I’d better start defining myself to others as “English” rather than “British”, English-ness is a better understood concept than British-ness, and I feel that Great Britain as a country is threatening to break up in any case.
British-ness and “The West” has been associated with Freedom and Democracy for centuries, but these values have come under intense pressure and attack in recent years. This has been largely caused by the global rise of Terrorism and ideologies that have opposed the traditional western philosophies of Freedom and Democracy. Religious Fundamentalism, Radicalisation, Nationalism, Xenophobia, Intolerance, Authoritarianism – all these have become much more prominent and mainstream in recent decades, and really one can see that these ideologies have been adopted by BOTH SIDES of the argument – one side adopts these strategies in response to the threats posed by the rise of the other side. Religion, cultural and geo-political differences fuel these extremes and actually force opposing sides into polarities.
I have written elsewhere about “Freedom in England” and how this has changed in recent years. I concluded that this was because of a response to terrorism and perceived threats to our way of life from malign states, and unconstrained and often illegal immigration. The huge irony is that the policies put in place to try to deter these factors actually create the opposite effect to what was intended. Immigration rules force innocent people to tell lies to get into the country. Police surveillance and CCTV cameras create a feeling of insecurity and raise civil tensions and unrest, with accusations of police brutality and heavy handedness. There is a perception that personal freedom is under attack and being constantly restrained. And police resources are diverted to combat terrorism while other areas of crime are left unaddressed.
But my personal writing gives me the freedom to express what I feel. It is an expression and manifestation of my personal freedom which cannot be found in many other places in public life these days. When I first started to write, I was motivated by a desire to record my memories of travelling before I forgot, and I thought my writing may be of interest to my family and maybe my friends and others. But as I wrote more, other factors influenced me. I realized early on that I had to decide FOR WHOM was I writing – was it for me, or my personal family, or was it intended for a wider audience? If it was for a wider audience, I had to consider different factors – was I a published author? Who would be interested in what I wrote? Who was I aiming at? What style would appeal to a wider audience? And did I have the talent and time to write in ways that would appeal to a wider audience?
I decided that, no, if I was writing for a wider audience, I would be too constrained by the above factors and wouldn’t be able to write in the way I wanted. I wanted to be free to write in my way, and not the way others wanted. Writing is anyway very subjective, and what appeals to one person may very well be abhorrent to another.
So I wrote, and write, for MYSELF only. My reasoning has been vindicated by the fact that some of my personal poems and stories have emotionally stirred and affected those of my friends and family who have seen some of what I’ve written. I’ve guaged their feedback as a measure of my ability as a writer, and I’m satisfied that I know I have the power to affect my readers’ emotions in particular circumstances. In 2012 I put together a collection of my poems, musings and stories and photocopied about 15 copies to distribute to friends and family.
These were travel stories and my personal family reflections. I know from comments received that they had an effect on the reader, and my hope was that someone might pick up this private collection and enquire from whom it came. But that hasn’t happened, but I am not dismayed.
I have several times submitted my work to an outlet, such as a small “New Age” publisher of travel books or poems, as an article in a newspaper, extracts of stories sent to contacts, or to an on-line travel blog as a “travelogue”. In all cases I have been unsuccessful in getting published. And it takes a lot of hard work and organization to submit an item for publishing, and one has to comply with the rules of the publishers. I am not good at complying with rules. But I am not at all disappointed in my lack of success. I know authors get rejected many times but that does not put them off, and does not, and should not, alter their style. If I was inhibited by what a publisher may think or say, I would never write anything, so I continue to write in MY way and hope that one day someone will read it and think “That’s not at all bad, you know….I wonder who the author was….he has had some interesting experiences….maybe we could put it in such and such…..” .
My main hope is that my writing will be saved and read by my children and their descendants, and would be considered interesting, acceptable and with some talent.
So now my writing is uninhibited and enjoyable for me, it gives me freedom and it exercises my creativity, it is a hobby that has endless possibilities. I particularly like creating a poem, as it develops in my mind as I write and I see it take shape before my eyes. I think about the subject and tinker with it, and go away and come back the next day with a new idea, and try different combinations of words and phrases, even punctuation marks and typefaces – all these give different emphasis to my creation. But I seem to have developed a style of writing that tells a story, often with a moral lesson at the end – this is called ALLEGORY, and strangely this is NOT contrived but is based on my own personal experiences. My life’s experiences have taught me many moral “lessons”, and I think it is important for me to do what I can to teach or pass on to others these “lessons”, because we all go through difficulties of one sort or another in our lives. Because of some of my difficulties, I wish to point out that these can be overcome, and all is not lost – the wheel of fortune can turn up as well as down, and people should be aware of this.
C. Tim Taylor 2019