‘Something to fall back on’ by Lynda O’Neill is one of a number of poems in which the poet reflects on a post-war Portsmouth childhood, and in particular on the transition from Penhale Junior School (now Penhale Infant School and Nursery) to Kingston Modern School following the 11-Plus exam. As well as being rich in period detail the poem is astute in its treatment of attitudes to class, gender, and educational opportunities in post-war English society. The poem was first published in South Poetry Magazine and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author.

Something to fall back on

We sat down to questions in Mr Jamieson’s room.
What did those squares and triangles mean,
the questions and sums I took too long over?
I couldn’t know how many more boys than girls
would ride a promised new bike,
win the glittering prizes.

Looming for us b-stream girls:
the box factory, Woolworth’s,
window dressing for the mildly artistic,
double entry book-keeping for the numerate.
Or Mrs Zeffertt passed on the nimble-fingered ones
to her tailor friend with
a signed photo of Frankie Vaughan on his wall.

In the worst winter since 1947
snow that fell Boxing Day was banked three feet,
smelt of petrol, gleamed like abalone,
melted into drains at Easter.
In maroon gabardine I cycled to school
between parked Ford Populars, timbered Morris Minors
on the secondhand bike Dad had painted bottle green.

We took dictation in squiggles of a strange beauty and logic,
then sat with books on our heads at dummy keyboards,
The William Tell Overture for rhythm
blared tinnily from a wind-up gramophone.
Gertie Goddard, with a sausage-curl perm,
was teaching us to touch type.
Something to fall back on, said Mum,
They’re crying out for shorthand-typists these days.

Lynda O’Neill was born and brought up in Portsmouth, where many of her poems are based. O’Neill had a happy working-class childhood with the freedom typical of the period. She failed the 11-plus and attended Kingston Modern School for Girls (now The Portsmouth Academy). During her last two years she learnt shorthand and typing, skills which were in high demand in the post-war period.

After the age of sixteen she worked for Portsmouth City Council and Portsmouth City Police, and when she moved to Winchester in 1973, she worked for Hampshire Fire Brigade. After having two children, she worked for Hampshire County Council, and her last job was with Winchester City Council, where she held the historic distinction of being made redundant as the last remaining member of its typing pool. These jobs provided O’Neill with interest, amusement, and several longstanding friendships.

In the eighties, a colleague suggested she try a Creative Writing course and O’Neill’s literary ambitions began. For some years she attended a local arts centre with three different tutors and discovered an aptitude for poetry. An abiding fascination with behaviour, community, and lifestyles means that O’Neill’s poetry abounds with fascinating and striking people. Her subjects include family life, childhood, school, and marriage, as well as her experiences of package holidays and not having had a swinging sixties. Her verse is rich, vivid, and precise, its backward glance affectionate but never nostalgic, forensic but never cynical.

Two of O’Neill’s poems were published in the anthology, The Ticking Crocodile (Blinking Eye, 2004), judged by Linda France, and five poems in the anthology This Island City: Portsmouth in Poetry (Spinnaker Press, 2010). Her work has been published in Poetry Nottingham International, Iota, The New Writer, and several times in South Poetry Magazine. She has acted as co-judge for the latter three times, is one of its regular reviewers, and was the profiled poet in South 42.

O’Neill won first prize in the Mere (Dorset) poetry competition in 2001 and Hampshire County Council’s ‘Words and Walks’ competition in 2009. She has been placed in competitions judged by illustrious poets Alison Chisholm, U. A. Fanthorpe, Selima Hill, Carole Satyamurti, Ian McMillan, and Matthew Sweeney.

O’Neill belongs to a network of older women poets, Second Light, and regularly attends their workshops and annual residential courses. She is also a founding member of the North Hampshire Stanza Group and a regular reader at Loose Muse, held at Winchester Library. She has for some years attended a monthly workshop of Hampshire poets who offer encouragement, constructive criticism, and a literary community.

If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions in relation to the map please contact Dr Mark Frost, English Department, University of Portsmouth: mark.frost@port.ac.uk