This collection of plebeian poetry covers a wide range of subjects, simply because they are as stated - just jottings. That is, poems scribbled down when at work in London's Docklands (Oceanus's Daughter); clearing St Mary's village churchyard (God's Gardener); sitting on a bank of the River Thames; (The North Kent Marshes); preparing for a barbecue at Cooling Castle, close to St James's Church at Cooling in Kent at dusk, as a ground mist swept slowly over the marshlands (The Ghosts of the North Kent Marshes); or bored at home sitting at my computer (A challenge).
Some of my jottings were written as a mental exercise while juggling with the use of words or creating shapes with words - that sort of thing. Several were written for my children (A Summer Storm and My Teddy Bear). When Aristocratic Lovers Go Courting was written at Invaforth House, The Manor House Hospital, North London, while recuperating from a serious accident in London's Docklands.
Our Wagon Train was Heading for the Goldfields was written at the behest of my friend, Philip Connolly, the compiler of these poems, after he had been on a sojourn to visit friends in America, returning home with Simon Doyle's journal of that momentous journey.
About the Author: Henry Bradford was born in Gravesend, Kent, a town set beside the River Thames. He was evacuated to Totnes, Devonshire, as a child of nine in June 1940, where he was injured in a farm accident. It was while he was a patient in Torbay Hospital, Torquay, recuperating from his injury, that his interest in poetry developed when he began reading Pixie Stories and the Rupert Bear Annuals.
Over many years, Henry has jotted down numerous poems. Those included in this compendium, which now contains several additional poems, are published under the title The Jottings Of A Nonentity.
Henry worked in the docklands of The Port of London for thirty two years till his retirement due to injuries sustained in ship-board accidents and his childhood wartime injury.
He served as a Justice of the Peace for Kent, and as a Crown Court Appeals Court magistrate for eighteen years. He now lives in retirement in Rochester, Kent.
