When Henry Normal was 14 he came across the poems of Spike Milligan. It was Milligan’s ability to write poems that were funny and that could make you cry, Normal says, that made him want to write.
It was therefore fitting that on March 9 an audience was treated to an evening of Henry Normal reading some of his poems from his book The Fire Hills in Winchelsea New Hall, a stone’s throw from the much-visited grave of Spike Milligan in the churchyard.
Henry Normal is a writer, poet, and producer, having co-written some of the most popular TV comedy series including The Royle Family, Mrs Merton and Paul and Pauline Calf Video Diaries. As a producer he worked on Gavin and Stacey, Alan Partridge and the film Philomena. He also has written and performed on Radio 4 shows that combine comedy, poetry and stories about his life and family. He has published 13 poetry collections performing his poems around the country.
Having moved from Brighton to Fairlight nearly 3 years ago, The Fire Hills (written between December 2021 and November 2022), contains poems responding to the beauty of this part of East Sussex, and the poet’s emotional connection to it – the crumbling Fairlight coastline, the sunken forest and Toot Rock at Pett Level, Winchelsea Beach with its groynes, and the birds of the nature reserve.
Nature in Cinemascope captures the mood of calm and quiet while looking out of the elongated windows of a nature reserve hide, at the view of sky, water and birdlife. In Nature unreserved and Where a lovers’ seat has fallen into the sea and The sunken forest his observations convey a sense of place that will be familiar to many.
It is always a joy to hear a poet read their own work and Normal’s delivery is funny and moving. He peppers his readings with anecdotes of those that he has worked with in television, and affectionate insights into his family with stories and poems about his artistic, autistic son, Johnny and his screenwriter wife, Angela Pell, “with her 80s hair”. As he reads A limb that can support your weight about his son swinging sideways on a swing on an oak tree, Normal sways from side to side.
Just as Milligan does, Normal can make you laugh and marvel at his witty word play, love of language and funny, acute observations. His clever rhymes, alliteration, inventive synonyms and sparkling juxtapositions delight as in Bird Spotting, a poem about ways to get back at defecating seagulls and other birds:
Soil egrets with no regrets
Plop on a pigeon a smidgen
Shit on a tit, see how they like it
Commit craven acts on raven’s backs
If you’ve got dire diarrhoea
Plan it so a gannet’s near
With self-deprecating humour and wit, the poet playfully comments on getting older, visits to the doctor, coping with life with a broken arm, the strangeness of the pandemic. His quirky observations on life and joyful way with words, make the reader smile in recognition or see things anew and as we listen to his final reading Better Days – a call for us to live in the moment – the audience does just that.
The Fire Hill by Henry Normal is published by Flapjack Press with cover artwork by his son, Johnny Carroll-Bell.
Follow Henry on facebook and instagram where he regularly posts his poems.
Image Credits: Richard Davis .