Title Details

A portrait of an unregarded place, this is also a love story between Lt. Cdr. J. McMillan, a Scottish sailor, and Olive Wood, a young lass in Yorkshire. The unregarded place is Darfield, near Barnsley, trying to reinvent itself after the wholesale closure of the mining industry. The life story is that of John and Olive's son, the Bard of Barnsley, from Low Valley Junior School and Wath Grammar School to Oscar the Frog (Barnsleys first folk-rock band) and Jaws (Barnsleys First folk-poetry duo) and beyond. A life lived with words at its core. In some ways it's a tiny life; a few ripples in a pond far from the center of things, a few lines written in celebration and commemoration of places and times that deserve better. In another way it's a shout of hope, that we can find the center anywhere and celebrate it. Read by the author.