I’ve inherited a whole trolley of a man’s writings. He was a prolific writer and wrote poems and stories and it would be a crying shame to throw his life works away. If anyone would like to take them - maybe someone who goes to a readers or writers group or would like to publish them, then please PM me.
Please don’t throw them away! Surely there must be some one (a relative, an archive somewhere?) who would like at least to have a look at them, even if in the end they’re not publishable or indeed not worth keeping. What do you think of them? Would they interest a wider audience?
I haven’t got time to read them. I’m drowning in responsibility as my beautiful mum died last year and I’m now rushing round trying to sort and pack up her very crowded 4-bedroom house, as I’ve had to sell it to raise the Inheritance tax bill and the house is groaning with bits and bobs, oddities, antiques, inherited things and a bit of tat. I just know that she was friends with the writer for many years and when he died completely alone and family-less, she inherited his works. He was an intelligent man who’d lived a full life travelling around the world in the merchant navy and was a very interesting man.
It is so thoughtful of you to try to find a home for them with so much else going on - a kind and lovely idea. You have probably looked into this, but there are a number of home clearance places that take ephemera. I just googled and found ‘Post Script Antiques’, who are based in Forest Hill and pay money for house clearance items, with a particular interest in ‘anything with a good back story, including photographs, ephemera, diaries etc’. So they may be able to help with that and perhaps other bits too. Website here: postscriptantiques.co.uk
Thank you so much for that. That’s really, really useful as I’m looking for people who are exactly about ‘looking for the back story’ and not just ‘clear the lot and be rid of the burden’. I’ve emailed them!
You could put a notice on a merchant seaman’s forum. Maybe this one: The British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Plus
Or on a genealogy website. Maybe they’d interest someone on a one name study group. It’s a shame when artefacts get separated from their provenance.
Really good of you to try to find a home for them.
Thank you for this very interesting lead too. I so want to make this simple man’s life count. He died alone in a studio council flat in Deptford and was dead for weeks before anyone knew…my mum picked up the pieces as best she could.
You never know. Or they might have advice.
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