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On Saturday 17th October Newcastle Libraries in association with the W.E.A. held a day long event devoted to the memory of the popular local author, Jack Common.  The event included the launch of a biography about Jack Common by Doctor Keith Armstrong entitled Common Words and the Wandering Star.

The event also featured archive film, music and poetry. Jack Common’s son and daughter attended and talked movingly about their father. The poem featured below was written by the poet Catherine Graham who gave a reading of her tribute to Jack Common at the event.

I beg to apply for the post

My school was tough:
The teachers weighed in,
Tipping the scales with their red pencils,
Their toxic, chalk dust.
I beg to apply for the post.

Like you, my father learned shorthand;
Attended evening class at the colliery.
A cacophony of skills, don’t you think?
Like my mother, singing opera in the scullery.
Beware of the man who wants marriage,
Isn’t that what you told your readers?
My father taught me to ride a bike
And not depend on stabilizers.
He hated smarmy men the most.
I beg to apply for the post.

No silver spoons in our house.
Our doorstep was donkey-stoned.
We refused to be shoved into snobbery,
Refused to give up the ghost
When they refurbished The Dwellings
And named it Millennium Court.
Ashes to ashes, communities to dust.
I beg to apply for the post.

I’ve never failed to fit in,
Never lived in a culture vacuum.
Why, our backlane was a canvas
To the local graffiti artist.
I beg to apply for the post.

Brought up on Dickman’s pies
But I never mince my words.
I don’t give anything I don’t want to.
I don’t go about hard-faced.
I’m not fighting any class-war
In silk-lined, kid gloves:
I have a voice, I haven’t lost faith.
I’m taking on life bare-knuckled,
This kiddar’s luck has changed.
I don’t believe in the twaddeI
I read in most of the papers.
I know when to tell the truth;
When to spout the necessary lie.
I learned all this at my cost -
I beg to apply for the post.

I would supply references
From my previous employer
Though, fair to say there was no love lost.
He had ideas above my station:
His wife was all fur coat.
More edge than a broken piss-pot.
I beg to apply for the post.

I pride myself on being punctual;
Always on the dot.
I don’t pretend or hope to be
What I’m definitely not.
I tick all of the boxes -
I call salmon paté, salmon paste.
I know my place but I don’t like to boast.
I beg to apply for the post.

There will be another opportunity to hear Doctor Keith Armstrong read extracts from his new book celebrating the life and work of Jack Common. This will take place at Gosforth Library on Thursday 28th January 2010 between 2.30 – 3.30 pm. For further details please call 0191 2771811.

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Page Turner is our quarterly newsletter, keeping you up to date with news and events in our libraries.

You can view a copy online here or pick up a copy from any of our branches or the Tourist Information Centre, Central Arcade.

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