Interests Poetry (accessible), photography (digital), publishing (magazines and digital), aviation (literature, editing, General Aviation). Creator/owner/editor 'Poems Please Me (www.poemsplease.me)' poetry website. Creator/editor: 'War & peace and the price of cat-fish' blog of 70-year-old diaries of SW Londoner during the Blitz, WWII and later + notes and photos (140,000+ views by early 2017). Facebook: Poems Please Me and Tony French. Sponsors biennial international Poems Please Me Prize. Maintains website for Fire River Poets, Taunton, Somerset (UK). And a new project in 2017: www.countrytalk.uk - very embryonic at the time of adding this note.
Posts held have included several in press and public relations for higher education, with: The Open University, Bristol Polytechnic and Committee of Directors of Polytechnics, also with the Schools Council and Wiltshire County Council. As Senior Lecturer, created the UK's first dedicated PR undergraduate course. And was once a very junior, underpaid, political party regional organiser. Teenage stagehand at Her Majesty's during 'West Side Story' and full-time at Chichester Festival Theatre during theatre's first season.
Qualifications Teacher's certificate (Portsmouth); also BA degree (OU). Some time member Institute of Public Relations, British Institute of Management, Institute of Information Scientists. Has held UK (PPL/IMC/Night ratings) and USA private pilot licences; was Copy Editor, Pilot magazine. Similar continuing freelance work for FLYER magazine and in the past for the UK Civil Aviation Authority's Clued Up and the Light Aircraft Association's Light Aviation.
Hobbies Poetry, Wikipedia contributions, photography.
Current occupation Freelance poet/editor/writer, layabout. Maintaining/enjoying a few acres of Devon.
Home Devon, UK. At various times: central London (Primrose Hill and Camden) - and Surbiton, Nottingham, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire, also Portsmouth area and Southampton.
Published work includes: History/biographical - 'Letters from a WWII Airman: An eloquent tribute to volunteer aircrew'. - Kindle, 2017. Education articles in TES, THES, Education. Aviation articles in Pilot (UK) and The Smithsonian (USA). 100 Top Pilots (aviation's first 100 years); Lindbergh's panel; Charlie's Engine (in the Wright brothers' Flyer) i.e. Charlie Taylor; six-part monthly Aviation Glossary; Twenty Days to a PPL (pilot's course in Texas); From Love Field to London; The IMC Rating; Helicopters - my first forty minutes; a Tour of France; humour. Monthly series about aviation websites; monthly analysis of aviation accidents based on official reports; reviews of books and DVDs. Poetry: various.
Wikipedia Photos contributed to Wikipedia Commons. Actors, rivers, politicians, philosopher, royal family, etc. Other Wikipedia contributions, click 'Contributions' (if you are logged in) top right of screen.
Recent 'FutureLearn' courses completed (2016-17): Introduction to Cyber Security (Open University); Propaganda & Technology in Everyday Life (University of Nottingham); The Power of Social Medial (University of Southampton); Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests (British Council); What is a Mind? (University of Cape Town); Understanding Language: Learning & Teaching (Southampton); Reading Literature in the Digital Age (University of Basel); Robert Burns: poems, songs & legacy (Glasgow); Managing my Investments (OU); Web Science: How the Web is Changing the World (Southampton); Come Rain or Shine-meteorology (University of Reading); The Earth in my pocket-geology (OU) - current, Feb '17