DIPDOOMAGAZOO is my old blog. Enjoy!
Reading and Waiting
I woke this morning to the news that both Michael Apted and Katharine Whitehorn have died. I whispered a double “Oh No!” at my radio from beneath my duvet. I…
Caledonian Soul
Hard to believe that a year ago I was in London with publisher pal Angie. We spent Friday 1st November strolling around Fitzrovia and gearing up for that evening’s London…
Trench Chat
As I type this I’m immersed in a podcast about the Great War hosted by military historian, Paul Reed. The episode I’m enjoying right now is called Trench Chat: Veterans…
Film of Dust
Tuesday 7th July marked the 15th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in central London. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Here’s a short piece I wrote a couple…
Flaming Woodpigeons
What came first, Planet Earth by Duran Duran or Japan’s Quiet Life? And why are the woodpigeons on my roof singing It Overtakes Me by The Flaming Lips? These are…
Day six
It’s day six of my blog tour and I’m enjoying my visits to a range of book-loving blogs. Read to Ramble has given The Princess of Felling a five star…
#BlogTour The Princess of Felling – Elaine Cusack
It’s World Book Night. It’s Shakespeare’s Birthday and Death day. I should have been hosting a fundraiser for Felling Volunteer Library this evening. Ah well. At least I’m enjoying my…
Blog Tour
I’m off on tour! It’s a virtual tour, of course. I have Jennifer C Wilson to thank for introducing me to the concept of blog tours. I’d never heard of…
Sad People
Last night marked two weeks since we Brits finished up our pints and left our local pubs. Boris Johnson told us to go home to protect the NHS and save…
Strange Times
Hard to believe that two weeks ago I was strolling in sunny Galloway with my Love. We were in Scotland celebrating my 50th birthday. Our planned trip to the Isle…
Winchester Cathedral
“What do you mean you’ve never heard of James Last?” I said to an elderly German lady of my acquaintance. I added “But you must know him! He’s been popular…
Feeling History
History comes alive in well-managed museums and thoughtfully curated exhibitions. Last month I spent the best part of a Saturday on Brunel’s SS Great Britain. The ship and adjoining museum…
Catching dreams
I love reading this blog and that’s why I’m sharing it with you….
Inspirational People
“How often do you write blog posts?” It’s a question I get asked again and again. When I first started blogging here almost six years ago I made the vow…
Action-packed autumn
I’m sharing a blog I wrote for the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle…. via Action-packed autumn
My Tunes
I love Desert Island Discs and that’s why I leapt at the chance to participate in Radio Newcastle’s potted version, My Tunes. I recorded my memories and opinions this week…
A Play for Today
Thirty years ago I worked as a reporter for Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle newspaper. Although I started off as a general reporter it didn’t take long before I’d cornered the market…
Plenty of Princess
What’s bright pink and read all over? Why it’s the Princess, of course! I’ve had a ball promoting The Princess of Felling over the past few months. I’ve performed in…
Fantastic Day in South Shields
Scrolling back through my dipdoomagazoo blogs I see I’ve not posted about The Princess of Felling. Why is that? I reckon it’s ‘cos I got wrapped up in the initial…
Simply the Best
I’m sure I’m not the only Geordie who can remember hearing the news of Sir Bobby Robson’s death almost ten years ago on Friday 31st July 2009. I was gearing…
NTWC at Green Beans Market!
