60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Mike Kelly

MIKE Kelly, planning consultant, was born in Barnet and went to school in Muswell Hill. He worked in an insurance company but hated it and went to work at County Hall, London, before coming to Weymouth in 1977. He is president of Weymouth and Portland Access Group.

WHY do you live in Weymouth?

Because it is a wonderful place. When I retired from Weymouth & Portland Borough Council my wife and I thought about moving to Ross-on-Wye, but we discovered that Weymouth had too big a hold on us and we stayed.

WHERE do you go for your holidays?

The last one was in Scotland, but Portugal and Spain are our favourites because of the sun.

WHAT is your favourite time of the year?

Spring because the year is coming to life and everything is growing.

WHAT is your favourite film?

Far From the Madding Crowd. I knew one of the extras who appeared in several scenes and it is a film which has always fascinated me.

WHAT is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?

In 1967 I was mountain climbing in Norway and I lost my grip on a rock face. I only saved myself by grabbing a sapling otherwise it would have been bad. It was an awful long way down.

IF YOU could live your life again what would you be?

I did used to wonder about teaching, but I am not sure that I could handle 30 children!

WHICH three people would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Mo Farah because his story from war-torn and poverty-stricken Somalia to run for us in the Olympic Games must be a remarkable one, Jo Brand because she is such a good comedienne and Ray Davies from The Kinks, because he went to the school next to mine and our pupils used to fight their pupils!

WHAT would you do if you won the Lottery?

Travel a lot more of the world and I would also help two brilliant schemes – The MEMO Project and Jurassica – which will put Portland firmly on the map.

WHAT do you hope the future holds?

I hope that I have good health and that Weymouth gets the appreciation it deserves.

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Julian Nangle

Julian Nangle is a publisher, poet and former bookshop owner with, at one time, five Words Etc shops in Dorset, including Dorchester and Bridport. Over the years he has published poetry anthologies, with some of the country’s best-known names on the pages of those books. He ventured into magazines and today still earns a living from the literary world, dealing in rare books, specialising in modern first editions. He is one of the founders of a group of poets which have recently started staging public events in Dorchester. The next gathering will be on Saturday, February 1st at 7:30pm in the King’s Arms, Dorchester when the theme for the evening will be “love.” The last meeting attracted around 50 people.

HOW did your love of books come about?

Largely from school where I was encouraged by one of the teachers, Harry Guest, who was a published poet, featuring in Penguin Modern Poets. He taught me English and French and was rather avant garde and quite an influence on me and other boys at school. I used to send some of my poems to my mother who was much impressed and showed them to a poet who she knew, Anthony Naumann. He took me under his wing and encouraged me. We would meet up and talk about poetry and what I had written. In many ways, became an alternative father and greatly influenced me.

HOW did you become involved with the book trade?

I think we all realised there was little hope of making a living out of writing poetry so my mother, thinking laterally, thought that if I couldn’t get into new books I could get into old books and found me a job in a bookshop. I went off to work in a posh bookshop just off Bond Street in London where we had no end of famous people coming in. I remember delivering books to Jean Shrimpton’s home and one day helping George Harrison who was looking for books on Art Deco. 

AND had you continued to write?

Yes, I had a collection of poems published and sold them to everyone I could think of at eight guineas a throw. I had a hundred copies printed and managed to sell all of them. The next year I published Words Etc which featured poets such as Brian Patten which did quite well.

AND when did your first bookshop come about?

In 1975 I moved from Godalming where I had been managing a bookshop for someone else and opened the first Words Etc in Islington. I was also still publishing other people’s works and did about 20 in all. Then I decided I wanted to do some poetry reading and managed to persuade the Arts Council to give me some funding and, somehow, managed to persuade some of the big names of the day to take part. I had a friend who seemed to know everyone who helped a great deal. It was quite a strange period. I remember interviewing Vikram Seth and thinking to myself at the time how bizarre it was. I was also publishing a sort of Private Eye for the book trade which was also good fun.

