Thanks!

CRUEL MONTH

"League of Cambridge Arsonists
invites you to BANG THE BOMB,
celebrating nuclear holocaust,
midday Coldham's Common"
rather than "Dad, Grandma's not breathing."
Let April fool as spoof not as deceiving.

My poem 'Prime Minister Walpole leaves office, 1742' is now published in _Poems for persons of interest_ bit.ly/4bwDZCy . You might also be interested in my _East Anglia bylines_ article on the same episode bit.ly/4bjkNcU . I wrote the article a year or so after the poem.

A patched inflatable dinghy in the town hall Lots of broken toasters, some tasty cakes and a cup of coffee – the Repair Café volunteers are back and they can mend your toaster too

My latest piece of writing in East Anglia bylines is an interview with repairer Lee at Burwell Repair Cafe bit.ly/45VNF7Q

That cheap imitation of Hilaire Belloc that I mentioned bit.ly/4pmkmSM

My latest for @eastangliabylines.co.uk . Ends with my attempted imitation of Hilaire Belloc.

Alice Willitts is the first East Anglian Book Awards 2025 shortlistee we've covered in _East Anglia bylines_. We hope to go on through the list

Distant voices in the night History may not recur but it often has resonance. Has the internet supplanted the romance of listening to distant radio stations on medium wave?

From your review, I might watch the show in the same spirit that I listened to Radio Tirana in the 1970s. But Radio Tirana was never quite as funny as I was listening out for.

A competition I may enter, next April. 'Ages past - years to come', from the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland bit.ly/48YZ3lK . The penultimate character in that bitlink, in case you're copying it by hand, is an ell not an eye.

Poem of mine beginning "School memories erupt, won't be shut down." The poem itself is now 20 years old, but I was reminded of it recently. bit.ly/hT7YQb

UK: Don't Sell Out to Big Tech to Appease Trump Donald Trump is using trade wars and high tariffs to bully countries around the world into dropping taxes and regulation on US big tech. From digital taxes to anti-monopoly policies, we desperately ne...

act.globaljustice.org.uk/node/4610

Protesters and counter protesters face up to one another An anti-migrant group's protests in Peterborough drew many counter-protesters showing their support for the asylum seekers accommodated in a local hotel

My @eastangliabylines.co.uk account of demonstration and counter-demonstration in Peterborough. I took part in the counter-demo.

I've blogged my 2016 poem 'Exhibit at "Inside"', published now in _Fringe999_. Alexander Pope had a dictum about poems failing at first and then finding publication after nine years.
bit.ly/4oJjA2S

I've blogged the five poems of mine that were recently published in _The punch_. bit.ly/47So1kG

Image of Lady Justice outside the Old Bailey, with dark clouds behind the statue. Covered with the headline of a Bylines Newtwork exclusive article: When Power Is Untouchable

BYLINES NETWORK SPECIAL
For 30 years, survivors of abuse by Mohamed Al Fayed have been silenced, threatened and blocked from justice. Their voices must be heard.

Isabella reveals the barriers they face and the vital changes that need to happen.

Read it at sussexbylines.co.uk & bit.ly/LegalAbyss

I've blogged some recently published poems of mine. 'Red (Westminster Bridge)' is at bit.ly/43eBEsX , and 'That terrible vestry meeting' at bit.ly/4oU9ED6 .

Why walking our street is now dangerous A street in Cambridge has problems. Community groups are presenting a petition to their local authority. They live in interesting times.

Clare and I don't live in Mill Road, but we're in it as walkers or cyclists most days of the week. No surprise that I should report on it for @eastangliabylines.co.uk bit.ly/4qGugk1

That terrible vestry meeting YouTube video by Aidan Baker

Me with a new poem sequence, about Robert Jackson of Oldham.

My naps have this in common with my poems, that I often nod off in front of my laptop.

As We Were and other poems by Aidan Baker A mosaic of English memory and moral reckoning — from war and worship to class, cruelty, and fading glory — these poems trace how history, hierarchy, and human frailty echo through landscape, time, an...

Poems by me in _The punch_ -- Indian online publication, unconnected to _Punch_, the London humorous magazine that some of you may remember.

The Fringe 999 Poetry Forum Volume 3, Issue 1, October 2025Come on Down by Duane Anderson She called on her phone telling the person on the other end to come on down to see us, except that the blood drive was taking place on the...

My poem 'Exhibit at "Inside"' is now published in _Fringe999 poetry forum_

The lesson of the lost oak: why one Suffolk man’s mission matters Suffolk tree-lover David Hopkins talks about the work of adding to the Woodland Trust's 'Ancient Tree Inventory'

My latest for _East Anglia bylines_ is an interview with a retired classics teacher seeking to add a pedunculate oak to the Woodland Trust's Ancient Trees Inventory.

26 Bridges - Westminster - Day 19 - Bloomsbury Festival Bridge: Westminster Bridge Writer: Aidan Baker Artist: Clare Trowell. Title of poem: Red Title of artwork: Westminster Bridge The work: Framed linoprint, showing red bus crossing Westminster Bridge am...

26 Bridges, Day 19
Westminster Bridge. Poem by me! Artwork by Clare Trowell. 5 Transport for London bus routes cross Westminster Bridge, and I spent a Saturday and a Sunday morning in January riding all of them end to end.

Colour poems YouTube video by Aidan Baker

Me reading five colour poems to Mill Road Poetry in Hot Numbers, Cambridge

The 26 Bridges project (my own assignment was Westminster Bridge) is live. go.rallyup.com/26bridges/Ca... .
The Westminster Bridge artwork is a fine print by Clare Trowell. My poem will appear, alongside Clare's print, on Wednesday 8 October. Meanwhile -- bid for the print!

Music by Arvo Pärt The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt celebrates his 75th birthday on 11 September 2010. Allow me to blog a poem that I wrote in 1987, attempting...

Happy 90th birthday to Estonian composer Arvo Pärt!
Here's a poem I wrote some years ago, inspired by his #CantusInMemoryOfBenjaminBritten -- a piece which i have loved since I first heard it, probably some time in 1981.

Looking after the land A trustee of a charity making waves in Thelnetham explains how they are helping restore the Little Ouse's natural conservation function.

And that list doesn't include the Little Ouse Headwaters Project eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/... , whom I wrote about in November 2022. But I think my #CharityDay posts are done now.

Libraries and the war in Ukraine Retired librarian Aidan Baker looks at the response of British librarians to Russia's war on Ukraine.

And when the war broke out in Ukraine I wrote about the response of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, the professional body for librarians #CharityDay eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/world/l...

AgeUK and ‘People at the heart of care’ Melanie Wicklen tells Aidan Baker what she and her AgeUK colleagues think of what's in the social care White Paper.

And AgeUK eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/welfare... -- an old article but today's #CharityDay

Singing and winning: Saffron Walden fosters young talent Meet Claire Middleton, first prizewinner in the 2023 Granta Chorale carol competition, a multi-talented musician with a promising future

This is about Granta Chorale eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/cu... #CharityDay