I’m sharing Jen’s blog about Green Beans at Whitley Bay market on Sunday 30th June…
The Magic of Italy
This time last week I was in Senigallia. It’s a port town and holiday resort on Italy’s Adriatic coast. I’m telling you this because I’m guessing you’ve never heard of…
Me and my mum Stuff I take for granted and what I try to give back
This blog is by my cousin Karen’s son, Ross Punton. Thanks for writing it, Ross x
Cleeves & Mortimer
Uh oh. Here I go again. Blubbin’ over my John Lewis pillar box red DAB radio. Crying over a radio programme again, Elaine? Yes, I’m listening to Ann Cleeves on…
TV Free
Do you remember Mike Teavee, the television-obssessed boy revealed as the fourth Golden Ticket winner in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I was that child back in 1970s…
Trusting yourself
I’m on a high. I’ve been on it since the pre-gig adrenalin kicked in a few hours before last Thursday evening’s Meet the Poet: Elaine Cusack event at Whitley Bay…
The Good Gig
It’s raining now as it was twelve hours ago when I walked the one and a half miles from my home to Cullercoats Crescent Club. I’ve made the journey many…
Small Town Girl
Mam, Nan, Anthea Redfern, Jaclyn Smith, and Anna-Maria Dragone. This is the list of female role models in my life from birth to the age of 10. Then there was…
Remembering Felling
I was born and raised in Felling on the south side of the River Tyne. I lived there for the first 19 years of my life then moved away to…
See The Light
“Edgar Allan Poe and the songs of Alan Hull. What’s not to like, eh?” Him Indoors was not impressed by my offer of tickets for Clear White Light at Live…
Of Kindness, & Rachel Joyce’s The Music Shop
This blog brought tears to my eyes…in a good way.
From Sofia to The Shipley
“This is all a bit last minute, Elaine,” he sighed on Tuesday night. My fella was right. Photographer Rossena Petcova was arriving in less than 24 hours and certain, essential…
Review: A spirited book launch!
This is a lovely post by Jane Roberts-Morpeth who will perform at Keeping My Soul, Thursday 21st June, North Shields library, 6.30pm
Lizzie J Klotz and friends
Here’s a link to my latest review for North East Reviews. Thanks to Fiona Stacey for accompanying me to Dance City! http://www.northeastreviews.co.uk/fawn-and-other-works/
Fantastic Night
“It’s HEY WARD. Nick Heyward! Not Nik Bluddy Kershaw!” Oh the problems of living with someone born in the 1960s rather than the 1970s. How could he POSSIBLY understand how…
North East Reviews
I’ve always loved writing arts reviews. I enjoy anaylsing films, books, art and music. I don’t care if I love, loathe or am indifferent to the work. Just let me…
Beauty is truth, truth beauty
Two hundred years ago this month John Keats wrote Ode on a Grecian Urn. The final lines are familiar to many, even if they don’t know the author. They run:…
Inspired & Free
It’s official: Lyn Gardner has scrambled my brain. I’m not complaining about The Guardian’s theatre critic. In fact, I want to use this blog to thank her for freeing up…
Meet the poets
My friend the writer and artist Gail Curry was mugged outside her shop and gallery in Whitley Bay and now stutters as a result of the ordeal. I was originally…
Express Yourself
Do you fancy sampling a creative Smörgåsbord next weekend? Then join me at the Shipley Art Gallery on Saturday 10th February for Express Yourself, a half day filled with workshops…
On the issue of subsidies
I feel compelled to share my friend Sandy Chadwin’s blog. What do you think about subsidies?
