Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

rickety press, jericho


This morning, I was pleased to see that what used to be the Radcliffe Arms in Jericho is reopening as an Arkells' pub called the Rickety Press (where did that name come from!).

The Radcliffe closed some time ago and I feared the premises would end up residential.

Not that I'd been in the Radcliffe for a while--the Harcourt Arms a couple of hundred yards away had become our Jericho pub--but I have happy memories of going there in the 80s, when working on the Moving Mystery Theatre project for Oxford Drama Programmes. In fact most of my salary for that project (which I business managed) got spent in the Radcliffe (on food as well!).

I also remember a really warm chat in the front bar with Jackie C the morning after Rob Russell's stag night.
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