Saturday, March 11, 2006

A Mod's Odyssey

Keith Telly Topping his very self believes that he would have been about eighteen years old when this very photograph was taken in the back garden of his parents gaff in Wigmore Avenue. So that would mean it was around about 1981. This, therefore, is a very old photo of your actual bloggerist (is that a proper word? if not, it really should be don't you think?). Keith Telly Topping likes to imagine that the vaguely tuned-in - albeit, slightly camp-looking (note the eyeliner!) - young rock 'n' roll scooter-kiddie staring into the camera here would, hopefully, have approved of his image being used, twenty-five years later, as a reminder to his cynical old future-self of his impressionable and wholly adrenaline-and-amphetamine-fuelled Modernist past.

When this photo was taken Keith Telly Topping would still have been at school - in the Sixth Form, actually. Nineteen years in the Civil Service (yes, you do get less than that for murder) and a self-employed writing career which has seen him author or co-author over forty books (including a number of overseas editions), writing articles and reviews for numerous magazines and periodicals and, relatively recently, getting into local radio broadcasting was all way in the future when he slipped on his parka for the camera.

But this blogger does like the photo's presence here at the start of From The North. He finds it somewhat comforting. He was a good kid was young Keith Telly Topping. A bit naïve, maybe - but his heart was usually in the right place. Poor little sod, that was all knocked out of him when he got out into the Big Bad World.

So, anyway, dear blog reader this is my blog.

And you are very welcome to it.