WHEN did you come to Dorset?

I was together with Anna by this time and we initially bought a house in Childe Okeford, moving in 1992 to Marnhull and then, in 1992, I opened the bookshop in Blandford and then in Dorchester in 1994. I realised I had rather cut myself off from the world so it was nice, when I got fed up of working alone, upstairs on the rare books, to be able to come down, have a coffee and talk to people.

WHAT were you first impressions of Dorchester?

It was rather run down at the time. Half of South Street seemed to be up for rent at that point, but there was a Blackwells bookshop a couple of doors down which I thought would be good for me and was a good sign that people were at least interested in books. Luckily it all went well and I was still doing the rare books and first editions which was some security.

AND were you made to feel welcome?

It was a bit slow at first, but Alistair Chisholm (town crier and local tour guide) was through the door almost as soon as we opened and got me involved with the local business community. He was trying to get the Business Improvement District set up at the time and got me involved, including writing down my thoughts about how the town could make the best of itself. I remember talking about how we needed a feelgood factor, having a future people could share, that sort of thing.

AND you also branched out into local publishing?

In about 2005 Alistair presented me with his suggestions for a series of Dorchester Walks. I think we managed to sell about 5,000 copies in all. There were also small publications on William Barnes and Thomas Hardy.

But the world changed and the likes of Amazon, must have affected your business?

It did, it’s been something I would have rather done without. We had five shops at one point – one in London and others in Blandford, Bridport, Weymouth and of course Dorchester. We sold them off one by one, the last, Dorchester in 2006, which in many ways came as a huge relief, but throughout the rare books have continued although that has also seen a decline and there are fewer collectors now than there were.

BUT you decided to stay in Dorchester?

Yes, although we did moved to Chichester for two years where I again ended up running a bookshop for some of that time, until we decided to come back. There is something about Dorset and Dorchester. Our children have largely grown up here and we have good friends here. I also love the literary connections – Hardy, William Barnes, the Moule family and the Powys family and we also love the countryside and the coast.

Julian Nangle has just published Windfalls, a collection of 36 of his poems, which is available via post at £6, including postage, via 22 Frome Terrace, Dorchester, DT1 1JQ, or can be ordered at the Custard Hall shop in Antelope Walk, Dorchester.

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Will the old Aldermanic bench survive?

WHEN I first started reporting in the mid-1960s the Guildhall in Lyme Regis not only provided a meeting place for the old Borough Council but also acted as the local magistrates’ court.

In those days, the mayor also acted as chairman of the bench and the last First Citizen to carry out these duties, I believe, was the late Alderman Douglas Fortnam.

The mayor presided over the court proceedings, handing out fines for minor offences, perched high on the Aldermanic bench from where the mayor stills presides over council meetings.

It has been customary down the years for the deputy mayor to sit on the right hand side of the mayor, with the longest serving councillor to the left.

It was interesting to note that when Stan Williams recently returned to the council chamber at the age of 79, he immediately took his seat next to the mayor, creating a few raised eyebrows. Councillor Williams, of course, served as a borough and town councillor for more than 40 years before he lost his seat at the last full election, returning after winning the recent by-election caused by the resignation of Jill Newton.  

Before his return, the vacant place on the Aldermanic bench was taken by the council’s other longest serving member, Owen Lovell.

I started thinking about the lay-out of the Guildhall after reading in the council minutes that consideration is being given to the reconfiguration of the meeting area.

A few councillors have been moaning about how uncomfortable the benches are and a surveyor’s report has been commissioned.

I suspect there are a few who sit in the chamber that think it a tad elitist for the mayor and senior councillors to sit above them and would prefer a seating arrangement where all members are on the same level, visually at least if not intellectually. 

The Guildhall, of course, is one of Lyme’s most historic buildings and from a planning viewpoint any internal changes will be a drawn out affair.

