'The Morris Dancers' Farewell' is about the Royton Morris Dancers, led by Jimmy
Cheetham, dancing out of Royton on a Saturday Morning in 1900. The little boy
centre dancer is Mark Irwin and his sisters await his return in the lamplight. It was a man's dance but a woman's artistic touch.story was told by Mark's sister Alice many years later. Alice was a grand old lady in her eighties when she told it . All the Irwin sisters helped to boil shirts, sashes, ribbons
and stockings for the dancers and dressed them in the street before they danced
off.
'The Hour Ahead' echoes a visit to my friends James and Jill in Toronto and remarks on time and
distance a comforting hour.
I have a third piece in dialect prose which makes fun
of the minefield of dialect spelling and pronunciation.
I write history - I edit the Royton Local
Society Newsletter and write articles on local history and grander historical
themes for other outlets. I write on literature from Old English to modern. I
review books from time to time.
I decided to enter the LAA competition because I
like writing and had not entered the competition before as I have not been a
member long. The other side of the coin is that I have to size myself up to
entering them.
I have entered few other competitions before, though I have won
a couple of awards in various categories for dialect societies.
I had heard of the LAA through general
reading and already knew the LAA president through dialect and folk
events.
I am currently writing a history of the Royton Morris
Dancers. I am compiling a collection of poetry.
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