You better watch out…
I met Santa Claus yesterday. Yes, he was real. How do I know? Because it was in my hometown of Felling. Santa’s always real in your childhood neighbourhood. Santa was…
Poetry, with friends
Poetry with Friends, the poetry appreciation session with a difference has been running for over three years now. Gail Curry and I started the sessions back in summer 2014 in…
I get by with a little help from…
Most of my friends are writers. Sorry if that sounds pretentious but it’s true. Well, it’s inevitable, innit? Especially here in Whitley Bay. There must be something in that salty…
Words of Freedom
At last! The annual excuse to celebrate poetry returns this Thursday 28th September. It’s National Poetry Day here in the UK. It happens every year, usually in October but this…
Visit this library
How well do you know your home town or the city closest to your home? I like to think I know my nearest city, Newcastle upon Tyne pretty well. I…
Park & Write this Saturday
Two and a half hours spent listening, learning, thinking, writing, walking, talking, feeling, being and drinking tea. This sounds like the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Yes, this…
Savouring Flavour
Did I ever tell you I’ve a 10 year old living and growing in Cambridge? Don’t worry, I haven’t left a school age child to fend for themselves in a…
Moving on
Poetry with Friends is three years old! Gail Curry and I held our first Poetry with Friends session on a Tuesday night in June 2014. Those early poetry appreciation with…
Grenfell Tower
Grenfell Tower stands in the middle of North Kensington, a short walk from Latimer Road tube. I say “stands” for the moment but it won’t last. This Tower of Horror…
Pure Joy
The look says it all. Another successful event! This photo was taken by Peter Robinson of Postives from Negatives at this month’s Pure Fiction, the literary event I run with…
Pure Fiction this Thursday
I’m hosting Pure Fiction on Thursday and it’s got me thinking back to last year. That’s when I started knocking around the nascent idea of Pure Fiction with my friends,…
The Merry Month of May
It’s almost May! How did that happen? I caught up with a London-dwelling friend of mine yesterday. It was great to tell her about the North East literary events taking…
Indie ’til I die…
I suspect if you opened my veins my blood would be navy blue with white polka dots. Why? Well, once an Indie Chick, always an indie pop fan. A love…
Inspirational writers
I’ve been blessed this past week with inspiration from other writers. Last Thursday I watched and listened to Rowan McCabe perform at The Stanza in North Shields. Five years ago…
Get Teenage Kicks this Saturday
Before poetry there was music. I started writing poetry over 30 years ago but I’ve loved music since childhood. I remember lying in bed aged four and conducting an imaginary…
Community Cake
What links a delicious homemade carrot cake, a jam-packed Jam Jar and a well-attended library event? The short answer is: “community” but let me explain…. In the past week I’ve…
Sunday Sojourn – Burford Church
I’m reblogging Jennifer C Wilson’s blog today. Read on…
Remembering friends
Poetry with Friends is a poetry appreciation group with a difference. I think the difference is our merry band of North East England coast-dwelling souls care about other group members….
The Next Page’s next twelve months
Looking forward to running the inaugural North Tyneside Writers’ Circle this Saturday. Read about it here…
Kisses from Above
This coming Sunday I will participate in the launch of Kisses from Above, a collection of poems and stories by John Gardham Lowe. I’m proud of my involvement in this…
Vote now for art
If you live in the North East of England and love the arts then you need to nominate artists and events in The Journal Culture Awards. Northern artists need to…
Panto Season
I went to see a pantomine last night. Oh no I didn’t…oh yes I did! It was the first one I’d seen in almost 40 years. When my creative partner…
2016 – A good first year!
Here’s my colleague, Jennifer’s reflections on working with me as The Next Page…
Billy prepares for a dementia friendly Christmas….
Worth reading this post andWendy’s blog…
Always Safe & Happy
It’s important to feel safe when you’re out in public but not everyone feels confident and comfortable in crowds. My local council, North Tyneside has developed a Safe Place scheme…
Two workshops in one week
I’m involved in two writing workshops in the next week. This coming Saturday 3rd December I’m helping out at Jennifer C Wilson’s afternoon workshop in Whitley Bay library. It’s called…
pARTners exhibition
Last week the Office for National Statistics announced that dementia is now the commonest cause of death in England in Wales. The Guardian newspaper reported that dementia will affect one…
With and Without Friends
Poetry with Friends is the poetry appreciation with a difference group I attempt to co-parent with artist Gail Curry from Happy Planet Creative Arts CIC. I say “attempt” because Poetry…
I, Daniel Blake
