Many members of this list - particularly those who've read or been to
readings in the NorthEast in the last three decades - will remember Gordon
Brown, from Sunderland, who has sadly died this month. He was a voracious
bookbuyer and encyclopaedic reader of all things including poetry, and an
enthusiastic longstanding supporter of all kinds of poetry and poetry
readings. A regular, it goes without saying, at the Morden Tower (for
which he edited _High On The Walls: an anthology celebrating twenty-five
years of poetry readings at Morden Tower_ (Bloodaxe 1990)) Colpitts Poetry
and the Bunting Centre. An early supporter of Bunting, and member of the
Morden Tower Committee, he was also associated with Poundian circles, such
as the regular Ezra Pound Conferences (particularly those in the UK) and a
supporter of the National Poetry Foundation. He was also a lifelong
campaigner on local and social issues, including the Sunderland shipyards,
greenbelt planning and healthcare provision. He will be sadly missed
within all his communities.
An event of the Bunting Centre's Centenary Celebrations (June 23rd-25th)
at which poets and local people will give their own readings of Bunting
poems has been fittingly re-dedicated in Gordon's memory. His family is
offering a copy of his anthology _High On The Walls_ (with contributions
by various members of this list, as well as Heaney, Creeley, Ginsberg and
others) to members of this list who'd like one in his memory. Write
(enclosing one pound sterling to cover post and packing within UK) to his
daughter: Rosamunde Brown, 9A Heigham Grove, Norwich NR2 3DQ, UK. Outside
UK: please increase this sum appropriately to cover post, and enclose
sterling only.
There were many of the NorthEast's poets amongst the campaigners,
politicians, family and friends at his funeral in the sleet at Roker last
week. In my experience, poets and critics are pretty well two-a-penny -
but a good reader, as Mae West may have said, is hard to find.
Richard Caddel
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