Poems To The Match That Ignites, and more
Our latest arts edition featuring work by five unique Medway creatives
Welcome to the latest of our monthly creative editions. After some experimentation, these will be coming to you on the first Saturday of the month in a manner that, alongside our Sunday interviews, is something akin to a broadsheet’s culture magazine or a Medway ‘New Yorker’. This edition is free to all subscribers but these will broadly be behind the paywall in the future. These editions will feature a mixture of art, music, photography, poetry, short films and stories from Medway creatives, demonstrating the breadth of talent in our towns.
This edition features the video ‘Billy Childish: Poems To The Match That Ignites’ by Spaghetti Weston, ‘Wrong History’ by Kerry Earl, ‘Beyond Estimation’ by Gracie Brindley, ‘Billie the Quid’ by Spike Direction, and ‘Dora’s Upset by Lizzy Perkins.
These editions are under our Medwayish banner. If you are a Medway creative and you would be interested in submitting work to a future edition, please email medwayish@gmail.com.
To accompany our two-part interview with Billy Childish, we have this short video featuring his poetry, music and artwork.
Billy Childish: Poems to the Match that Ignites
by Spaghetti Weston
Spaghetti Weston is a Rochester-based content production company with services encompassing the full range of digital production. There are a few copies left of the limited edition of the book from this video.
Wrong history is a playful idea to look at misrepresenting key moments in Medway’s past through the lens of AI.
Wrong History
by Kerry Earl
Kerry Earl is a sardonic comic shop owner of over 30 years who loves local history, photography, and art, but not necessarily in that order. He uses Bing, Bing Co-pilot, and Leonardo AI (and sometimes a bit of Photoshop) to sort things out he isn’t happy with.
The Medway Activity Book is a new children’s activity book by local illustrator Designed by Esther, celebrating Medway’s heritage with fun, bright illustrations and games.
A non-fiction piece about being home educated.
Beyond Underestimation
by Gracie Brindley
Sometimes I read my old diaries. It’s an enjoyable pastime, poring over accounts of Brownies and outfit ideas for parties and failed trio friendships. I chronicled how desperate I was to get on the front page of the newspaper, penned pretend letters to my ‘enemies’ and dramatically proclaimed my love and hate for the people I met. Each story is more hilarious than the last!
But the thing that is joyfully easy to see is how much richer my life was for being home educated.
I have been home educated for almost all of my life - I stopped going to nursery because it felt unnatural to me. Why couldn’t I eat my yoghurt before my sandwich? Why couldn’t I climb on whichever part of the playground that I wanted? Why was I always being told what to do when I knew I could manage just fine making my own decisions? This natural curiosity wasn’t ignored by my parents - they let me live the life I wanted to live, and they still do. So the home education community in Rochester welcomed me and my family with friendliness. It is thanks to this community that I have made such strong friendships, and I know that other children who want to feel freer in their lives have found happiness within this big, caring group of families too.
One of the only downsides to being home educated is that some people tend to have misconceptions about it. My younger sister and I have experienced teasing in the past from school children who assume that we don’t have friends or we can’t learn certain subjects. Of course, they are misinformed - we have social lives that suit us and learn what we need and want to learn. When we were younger, we would take trips to the Guildhall museum and go to cafes and walk to Rochester Station to visit London and go to galleries and museums there, too. We could go on a weekend or a weekday - we could find out anything we liked, whenever we liked. We still learn in ways that bring us joy. So these people’s misconceptions were based on what they expect a life to look like. I don’t blame them or hate the people whomisunderstand, but the act of being underestimated is upsetting - and it’s something that girls in particular have sadly got used to.
Many powerful women have been underestimated over time, and are still not properly shown as the inspirations that they are. Examples can be found in Medway itself. Look to Anne Pratt, the botanical illustrator (who was born in Strood in 1805 and educated at Eastgate House in Rochester). She was thought to be lonely as a child because of how she stayed inside studying due to poor health. This led her to discover the hobby of botany (considered a suitable hobby for women at the time).
People knew that she was self-taught, which led some to criticise her work and question if it was scientifically accurate enough. But she was an incredible artist with much talent and dedication to see. She sold well, published a six-volume project of botanical illustrations over a decade and was recognised by Queen Victoria. She was certainly not a woman to underestimate or think little of.
And of course, deep in the history of Chatham Dockyard, there are even more brave women. One of which is Mary Lacy from the 1700s. When she was 19, she travelled to Chatham wearing men’s clothes and went by the alias William Chandler in order to go out to sea and work. Her life at sea was challenging and physically painful - she worked as a shipwright apprentice (being the first woman to complete this apprenticeship) and put her skills to good use at both Portsmouth and Chatham dockyards. Sadly, she had to stop working due to her rheumatism, and in the hospital her true identity was uncovered. However, she was granted a pension from the Admiralty under her legal name and published her memoirs, The Female Shipwright, in 1773.
