In Competition No. 2858 you were invited to imagine that a well-known figure from 20th-century history was a secret poet and to submit a recently discovered example of their versifying.
Politicians featured prominently in the entry: there were poignant lines from the pens of Edward Heath and Michael Foot, and here is Adrian Fry’s John Prescott, just getting into his stride: ‘Don’t call me unsophisticated, I’ve been to Villanelle,/ I know me assonance from elbow, I’ve a cracking tale to tell…’
The winners earn £25 each and George Simmers takes this week’s bonus fiver.
No, I must never let this menace
My relationship with Denis
(Such a help-mate, though at times alas a bore),
Yet sometimes I am able
Underneath the Cabinet table
To play footsie with a man who’s much much
more.
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