Personally Speaking - The Poetic Reflections of a Mr. Nobody: For Better or Verse

Tait, James H.

Specialist magazine editor 1998–2008. Writer of fiction and nonfiction and verse. Born of working-class parents in the South London borough of Dulwich, England, in 1930. Motherless at twenty months, lived with grandparents in deprived Thameside area of Bermondsey until four years of age, when father remarried. Evacuated to Folkestone, Kent, during the outbreak of the war in 1939, then to South Wales. Qualified for grammar school education 1941. Returned to London when father died in 1944. Left school in 1946, worked briefly in London City office until joining Thames pleasure paddle steamer as steward. Thereafter served on cargo freighters until 1950 when called up into Royal Air Force. Served twelve years as aircraft armaments fitter. On demob, joined the insurance industry until retirement in 1992. Postretirement, began horticultural business while writing as a hobby. Married for fifty-five years. Now widowed. Have four daughters and countless grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Now living in Hertfordshire, England.