Menzies Campbell - d. September 26th 2025

Don't you long for the old politics;?
Where the middle way is still a way,
where to have convictions does not
mean that you have been convicted,
where the race is only with oneself
and the mediocre need not apply.

Read about Menzies Campbell  here

Danny Thompson - d. September 23rd 2025

At the root of everything is bass; a fluid
heartbeat picked out on four fat strings.
Let them talk about technique; style is
the only style, trusting your ears to tell 
your fingers where to go, what to say.

Read about Danny Thompson here

Claudia Cardinale - d. September 23rd 2025

There is danger in beauty; the torrid breath of
the feline, barbed cheekbones and leopardine
eyes. Pull the focus, lengthen depth of field,
cut, print the magnetism, abandon all hope.

Read about Claudia Cardinale here

Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird - d. September 22nd 2025

The light meters are coming out, but
something more than light is fading.
The bails come off, the nightwatchman
shakes your hand, certain in the
knowledge that there is a corner of
a foreign field that is forever Barnsley.

Read about Dickie Bird here

John Stapleton - d. September 21st 2025

We cannot live our lives on the small screen;
we must find our time, our place, unknown
to all except the journalist who realises that
there are no bigger stories than our own. 

Read about John Stapleton here

Sonny Curtis - d. September 19th 2021

What did they play on the radio,
on the day after the music died?
They played songs you don’t hear
anymore; stories of strange lives
made straight, written for no-one.
You wrote the songs; the songs won.

Read about Sonny Curtis here

Robert Redford - d. September 16th 2025

All the outlaws are handsome in Hollywood,
charm school graduates summa cum laude,
making dangerous look fun, standing for
something, not standing for other things,
fashioning stories from the best of dreams. 

Read about Robert Redford here

Ricky Hatton - d. c.September 14th 2025

I saw a man made of leather,
working the heavy bag, arms
blurring from jab to uppercut,
eyes glittering like a title belt.
His mouth broke into a smile,
to show a mouthful of nails.

Read about Ricky Hatton here

 

Stephen Luscombe - d. September 13th 2025

To be so young and so cool,
and yet so close to nirvana.
I’ve seen the word; it’s cruel.
I hear your music once again;
melody is the true dharma.
Sad day. I can’t explain.

Read about Stephen Luscombe here

Chris Hill - d. September 11th 2025

Here’s to the prophets of the groove,
a denomination somewhere between
funk, soul and jazz, a fervent scene
that few have power to truly move.
Beats per minute are the sacred text.
One track finishes; cue up the next. 

Read about Chris Hill here

Giorgio Armani - d. September 4th 2025

My suit does not wear me, but
without me it is empty. I stoop
to tie my lace; it bends with me.
At day’s end, we climb the stairs,
undress, and hang each other
in the dark wardrobe of sleep. 

Read about Giorgio Armani here

Joe Bugner - d. September 1st 2025

The distance is a long way to go
when all around are cheering
for the other man. Sparring
with legends, you must know,
is a tough way for a man to win;
the other way is never to give in. 

Read about Joe Bugner here

Angela Mortimer - d. August 25th 2025

From the baseline of history comes
Miss Sobersides, above the spin
and daring frillies, from an age
where glory was £20 prize money
and the signing of an autograph.

Read about Angela Mortimer here

Terence Stamp - d. August 17th 2025

What glacial villainy,
deep in the bluest eye.
What thrift of movement,
of expression. What want
of love that cannot finesse
a smile. What stagecraft
that might save your life,
or break you in two. 

Reda about Terence Stamp here

Biddy Baxter - d. August 10th 2025

Here is a man who was made earlier,
from vicarious experience. See him
as a boy, landlocked and ordinary,
boarding a ship about to leave port,
captained by a matron of the blue seas,
wide-eyed and hungry for the voyage.

Read about Biddy Baxter here

Ray Brooks - d. August 9th 2025

I passed your house once; 52 Festive Road.
I think I heard your voice inside a dark shop.
Years later I found a battered bowler hat
in my suit pocket. It will help me remember.

Read about Ray Brooks here

Eric Midwinter - d. August 8th 2025

Fewer lights flicker now
in the Palace of Varieties,
yet in the Gods a man sits,
with a pen and a memory,
describing the anatomy
of laughter, writing faster
now for fear that the silence
in its wake might be forever. 

Read about Eric Midwinter here

Jim Lovell - d. August 7th 2025

Once when I was a child
I looked up at the night sky
to find no moon shining.
Instead, the face of a man,
learning his noblest goal
was not glory, but surviving. 

Read about Jim Lovell here

Terry Reid - d. August 4th 2025

We could be forgiven for thinking
you were someone else’s song,
always coming in a bar too late.
A plaything of capricious fate,
in the right place at the wrong
time, but somehow still singing. 

Read about Terry Reid here

Stella Rimington - d. August 3rd 2025

A woman steps from a dark street,
from a cold history to a new heat.
Pieces are in play, stakes are high.
A solid legend makes a good spy. 

Read about Stella Rimington

Norman Eshley - d. August 2nd 2025

Here’s to the nameless cast
in another middling script;
spear-carriers and walk-ons
of the tiny screen, emptying
themselves into their roles,
immortal and obscure. 

Read about Norman Eshley here