‘The Hundred Mile Walk’ (a poem published in This Island City: Portsmouth in Poetry (Southsea: Spinnaker Press, 2010), p. 36) is typical of Lynda O’Neill’s ability to bring her childhood vividly to the page. This poem affectionately recalls family life, and weekend outings that namecheck many Portsmouth locations. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author:

The Hundred Mile Walk

He wore a boiler suit grey as his hair,
perched his slight frame on
the flat cushion of the slatted wooden chair
in that tiny room where the living was done.

Nan would meet him at the garden gate,
proudly say his dinner was on the table.
Acres of mashed potato, greens, and stew awaited,
threatened to overflow the vast Woolworths’ plate.

In the evening he’d pass a hand over his mouth,
Unspoken signal for her to take out
her almost empty purse, toss him coppers
for a pint at The Gordon Arms.

On Sundays he’d say ‘Time for our hundred mile walk!’
I’d be silent with awe at the floral clock,
we’d stroll The Ladies Mile to Clarence Pier,
watch the louche lads on the Waltzer at Billy Mannings.

After my ride on the children’s train
we’d pass the War Memorial,
inspect the inclines of the Rock Gardens,
imagine its dull shrubs luridly lit at dusk.

I’d watch fishermen on South Parade Pier,
day trippers lose pennies in fruit machines,
look up at lights above the Promenade,
saving their glory for red open-topped buses at night.

He drank tepid beer in a cool, dark saloon,
I’d sit in a pub garden with my weekly treat of crisps
(salt in a tiny blue twist), glug warm lemonade
at the end of the thrillingest walk of my childhood.

Other Portsmouth poems by O’Neill included in this map are ‘Our Street’, ‘Catfight, Kingston Modern’, ‘Dinnertime’, and ‘Where Nan Lived’.

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