Wednesday 6th December 2012

I ventured North.

Le weekend dernière.

Manchesterford, to be precise. My old friend, Gus Strickland, was exiled to Durham 30 years ago. Well, what I mean is he’s not from there. Quickly he got into an astonishing configuration in Newcastle. It was a commune, with a strong vegetarian aspect. All the boyfriends moved around – I can’t remember now exactly how. I wonder if he can. But there was much openness. Robert Nevil once visited for one night, because giving a talk in the neighbourhood on the contribution of the Pony Club of Great Britain to the 4th Battle of Ypres. But it wasn’t that sort of commune. You didn’t have to have sex with absolutely everybody.

Then Gus removed to Manchesterford and reverted to normal apartment life with one partner, who is called Paul and keeps developers off Manchesterford’s historic buildings with a few crisp remarks. Gus is in the uni world, prof now. The apartments in Manchesterford are all Poor Little Rich Gay without exception, except for the ones that are not. ….. to be continued