Of course, it may well be possible to keep the Aldermanic bench for historic purposes only and also reorganise the meeting area. 

In any changes that are planned the council should also make sure there is an adequate sound system so that the public can hear what they are saying, which is not always the case with the current lay-out.

I THINK most people in Lyme will agree that one of the greatest benefits of the coastal protection works in recent years has been the stabilising and enhancement of our public gardens. 

Lyme is indeed fortunate to have the Lister and Langmoor Gardens, a favourite with visitors who are able to escape from the hub-bub of the beach and spend some quiet time enjoying the magnificent views over Lyme Bay. Long may that be the case.

But moves are afoot to make some changes to the gardens with the town council considering a number of ideas.

They have already decided to close the putting green, a sedate attraction in the gardens for more than 60 years, in the light of falling revenues (around £1,500 only last year).  

There is talk of introducing some children’s play equipment and the possibility of a cafe and toilet which has been under consideration for a number of years.

Of course, the mini-golf is the big money spinner in the gardens, bringing in more than £60,000 every year with the outdoor table tennis tables contributing around £3,000.

A couple of years ago I wrote to the council, on behalf of Cancer Research UK and suggested that facilities for the French pastime of petanque (boules) could be accommodated at the back of the attendant’s hut. 

We offered to provide the materials, labour and equipment free of charge and suggested that the council share the proceeds of a 50-50 basis with Cancer Research, so giving our fundraising branch a regular income and also boosting the council’s takings as well as providing another attraction for the visitors. I got an acknowledgement but have heard nothing since. We live in hope. 

Whatever changes the council introduce, I hope they will protect the much lauded peaceful atmosphere that prevails in the gardens.

No, this doesn’t mean I’m retiring!

THANK you to all those who sent me messages of goodwill after I wrote last week about the excellent care I received on a recent visit to the Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester.

What was abundantly clear was that mine was not an isolated experience; many of you shared my view that we are extremely lucky to have a hospital on our doorstep with such high standards.

Others of you queried whether my visit to hospital might encourage me to retire. Sorry to disappoint you, the the treatment I received was long overdue and constituted no more than a 'minor procedure,' although I didn’t think that at the time.

The notes they give you on leaving hospital recommend four to six weeks off work. I was back at my desk the day after I came out (well I am not digging roads, am I?) and have managed to put in a full day’s work every day since.

So retirement is not an option. When it is, you’ll be the first to know.

RECENTLY in this column I mentioned that fantastic turn out at the switching on of Lyme’s Christmas lights, dedicated to the late Barbara Austin MBE. I mentioned that Barbara’s four sons were present but it was remiss of me not to have included daughter Jane. My sincere apologies.

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New year, new you novelty wearing thin

EVERYONE has had a fortnight to try and stick with their New Year’s resolutions, so how many of you have stayed strong?

After the festive excesses there were armies of people brightly determined on January 1st to start a new regime of weight loss-keep fit-training programmes.

You must have seen them in the last fortnight. They’re the ones with the new tracksuit bottoms pounding the pavements, the “70 per cent off!” sales tag still attached to the waistband and fluttering bravely behind them.

They’re the ones you are meeting in cafes, ordering a diet cola to go with their breakfast fry-up. I’ve actually seen such people!

And they’re the ones you see being carted off to hospital after that unfortunate bike accident which occurred after a hill descent on their new Chris Froome 28-gear carbon fibre racing bicycle.

The bike was a Christmas gift from their wife-husband-partner, but it wasn’t lack of familiarity with their gleaming new machine which caused the crash. That came as the rider fumed and fiddled with the on-bike computer recording their heart beat, calorific loss and pulse.

Handily for the police, it also recorded his speed at 47mph in a 30mph limit (£60 fixed penalty) as he gave the bike computer one last disgusted cuff and looked up. By then it was too late to brake as he flashed across a roundabout and buried his front wheel in an invalid carriage.

