THE SECOND EDITION OF MY BLOG FORMERLY KNOWN AS ‘RICHARD A. SNELL’

Name: Richard Anthony Snell.
Born March 17th 1946 and raised in North London, of an English father and a German-Jewish mother.
Left home at 17, survived homelessness, working at various menial jobs till I became a teacher in London in 1974, when I moved to the East End.
Developed a skill for music, performing the traditional songs of the British Isles at the height of the Folk Song Revival, much of the time under the aegis of the Revival’s co-creator, Ewan McColl.
Became a story-teller, and also fiddle-player and composer with a published, albeit on a small-scale, anthology of my tunes called ‘The Playful Bow’.
Moved to Stoke-on-Trent for a variety of reasons in 1989, and now after an eventful time in this city find myself post-stroke in a retirement village.
Am still active as a poet, as will be reflected in this blog.
Politics unequivocally left-wing, rooted in but not fully accepting the totality of Marxism, and a long way to the left of the current thoroughly reactionary Labour Party: an activist in many fields including in the past nuclear disarmament, opposition to the Vietnam War, the anti-apartheid movement, the fight for traveller’s rights, and housing.
Also, an unashamed, unrepentant, unflinching anti-Zionist, a Jew utterly opposed to what is being done in Palestine in my name.
And I make this guarantee: I will not knowingly deal in untruths, nor in bigotry and prejudice; nor will I shy away from truths which are uncomfortable to me. I will write as well, as concisely and as clearly as I can, prose and poetry alike.