In the past week I’ve discovered that not one but two bods of my acquaintance used to work with Dave Johns. It won’t be long before I won’t need to…
Flying solo…
Renaissance Man is alive and well and living in Middlesbrough. Check out the first solo exhibition by poet, editor, historian and artist, p.a. morbid
The Lifeboat Station Project
I’ve spent the past week trying to make The Newcastle Photography Festival run smoothly. I wasn’t alone, of course! I was assisting festival organiser Paul and his right hand man,…
The Romance of Photography
“Never again!” I harumphed as I walked out of the Literary and Philosophical Society on Newcastle’s Westgate Road. It was a Monday evening in October 2014 and I was involved…
Talking Nonsense
My earliest poetic loves are what I now know to be comic and so-called nonsense verse. Examples include Edward Lear, Spike Milligan, most nursery rhymes plus Pam Ayres, Stevie Smith…
Poetic messages
Today is the 22nd National Poetry Day and I marked it by running a poetry appreciation in a North Tyneside park. Northumberland Park, nestled between North Shields and Tynemouth, is…
Dreamy Theme
I woke up this morning cursing Sir Cliff Richard. Again. It’s the fifth morning in a row I’ve woken up with his 1961 song Theme for a Dream in my…
Sylvia Plath @ York Racecourse
Just back from The 2016 York National Book Fair which was held at the city’s racecourse. It’s the largest out of print and antiquarian book fair in the UK with…
Newcastle Photography Festival
A friend sent me an email recently with the line “are you running out of fingers yet?!” My chum was referring to all the creative projects I’m involved in. I…
Creative inspiration
When inspiration comes knocking…open the door! Sounds like obvious advice but how many times have you walked away from creative inspiration? I couldn’t ignore New Zealand poet Janis Freegard when…
Mentoring & workshop info
Summer’s here but I’ve been busy putting the final touches to my autumn/winter 2016 programme of workshops and one to one creative writing mentoring sessions. It’s a bit complicated in…
Pure Creativity
Pure Fiction, my latest creative “child” will (with any luck) start walking in front of an audience tomorrow afternoon. The afternoon will feature writers Kitty Fitzgerald, Sandy Chadwin and Jennifer…
Pure Fiction – Pure excitement!
Here is Jennifer C Wilson revving up for our inaugural Pure Fiction event this Saturday!
Pure Fiction next Saturday 30th Jul
One week today I’ll be hosting a brand new literary venture, Pure Fiction in Whitley Bay’s library. Pure Fiction is dedicated to fiction writers and their work. Experienced authors will…
Chas Chandler
Twenty years ago today rock legend Chas Chandler died on North Tyneside. He was 57. He’d been a founding member of The Animals, a Newcastle band who surfed the wave…
Finding words in Whitley
“I am approaching the end of the beginning,” said a participant in today’s Finding the Words workshop run by Jennifer C Wilson and I. What does “the end of the…
Finding the Words
There’s still time to book onto the workshop I’m running this Saturday 16th July in Whitley Bay library Finding the Words is an all day workshop I’m running with fellow…
New workshops in Shields
Fancy trying something new? Then come and try a creative workshop. Happy Planet Creative Arts CIC has just published its new programme of creative workshops running from August to December…
Back in the day…
Forgive me for reminiscing… Earlier today I found myself replaying a sampler CD from 4AD records. It was wonderful to hear Belly’s Super-Connected which still sounds as fresh as it…
Sunday Sojourn – with Harry Gallagher
Here’s Harry! The busiest poet I know!
One week today!
A week today on Saturday 16th July I’ll be co-running my first ever workshop with friend and fellow coast-based writer, Jennifer C Wilson. The all day workshop is called Finding…
Poetry with Friends rehoused!
Poetry with Friends on a Tuesday evening has a new home! We start our fortnightly Tuesday evening sessions next Tuesday in St Paul’s Parish Centre in Whitley Bay. Here are…
Pure Advice
The big creative question “How do you start to write?” is often followed by “How long should you write for each day?” There are no rules for either question. Both…
Poetry with Friends
Poetry with Friends is a special, ever explanding group of wonderful folk based in North Tyneside. I know it’s a bit cyclic but I’m reblogging regular attendee, Rowland Hill’s latest…
Finding the Words
How do you start to write? This Big Question is examined in a day of creative writing I’m running with my friend and fellow writer Jennifer C Wilson next month…
The Everyday Savage
I’m a long-standing fan of Lucas Pilgham’s flash fiction. If you enjoy Sci-Fi, pulp, obscure characters and the general weirdness of everyday life then check out this latest collection…
The Next Page presents… Finding the Words
Here’s Jennifer Wilson talking about our creative writing workshops next month, July 16th…
PJ Harvey
I have immense admiration and respect for PJ Harvey. Once again she gets a protest song on a BBC news programme. Go Polly go!