So as you fight the flab, give up sugar in your tea or try to be more carbon neutral, remember this. The idea is to get to the end of the year, not crash and burn in the first month.

How time flies when you’re having fun!

IT is amazing how the passage of time can catch you out.

I was talking with a friend and the conversation meandered along through various members of our family until we got to his late father.

It was then that my friend observed his father had actually been born in 1929, the same year that Wild West legend Wyatt Earp died, he of Gunfight at the OK Corral fame.

We mused about what Earp must have felt, living in an era including the first flights and the first cars, and I happened to point out that 40 years could produce all kinds of change.

We then realised that 40 years on from Earp’s death and the birth of my friend’s father was 1969 when man first set foot on the Moon.

Warming to our task, we looked back four decades to the middle of Earp’s life in 1889 when the Wild West was very much reality… and found that huge change was apparent then as well because 1889 was the year that one of the world’s most iconic structures, the Eiffel Tower, was built.

And how did all this conversation start? Well we’d been remembering what dramatic changes we’d seen in Weymouth over the last 30-40 years and speculating on what changes the town might see over the next 40 years. Amazing how the passage of time can startle you when you actually sit down to consider it.

Everything rising but interest rates

GAS and electricity prices have gone up and now it seems to be the turn of council tax, held unchanged for several years in Weymouth and Portland but now heading for an increase.

Such power and tax rises have caused consternation among those whose job it is to safeguard the poor and vulnerable in our society, but I have yet to hear a single plea on behalf of those millions of us who have seen our savings butchered by years of cripplingly low interest rates.

Politicians and power companies seem to feel that our mattresses are supported by unlimited amounts of ready cash which can just be tapped whenever they feel like it.

But the harsh reality is that decades of careful saving to produce a nest egg for our old age have been addled by national and local decisions and policies which focus on grabbing cash from us without much thought about our futures.

The presumption seems to be that our masters can keep going to the well but I have news for them. It is starting to run dry.

If interest rates are not increased soon so that those with savings can use them to get the financial help they increasingly need then the wolf at the door is going to be inside homes and at our throats before you can say “MPs’ pay rise”.

And if an interest rate rise doesn’t happen, if the safety net we’ve built for the future continues to be eroded, then pretty soon those trumpeting about protecting the poor are going to have an even bigger task on their hands because more and more of us will be increasingly unable to support ourselves in old age because the measures we took to do so have been torpedoed.

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Sue Blake

TALK to almost anyone about walking in the Dorchester area and the name of Sue Blake will almost certainly be mentioned.

Sue has long been associated with not only the Ramblers but the West Line Rail Walks and the Strollers. She was a key player in setting up the Jubilee Trail across the county and has championed rights of access for walkers across Dorset.

But she might equally be mentioned for her work with the Access group, at the County Library, with Unison, as a member of the Friends of the West Station or the many years she and her late husband, Phil, spent working for the Methodist Church.

It is no surprise that earlier in the year she was awarded a British Empire Medal for her community involvement, especially for her passion of encouraging others to enjoy the countryside by walking, or walking through Dorchester with the Strollers as a means of getting some gentle exercise.

The list of organisations which Mrs Blake has been involved with seems almost endless – others of note include the Dorset Archaeological Committee and the Dorchester Area Partnership, membership secretary of the Colliton Club - not to mention a spell as parish clerk at Broadmayne and as an officer of the Dorset Branch of the Society of Local Councils Clerks.

She was born in a village outside Oxford where her passion for walking in the countryside was nurtured and came to Dorset in 1960 when her husband, then fiancée, was transferred from Harwell to Winfrith. 

Sue herself transferred to Dorset County Council. They both lived separately, in digs, until they married, moving into their home on the Manor Park estate in July 1961, where Sue still lives today.

