Skip to main content
Amy Blakemore - To begin at the beginning:
Edited by JODY PORTER

To begin at the beginning:

‘My problem is that when people say the word 'Please' I find it difficult to resist. Just like when I'm in Tesco and pushing that trolley and I'm looking at the butter — Flora or Utterly Butterly — and I'm blocking the way. They say 'Please can you move' and I move.’ – Michael Adebolajo

the school bred up bit-players
see their faces bathed in hydroponic glow – children of the silence
within the South Circular
imagine sparrows peeping cautious murder the nocturnal charm
of blue-black hydrangea and the sudden inexplicable scream
the people who are and who are not like you
ever the vanity of small differences and knee-socks and religious school –
lower than Letwin or Platell as unable to identify a Hawksmoor but not all bad
no not by nature – they hate but no more than we all do

disaffection
is an interesting word, implying loveless and wraps
of speed and the babies born in Lewisham Hospital have it
like a birthmark or psychosis resulting from years of skunk abuse
twenty-two years old and the product of south east London’s
loving lower middle class

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
ATTILA
Attila the Stockbroker Diary / 23 May 2026
23 May 2026

The Bard does Bearded Theory, and lodges a complaint about bandnames

round up
Cinema / 2 April 2026
2 April 2026

LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze

indian ink
Theatre Review / 19 December 2025
19 December 2025

Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY

themen
Interview / 18 June 2025
18 June 2025

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to saxophonist and retired NHS orthopaedic surgeon ART THEMEN