14th 2025

The next game is called Party Quirks.
Tony, I want you to be funny in the
style of a man who doesn’t realise
how funny he actually is, a clown
with movie star eyes, who becomes
the punchline to a joke he cannot tell. 

Read about Tony Slattery here

Laurie Holloway - d. January 9th 2025

The star act steps onto set;
house band hits its cue,
a drum-roll, a brass sting,
strung to the tip of a baton.
Fame is a tight arrangement,
its accompanist often in shadow.

Read about Laurie Holloway here

Sam Moore - d. January 10th 2025

You came to us on a dusty road,
selling guarantees at the top end
of your range, swimming rivers of
trouble to pay the bills, proving that
horns may be the lungs of a song,
but they cannot breathe without soul.

Read about Sam Moore here

David Lodge – d. January 5th 2025

Teaching is nice work if you can
get it; an exam one is free to fail.
Writing, even the smallest word,
is the pursuit of story as a grail.
Language is the keenest blade,
sharpening even the bluntest tale. 

Read about David Lodge here

Johnnie Walker – d. December 31st 2024

The sea reflects sound, music
that the law cannot constrain;
rock psychedelicacies, glam,
and every shade of groovy.
I hear swingin’ station idents
from beyond the 12-mile limit
sing your name into the night. 

Read about Johnnie Walker here

Jimmy Carter – d. December 29th 2024

Trust me. I lived through a time
when crooks and bigots beat on
doors only to be turned away,
when circumspection was no crime,
people meant more than peanuts,
and leaders marched on Labor Day.

Read about Jimmy Carter here

Olivia Hussey – d. December 27th 2024

I stand at the foot of your balcony,
enslaved by eyes all over again,
green and boundless as the sea,
saying that the first crush is pain,
that the Romeo would never be me.

Read about Olivia Hussey here

Sugar Pie DeSanto – d. December 20th 2024

Someone set fire to the stage tonight:
a woman with body of a child,
voice like an emery board, dynamite
in a dress, ten types of wild
in every song, unquenchably alight.

Read about Sugar Pie DeSanto here

Julie Stevens – d. December 5th 2024

Here’s a house; here’s a door.
Here’s a woman; now no more.
Here’s the hour; here’s the day.
Here’s a game; let’s all play.
Here’s a child; watch him grow.
Here’s his life; let him go.

Read about Julie Stevens here

Duncan Norvelle – d. December 12th 2024

Innocence is a comedian’s friend;
a licence for sweet insinuation, for
the grin of a man who knows that
when he asks us to chase them
he knows that someone always will.

Read about Duncan Norvelle here

Kreskin – d. December 10th 2024

You predicted the date of your death, not
by magic but the unwritten science of the
sideshow, a guessing game where you’re
looking for an answer the rest of us already
know. You’re cold. Getting colder. Ice cold.

Read about Kreskin here

Dickie Rock – d. December 6th 2024

It’s Lent and you’re in town again,

flushing dismal ballrooms with colour,
your candy-store smile mowing down
the front row, teenage banshees with
wild hair, keening Spit on me, Dickie!

Read about Dickie Rock here

Terry Griffiths – d. December 1st 2024

You stopped between pots to chat,
as if still playing the provincial halls,
so I wrote this slowly, each word
a ghost ball sighted and weighed-up
on the glacial landscape of baize. 

Read about Terry Griffiths here

Barbara Taylor Bradford – d. November 24th 2024

You did not write for me
but for such as my mum,
closer to rags than to riches,
who could not bear to see
herself in character; of some
little substance in her kitchen.

Read about Barbara Taylor Bradford here