NEVER BEEN A WALKOVER

'I am unfortunately not a naturally lucky person, my bet is [I don't actually bet because it is profoundly sinful] the said cephalopod you supply will be a youngster that has not yet developed its blue rings but the deadly venom will be there. Best not tempt fate. I know that God is absent a lot- well put it this way, if he was on contract he would have been sacked for bad timekeeping ages ago, but I do not believe he wants me to end my life via a sucker punch to the genitalia from a sea dweller. Of course I may well be wrong' CM

'In the last two days I have spoken at length on the phone to very dear friends I have never met in the flesh- such relationships can only have been made possible through the invaluable internet..and YES these friendships have had their ups and downs but all of us have in our ways worked through any difficulties we may have found and the friendships have grown and become ever more profound. I do not just have gay friends. What thrills me is that these two are indeed straight guys [to my knowledge] who are both positively gay friendly. The overriding common factor is their constant caring for creativity of the very highest order. The fact is I feel blessed that such people are in my life. There are more and you know who you are- to meet you all be a mind blast that I cannot wait to experience. Sean Reddan and Larry Kuechlin. On my 'Chris Madoch Art' page on FLAKEBOOK there's is a PS to this piece.' CM

'I've never been a walk-over or a shoe-in fan of Shakespeare and the Shakespeare propaganda machine like so many pretend to be- I have directed it and acted in it and studied it in some depth and indeed breadth and enjoyed exploring the many conspiracy theories that try to confound the provenance. In Elizabethan times one's childhood was miserably short- Shakespeare had to be a MAN at aged fourteen, self-sufficient. Scholars would have us believe he began writing masterpieces at aged 15- prodigious like Mozart. But these early works would have been working scripts for a company of players of which he was but one. At that time there was no 'legend' dictating both spelling and grammar- SO 'wot he rote' bears very little resemblance to the copies found in print today. Indeed- if they were written by he, they were written very colloquially with a strong and rough Midlands accent that modern English speakers would find difficult to understand. [There are now and then performances done in this strange early tongue.] Somewhere between the root scripts and the present folios other hands have without a shred of doubt played their considerable part. The young lad lost his virginity very early and married early. What a fuss about such things we make today- if only our delinquents had but half the wit to write a decent play.' CM