WHAT did you think of Dorchester when you first arrived?
It was strange because we would walk down South Street and see the same people we used to see in Abingdon or other towns near Harwell, so many other people we used to know up there had been transferred to Winfrith at the time. Dorchester was then, and still is, a friendly town where people would readily stop and talk, but it was easier for us because of our involvement in the church. In those days there were few places to go in the evenings if you didn’t want to go to a pub so people often ended up at our home playing Monopoly or Whist. We tended to make our own entertainment.

WHEN did you renew your passion for walking?
We were too busy with the church and everything else for many years so there was no time for walking but in 1986 I spotted a programme of walks put up in the library by the Casterbridge Ramblers and persuaded a friend to come along with me. Within a year I was programmes secretary, which I did for 11 years, and also started leading walks on Saturdays or Sundays. I also joined the Ramblers in the late 80s and became area membership secretary and also publicity officer for Dorset. It was while I was on the Area Council we formed a sub-committee and organised the Jubilee Trail working together with all four groups to complete the 90 miles from Forde Abbey to Bockerley Dyke.

YOU are now more involved with The Strollers, the Dorchester group which encourages people to walk to keep fit. How did that come about?
I was looking for something to do when I retired in 2003 and said that I would lead a few walks but since then it’s grown and I seem to have taken on a range of other tasks as well, apart from co-ordinating all the walks.

APART from the walking what have you done, or do you do, to keep your mind active?
I’ve completed an Open University degree and studied law and economics at Weymouth College. I also like to try and complete a crossword every day and I like to read, mostly fairly light fiction. I’m a bit of a John Buchan buff and have even visited his grave. He was very similar to my father in law in many respects. I also like music and tend to have Classic FM on all day.

DOES TV or cinema interest you?
Yes, I’ve been to the cinema about five times in the last couple of weeks. I’ve recently seen Philomena, Saving Mr Banks, Last Chance and The Butler. I don’t seem to find time to watch TV when programmes are on but I like to record things which I am interested in. I quite like CSI.

AND if you were abandoned on a desert island and could choose someone to have with you, who would it be?
Someone with survival skills, like Bear Grylls; someone who would take charge like Margaret Thatcher who would also be interesting to talk to and possibly someone who has a wide knowledge of the natural work like Chris Packham. If I was on an island I would miss the British countryside, books and a radio and if I couldn’t take my iPad I would have to try and take some jigsaw puzzles and crosswords.

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Watch where you are walking

CHRISTMAS is proving too much for some pedestrians who have not just grown careless in traffic but almost suicidal.

The problem revealed itself when one woman loaded with bags, festive wrapping paper peeping coyly out of one of them began to cross the road about 100 metres ahead of me.

She didn’t look left and she didn’t look right, just continued her slow plodding way right in front of my car which would have hit her had I not pulled up. Even when she reached the pavement there was no realisation of what she had done and she simply turned right up Commercial Road and carried on walking.

Some people, I thought, but over the next week I saw several other ludicrous traffic incidents either from my car or while I was a pedestrian myself.

A man carrying a large cardboard box but in such a way he couldn’t see the traffic he was stepping out in front of, two woman walking out into the road with their heads bent over a  package with a bow on it instead of with their eyes on the cars braking to avoid them and an elderly man with what looked like a large box of Christmas chocolates in his bag.

He at least had some of his wits about him and waved a walking stick at cars to encourage traffic to stop as he stepped slowly across the road… less than 30 metres from a pedestrian crossing.

Do Christmas pedestrians have some sort operation to remove their sanity? I’ve kept the best one for last.

A mother quite rightly reprimanded her young daughter who she’d grabbed just as she was about to run out into the road… but as she bent over to deliver the reprimand into her daughter’s ear they had already started to cross the road right in front of a van which they’d missed seeing. Sort of spoilt the safety message a bit!

Waking up to a frosty message in the morning

WALK outside on many mornings now and chances are that your car will be covered with ice.

This tells you it is winter, not because it is freezing cold but because of all the messages scratched into icy car windows by children on their way to school.