Cultural Activism
Last month the arts editor of local paper, Newcastle’s The Journal asked me to contribute to the paper’s monthly magazine, Culture. I was asked to submit my favourite book choices…
Thatcher’s Folly
Margaret Thatcher enjoying an intimate relationship with a young IRA lothario at the time of the Brighton bombing. Does this idea offend you? If so then don’t buy poet George…
Inspirational day
I don’t have to look hard for inspiration in my daily life. I guess I’m lucky but that’s what made yesterday so special: inspiration in the morning, afternoon and evening!…
The Next Page
I’m starting to offer creative workshops and run events under the name of The Next Page. On July 16th local writer Jennifer C Wilson and myself will host Finding the…
Be Glad…Your Friends are Many
Poetry with Friends, the poetry appreciation gang I attempt to oversee with artist Gail Curry continues to inspire and educate me. I say “attempt to oversee” in a light-hearted way….
John
A lovely tribute to a friend of Poetry with Friends by another friend of the gang…
Calling all friends of Poetry with Friends
A blog call out to all our Poetry with Friends chums who attend Tuesday evening sessions. Please contact me via email or phone as I need to talk to you…
Name that poem
Poetry with Friends goes from strength to strength. Poetry with Friends or PWF as we in the know call it, has been running for almost two years, first in North…
Iris by Alison Carr
I reviewed Alison Carr’s latest play Iris for Newcastle’s Journal newspaper. Here’s the link http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/iris-live-theatre-newcastle-engaging-11157953#comments-section I’m a big fan of Sam Neale who plays Ruby in the play
Another Planet
I run Poetry with Friends and creative writing workshops via Happy Planet Creative Arts which operates out of Boo Boo and Ted, 264 Whitley Road, Whitley Bay, NE26 2TG. Poetry…
Sunday Sojourn – with Elaine Cusack
It’s always fun to blather on about creativity with me mate, Jennifer….
FaaB Sunday
Free as a Bard, the poetry and music evening I co-run with Peter Mortimer returns to Whitley’s Jam Jar Cinema this Sunday 20th March. Poets Colette Bryce and Jeff Price…
Creative writing workshops
I’m offering a range of creative writing workshops in Whitley Bay in the coming months. First up is a Haiku workshop on Tuesday 12th April from 7pm to 9pm.Haiku is…
Women Rise
I celebrated International Women’s Day at Segedunum in Wallsend. Segedunum is the Roman Fort at the end of Hadrian’s Wall. The event had been organised for women on North Tyneside…
Poetry with Friends cancelled!
Unfortunately this coming Tuesday’s Poetry with Friends session in Whitley Bay has been cancelled. Sorry for the short notice, chums. Please pass on the message to other Poetry with Friends…
Life after Death (at Dawn)
It was Death at Dawn’s final performance on Wednesday 2nd March and as I walked home in the sleety rain I wondered what on earth to do with myself. The…
Collection launch!!
Pleased to see Kirsten Luckins is launching her first full collection of poetry. Here is her blog….. Today I polish my boots, practice my poems and pack my bags,…
Death at Dawn: Review
Death at Dawn has got under the skin of Jennifer C Wilson! Only three more performances left plus a school matinee!
European History
At dawn one hundred years today, a North Shields soldier was shot for desertion by members of his own platoon in a French abbatoir. The teenage solider was young William…
Death at Dawn
I’m pleased and really rather excited to be involved in the promotion of this award-winning WW1 play. Thanks to Jennifer for blogging about it…
Workshop updates
I’ll be running another Haiku workshop on Tuesday 12th April from 7pm to 9pm in Whitley Bay. Before that one there will be the Writing the Unwritten workshop on Thursday…
Radio Radio
I love radio and thoroughly enjoyed contributing to this programme broadcast on local radio station BBC Radio Newcastle http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03ghspt#play I won’t say anything else. Listen and enjoy
Dawn of time
Man, I get so much out of co-running Poetry with Friends. Thursday’s session in Whitley Bay library was meant to be about Love and its opposite but we went all…