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> > Deborah Caulfield

I'm an inconsistent artist, hugely distracted by life. I create in a variety of media including words, pictures, food and laundry. I do it because I can't seem to not. Sometimes it's fun.

London: Maybe it's because I love freedom and Art
16 May 2014

Blog

A photograph of the front cover of my London A-Z atlas.

I'm a Londoner, born in East Ham, where my dad grew up. In the mid 1950s my parents relocated to Basildon in Essex, one of several post-war New Towns, where a job in a factory came with a council house and an indoor toilet. Three years after leaving Chailey Heritage my dad was dead and I couIdn't take any more of my mother's narcisism and random sex life. I took a green bus to London, leaving no forwarding address. I had my A-Z. I was free. London was exciting: The busyness and...

Comments: 2

A necessary poem about death and survival - inspired by Virginia Woolf.
7 May 2014

Blog

Black and white photograph of trees in Holland Park, London.

In the poem: 'He' is my dad. He died March 1st 1968, age 42. He'd had multiple sclerosis for seven years. He was a smiley man with a temper as sharp as his wit. 'She' is my mother. She was, for the whole of her long life, a sad and lonely bully, a narcisist who disliked almost everyone, including herself. In the 5th verse, 'they' are my siblings. They were not allowed to go to our dad's funeral. This is not a clever poem, but a necessary one. It just...

Comments: 5