One of the discoveries of Thank Goodness for Cake was that John Pudney was at school with Auden. He was two years older and fell in love with Pudney in his final term at Gresham’s in a very decorous manner “We still addressed each other by our surnames”. Pudney was awed by this older boy…
Category: John Pudney
Thank Goodness for Cake
John Pudney at the National Portrait Gallery In an earlier blog entry I mentioned my interest in John Pudney and having come across references to his autobiography Thank Goodness for Cake (TGFC), I ordered it sight unseen. It was published in 1978 the year after he died. I anticipated finding out more about his wartime…
Collected Poems – John Pudney
I have one of my academic colleagues, Jonathan Rix to thank for reminding me of John Pudney’s poems. He was enthusing about some of Pudney’s RAF poems – Smith and Missing Smith, living on air, Your astral body A mechanic wonder Your anger an affair Of fire and thunder. So I’ve been reading his collected poems, published in…