It’s a shame that such an inspiring, brave woman had to pretend that she was male from the start. Nowadays, women don’t have to dress as men in order to get the job they want, but so much change is still needed to make sure that women don’t face inequality in employment. For all of history, women’s achievements have been downplayed in various fields, be that science, art, politics - anything. In many instances, women who worked with men made major discoveries in their fields which were credited in entirety to their male co-workers (who also ended up with the historical recognition until more recent times).
Thankfully, we have uncovered the truth, and these women’s discoveries can be recognised. I hope every person who is courageous enough to make their mark in their occupation gets their story told and remembered, and that we can all move beyond underestimation.
There are many more amazing stories to tell – time does not permit me to tell them all or do them justice, but they are very much out there. Let us keep them alive and make stories of our own.
Gracie Brindley is a home-educated GCSE student from Medway who enjoys creative writing.
A song about a notorious Medway character.
Billy the Quid
by Spike Direction
"As a Medway boy born and bred, I've had many run-ins with Billy. This song is my attempt to tell his story, warts and all, and capture all sides of him: Affable local character, dangerous exploiter of people’s goodwill, and troubled sufferer of addiction."
This is taken from the album ARGH! by The Spike Direction Effect.
Finally, a short story about a woman whose daughter is upset with her.
Dora’s Upset
by Lizzy Perkins
This armchair is a bugger to get out of. I know, I know, I should use the electric handset. My daughter always tells me that. ‘It’s a recliner, Mum,’ she says. ‘Use the hand control.’ Let the chair do the work, as it says in the handbook. Dora also tells me this room needs decorating. She thinks a yellow paint on the wall. What did she call it? Downy Chick, that’s it. Stupid name for paint.
I’m glad this chair is near the window. I see blue tits feeding in the garden. And a dove in the birdbath, doing the butterfly stroke. The roses need cutting back. And the weeds! My son, Miles, says he’s going to do it, and he will, he will.
If it wasn’t for that cottage at the end of the garden, I’d be able to see The Strand from here. I took Dora and Miles there when they were kids. The miniature railway. That’s it. I’ve got a photo of Dora on the train with both arms up. She was about eight years old. Such a happy kid.
Not now though.
She’s upset with me. Dora. Dora’s upset with me. I’ve no idea why. She was here for Christmas. They all were. All seven of them. I didn’t want them to come. I knew it’d be too much for me. I tried to tell them, but would they listen? ‘No, Mum,’ they said. ‘We’ll do it all,’ they said. What about food? Shopping? Cooking? ‘Chill, mum,’ Miles told me. ‘We can do it.’ Yes, I thought, you can do it, but you won’t do it right, will you? And they didn’t.
So, Dora’s upset. She stopped talking to me the day after Boxing Day. I think she’s upset about the cream. She’d given me mince pies after the fish that Oliver made. The fish was very good. Oliver’s a good cook. He’s my youngest. Anyway, Dora gave me the mince pies and put cream on them. I know, I know, I asked for cream, but when the others came back from swimming, she offered them cream or brandy butter. So I say, ‘I didn’t get offered brandy butter.’ Dora ignores me. So, I say it a bit louder. She tells me to shut up and goes upstairs. Her language has always been bad.
Ever since I broke my hip, I’ve had to use this walker. It’s a bugger. Making a cup of tea takes forever. Just walking to the kitchen and back is like a marathon. Still, at least I can still make myself a cuppa. When I was first out of hospital, I had carers in doing everything for me. It was a right pain.
I called Dora today, asked her if I’d offended her. She laughed. Then, silence. I think she was nervous. She asked me why I thought that. Then, straight away she said, yes, she was upset. I asked her why. She told me that I’d spent the whole of Christmas judging her. Just like always. Judging her? Really? Apparently, I told her that her new haircut didn’t suit her… as if I’d say something like that. She’s always been like this though, always just a bit too sensitive. I would say one thing and she would take it the wrong way.
Doug used to say that about Dora too. Doug was my husband. He’s dead. He told me that Dora always cried when he tickled her when she was a kid. I mentioned that to Dora, and guess what she said? ‘Dad did more than just tickle me.’ I said, ‘what does that mean?’ Silence, of course. She had nothing else to say.
‘Did you get fish in for supper?’ I asked, breaking the silence. She said no, that she’s having egg and chips. I said, ‘that’ll play havoc with your waistline.’
Lizzy Perkins lives in Gillingham and is the author of two self-published books. She is presently studying for a degree in creative writing and is developing her debut novel.
Be seeing you.