As I write (late June, 2026), I'm 87, in good shape for that age, British but resident in Mexico since 1965, married for almost 61 years to my Mexican wife, with two daughters, and a grandson of 23 and granddaughter of 18.
That's a long way from my birth just east of London four months before the outbreak of WW2. In between, I've graduated from Trinity College Dublin (English and Spanish Literature), taught English for two years in Madrid, worked for 53 years in English teaching in Mexico, with working visits to most Latin American countries, especially Brazil, and visited most countries in the Americas and Europe.
At Trinity (1958-62) I wrote poetry and stories, with several published in the literary magazine, Icarus. I'd also painted a lot at school and a little after. Retirement in 2018, and probably the COVID pandemic too, set me off again, writing and painting. My family has had many nonagenarians and my father died at 98, so who knows what the future holds for me - well, we know some of what it holds, but you know what I mean.
I'm not a social media bod (see above) but I have run three websites (one on English teaching in Latin America, and two for old people producing different kinds of art), so another website and/or social media presence might yet be part of my future - and perhaps yours with me.
Well, My Year of Geriatric Painting came out on Sunday, June28, which was nice because the next day was Emma and my 61st wedding anniversary - geriatric indeed! Geriatric but not done... we're planning a return visit to the Dominican Republic in December (from Mexico, where we live). She was last there in 1964, and I in 1965, both of us as a port of call in Santo Domingo on a cargo-passenger ship between Spain and Mexico. We've done a bit and been about a bit since then, and we're still together.
A word about the current images in my library. The WC bod was on an old folk's amateur art website that I ran a few years ago - I think it says a lot about humankind. The clock (1878, inherited from my parents-in-law) says some more. The sleeping old man and baby are my grandson and myself 23 years ago. The even older man and young man standing in front of UB are us again, last year in Cuba, where we travelled widely (there's a bit about that in My Year of Geriatric Painting). The old woman with cats (and a couple of dogs oatiently waiting their turn out of view) is in Havana. And bottom right is part of one of my geriatric paintings in the book.
