My name is Roy Bayfield.
I was born in Brighton, and lived there until I was 25, in the mid-eighties. I moved to the midlands, then to the north west.
I work at Edge Hill University.
I read a lot of genre fiction: science fiction, fantasy, westerns – and the occasional book without an exploding robot and/or magic sword and/or Colt .45 on the cover. Oh, and the occasional comic. I’m enough of a fan to go to conventions…
Together with my wife Jennie, I deliver what you might call arts and spirituality workshops
I have a work blog:
You can follow me on Twitter
You can contact me at royabayfield [at symbol] gmail [dot] com
You are so deeply Roy Bayfield, and having known you in the first and second mutual quarter centuries, I can do nought but salute that fact.
Keep walking. Or, alternatively, as Bukowski said (tombstone) ‘Don’t try’
The photo you took in kings sutton, of the wedding was mine. Me and my husband where teenage sweethearts. It was undoubtedly the happiest day of my life. I love how you’re photo captured the moment. Mrs amy Osenton
Amy, how marvellous! It was a beautiful moment.
We in Hinton in the Hedges had heard through the grapevine that a traveller happened upon the Hinton in the Hedges Shakespeare Play Mid Summers Nights Dream. I love your style of writing. How you make simple things matter. Sometimes we are all too busy to enjoy what is in front of us. Lovely reading your adventures from Southport Pier to Brighton Pier which included the Hinton in the Hedges village play.
How marvellous to get a comment from Hinton-in-the-Hedges after all these years! It was a magical occurrence and I treasure the memory.
Yes, I remember Roy Bayfield.
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat, the express train brought him to
Wolverhampton. It might have been late June.
You were a breath of fresh Brighton air, and looks like you are still.
Hi Roy. My name’s Ian. I googled “children’s unit, lady chichester hospital”, and your blog was included in the results. My stay (for several months) at the unit was way back in 1967. Like you, I found it all deeply unsettling. I’m sure I even recall bars on the upstairs windows? A conservatory on the ground floor, and a children’s swing outside. Was placed at a school (now demolished), in nearby George Street at the time. Now it’s hard to believe the place even existed! Regards, ian
Hi Ian, I remember that conservatory very well. I was there in the winter months of 1966 or 67, I can never get it straight in my memory. The conservatory is where the Christmas tree was. Shared a room with another boy. The bathrooms were rather forbidding as I recall. With my mum in the main hospital I got to too see that part as well. Very early bedtime, and early starts. I think What’s weird is by the time I got to leave I was beginning to find it normal. Nice to hear from you, best – Roy
Hi Ian, had a look at my dad’s diary and it was 1967 I was there, at the end of the year. We might have met!