Kathy Pimlott

June 2020

Not to put too fine a point on it, this is a real shit-show isn’t it? The pandemic is frightening enough, but overlay that with sheer venal incompetence and contempt of those running the country and it seems hardly possible to contain the resulting anger. It’s not that I expect there to be an answer that will make everything alright – there are so many unknowns and conflicting aspects to balance – but I don’t expect to be lied to, to be forced to watch what looks like, what is, a naked struggle to maintain political position at any cost.  And then, of course, there’s the international rage and despair following the murder of yet another unarmed black man by the authorities charged with protecting the public. My voice is inadequate. I turn to other voices to challenge me – Roger Robinson, Terrance Hayes, Patricia Smith, Salena Godden, Nick Makoha, Malika Booker, Kei Miller, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks.  

And my life carries on - working, writing, worrying about my elderly mother currently in hospital, my daughters and grandchildren far away. I do what I need to do to keep moving forward. I did an on-line reading and Q&A with Emma Wright of The Emma Press which you can watch here. I've sent off a manuscript for a collection. I walk the nearly empty central London streets taking photographs of details. It has to be enough for the time being. 

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