deilibri

09/03/2026 · 16:17

Kids & Books

Last week ended with the focus very much on children and reading with, I hope, some advance in literacy skills and the love of books.

Thursday saw World Book Day, an event I’ve always supported but I have been critical of the way the focus has been on dressing up as a ‘favourite character’, rather than reading the books, as my own research has shown. I’m hoping that this is slowly changing particularly as 2026 is The Year of Reading. Apparently the most popular outfits included Matilda & Charlies Bucket (Roald Dahl), Alice (Alice in Wonderland) and Gangster Granny (David Walliams), as well as Paddington. BBC TV news carried a nice piece where all the kids at one school had chosen to be Mr Men characters!

Friday saw the final of the BBC 500 Words Competition for ages 5 – 7 and 8 – 11 years. The medal presentations took place at Windsor Castle with HM The Queen. It was great to see over 46,500 children took part, with excellent results if the 6 winners are a good measure. Each finalists story was read by a the likes of Sara Cox. Jodie Whittaker and Big Zuu. On Saturday BBC Bitesize had all the readings on line.

The winners were chosen by a celebrity panel of judges; Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, Rose Ayling-Ellis and Malorie Blackman.

Death of a much loved poet

Last Friday, February 6, marked 21 years since the sad and unexpected death of Rudi Holzapfel, good friend and poet.

Rudi was born in Paris. His father, Rudolf, was an art expert and Shakespeare scholar, while his mother, Mona Trew from the Folies Bergères, was a dancer with the original Bluebell Girls. Rudi had spent some time with relatives in England to learn English before following the family to California. In 1956 he was sent to Dublin to study at Trinity College where he did his M.Litt. on Irish Literary Magazines linked to the fight for Irish Independence.

In 1966 he started work on his Ph.D. at Leeds University on the Irish poet James Clarence Mangan, while working with me in the local bookshop. He also set up an antiquarian book business in which I helped, printing and compiling book lists. In 1989 he decided to return to his beloved Ireland where he took up his work again on his Mangan thesis. He kept on writing and publishing poetry, and dealing in second hand books from his Poor Sinner bookshop in Tipperary, Eire.

He died of cancer on 6 February, 2005, in Bonn, Germany. His final work, A Tiger Says His Prayers, was published posthumouslyin 2006 by Sunburst Press. His website contains a booklist of his poetry collections and audio files of Rudi reading extracts from some of his many poems. You can find the link here

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26/01/2026 · 12:21

“Oidhche Bhlas Burns”

Or if you’re an inveterate sassenach ‘Happy Burns Night’. So, if you had a good one last night that’s great, because I spent my Burns night fighting a series of ‘server errors’ which is why I’m 24 hours behind – and NO WHISKY!

Yesterday we were celebrating the life of Robert Burns, also known as Rabbie Burns, poet and lyricist, widely regarded as Scotland’s national poet and a key figure in Romanticism. Born 25 January in 1759 in Alloway, Ayrshire, Burns came from a farming life to compose enduring works in Scots and English.

Burns was a rebel against the social order and a bitter satirist of all forms of political and religious ideas. Despite his upbringing he was by no means an illiterate peasant. He was a craftsman. Around age 26 his poetry output expanded as he sought to express more of his emotions and comment on the social scene. He has been described as someone of great intellectual energy and force of character.

Burns’ first significant recognition came in 1786 with the publication of his debut poetry collection, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. It was an instant success, earning him fame as the ‘ploughman poet’. Burns produced some fine poetry, the first of which nearly everyone has heard on numerous occasions: AuldLangSyne but others regularly crop up: To a Mouse, AMan’saManfor A’ That, Scots Wha Hae and Tam O’Shanter.

The latter was the only poem he wrote after his time in Edinburgh that showed a hidden side of his poetic genius. Written in 1790, it’s a narrative poem in eight-syllable couplets based on a folk legend. It paints a picture of the drinking classes in the old town of Ayr in the late 18th century, populated by several unforgettable characters including Tam, Souter (Cobbler) Johnnie and his own long-suffering wife, Kate. The tale includes humour, pathos, horror, social comment and some truly exquisite lines. Try and read it in the original before succumbing to the translation – it’s not that difficult.

Burns worked as an excise man and felt it his duty to serve as a private in the Royal Dumfries Volunteers, a local militia formed to defend Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars. He joined the unit in 1795, serving until 1796. Burns produced so much fine poetry that he has become the Scottish national poet. He died in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1796 aged only 37.

No doubt last night there was plenty of Scotch broth, haggis, bagpipes, whisky and, of course, poetry. A life well worth the celebrating.

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