JACK COMMON NIGHT - A PRIVILEGE TO BE THERE IN HEATON, NEWCASTLE, LAST YEAR........................Canna resist this, as I hear huge hysteria breaks out in London intelllectual elite about renovation of cottage of George Orwell in India.............Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear..................shame they dinna tell the whole story of Orwell, or perhaps even Jack Common?????????? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------........ On Wednesday night, after I had got rid of my 3 lovely daughters, so to speak, I landed at Chilingham Road School, Heaton, in Newcastle. Aye, I felt honoured. I had an opportunity to listen to Keith Armstrong talking about the life of one of the best writers, in my view, that ever was brought up in the world of this region. Jack Common was his name. He was brought up in the streets of one small part of Tyneside, an area inhabited by poverty and passion, by the noise of railway engines helping to deliver all kinds of material South, and indeed, by normal but very tough lives of those who surrounded him as a bairn and teenager. Ironically, Jack followed the destination route of some of those trains. To London. He had already learnt so much, about real community values, the socialism of the times in which he lived, and possessed an ability to be able to express that via his pen. At various stages of his life, Jack Common educated, advised, counselled - albeit, in a perhaps tense relationship, a bloke called Eric Blair, aka George Orwell. Of course, most people know about Orwell. Public school background. A man who tried to identify with the working class of his era - pottering into Spain, writing about being Down and Out in London and Paris, and not least the Road to Wigan Pier. George owed Jack a helluva lot on that last book alone, in terms of what it exactly meant to grow up in, well.....the improverished but often determined communities of that England. The honour of attending that event that commerrated the Life of Jack Common, who found his first educational experiences in the streets of old Heaton and at the Chllingham Road school itself, got better still. You see, after hearing the excellent summary of Jacks life - this blog is far too limited in space to even outline - I had another honour. I met the Common family, the common folk, eh. The son, Peter, the daughter, Sally, and the grandson, Tom. Those 3 people, from their different angles and takes, are very proud that Jack Common is remembered by increasing numbers in, not just Heaton itself, but actually, across increasing pockets of North East England. I write this from the heart. I did take a lot of notes in order to place a constructive, meticulous blog together. And I thought ..oh buggar that .I will keep up those notes for another day, and simply, for now, put down how I felt about that special occasion. At the Chillingham school, Chillingham Road, Heaton, Newcastle, which took place on Wednesday night. Brian Hall the ps.............too many to add, so I will stick with one. The words from Keith Armstrong himself in his talk. So-called ordinary people all have a story to tell, and some can write up those stories. Jack was certainly one of those people - common, aye. A brilliant writer generally unrecognised by the London intellectual art elite for sure. But believe you me, he was an equal in comparisons to the writings of George Orwell. Check his works out. tarah again. bry
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:52:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015