A huge thank you to the peerless Lee Benson who invited me as a guest reader to his Wheely Good Words at the Wagon earlier this month, a monthly event held at the Wagon and Horses near Halesowen. It was an honour to be included with three poets who performed their work.
Lee was generous enough to offer me two reading slots, giving me the opportunity to read from both of my Muir family memoir books: There Was A Soldier and Reflections Through The Mist.
For my first reading, I chose a fictitious incident that took place in the hours immediately following the signing of the Armistice on November 11th 1915, when my grandfather returned to POW camp after a year billeted at a nearby farm. Whilst the incident is fictitious, it is true that he spent a year living and working on a farm at the end of the war.
For my second reading, I chose an incident that involved my mother while she undertook war work in Birmingham during the Second World War. The incident happened at a different factory; I borrowed it and transferred it to my mother’s factory so that I could place her at the centre of what happened.
The Wagon and Horses is a lovely traditional Black Country Pub. Here I am reading from one of my scripts. I really must do something about those trousers that crease far too readily!
David Muir 