Readers may recall that I recently began writing a series of poems that voice the sometimes controversial and always dyspeptic views of an ageing curmudgeons who hails from the North of England. For now, the series is entitled, provisionally, “The Curmudgeon’s Diary”. What will come of it, only time will tell. My fictional curmudgeon gives me cover to repackage and present, with humour, some of the irritable complaints and gently intolerant attitudes I sometimes hear (or imagines) being expressed by friends, family, associates and even strangers of a certain age (but never myself!).

This time around, my protagonist (“Himself”) and his wife have moved from Leeds to a London suburb. Himself has wasted no time in finding fault with their new neighbours.

Marilyn and Howard Timms are the lovely editors of Wildfire Words, published in Cheltenham, Glos, and they selected “Meet the Poltronas and the Post-Nominals” for publication in the humour section of the May 2023 issue of their online journal. You can access my poem online by clicking here.