You get the usual smiley faces, smiley snowmen, smiley Father Christmases and even the occasional mutant reindeer with certain bodily parts given greater care and attention than others!

Then you get the “fun” messages which really aren’t that much fun at all which means, with due apologies to Shakespeare, “now is the winter of our discontent”.

I really don’t want to know the likes of “Sandra snogs Rob”, that “Carmel is a bitch” and definitely not that “Max has a big one”.

There is no real malice involved but, as an early morning welcome, it put drivers off their breakfast and really only leaves them with one option. To turn on the heater and see all the messages dribble.

Going above and beyond

NEVER have doctors and health staff been under such pressure as they are now, but many still go considerably further than the extra mile to help patients.

A Weymouth woman had a medical query but was told the doctor concerned was away on holiday.

She had resigned herself to having to deal with an unfamiliar figure, so she was understandably delighted when her usual doctor took the trouble to answer her query by email… even though he was on the other side of the world in the wilds of Tasmania!

He had apparently been monitoring his calls and had taken the trouble to seek out a spot from which he was able to send emails via his phone so this patient’s query could be answered.

She was extremely impressed and felt that her care really mattered to the doctor in question who had really put himself out to help her.

Trip down the mines

A WEYMOUTH man recalled the time he accompanied work colleagues on a special adventure trip down a coal mine in the Midlands.

Down and down they went and there was a certain amount of excitement when they reached the bottom and got out of the cage, surrounded by working lights and the sight of bright white lime scattered on the ground to help neutralise waste.

There was much chatter as the group made its way along a shaft led by a knowledgeable guide.

Then one of the women in the group asked the guide a question, saying: “What is all this white stuff on the ground?”

In a deadpan voice he replied: “That’s frost. It was very cold down here last night.”

There is no record of how long her colleagues managed to stifle their laughter.

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Sandy West

SANDY West, 64, is the community life champion at Asda supermarket in Weymouth. She was born and went to school in Plymouth before moving to Liverpool when her father came out of the Royal Navy. She worked as a proof reader for the Liverpool Jewish Gazette which she said “being from a Welsh Catholic-Liverpool Irish Prody family was a bit of an odd job!” Sandy married in the same Liverpool registry office as Beatle John Lennon and moved to Portland on her wedding day, July 29th, 1967.  She has now lived on the island for 46 years and is a borough councillor and former town mayor of Portland. She has worked at Asda, Weymouth, for 14 years.

WHY do you live on Portland?

Because Portland is the most beautiful place with a great community and community spirit. I also feel proud that it is the base for the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy because I am very keen on sailing.

WHERE do you go for your holidays?

I holiday in this country, Birmingham, Liverpool, Plymouth or I just take day trips from Portland because there is so much to see round here. I love walking and the sculpture park.

WHAT is your favourite time of the year?

Autumn because it is a mellow time. Colours are constantly changing and it is a lovely time before winter sets in.

WHAT is your favourite film?

Gone With The Wind. I have seen it 124 times and love it. If not that then All Quiet on the Western Front, the original black and white one, not the remakes.

WHAT is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?

When I was younger my oldest brother locked me in a cupboard at night and told my mum and dad that I had gone to bed. I was terrified because then I was frightened of the dark.

IF YOU could live your life again what would you be?

I would be an army nurse. That was one of my ambitions, but I got married instead.

WHICH three people would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Nelson Mandela because I was inspired by his fight for freedom, the Dalai Lama because I like the warm feeling and peacefulness of Buddhism and Dawn French because she is a Plymouth girl and very funny.

WHAT would you do if you won the Lottery?

I would give some to charity, some to my family and then I would go mental and just buy a shoe shop and spend all day trying them on because I love shoes. Then I’d give them to charity when I got fed up with them.

WHAT do you hope the future holds?

I would like to see world peace and I would also hope that I am able to carry on having as much fun as I do now.

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