Continuing the bench motif …

You meet really interesting people on benches. In this case, I met Shrewsbury poet Lewis Wyn Davies.

This wasn’t an accidental or random meeting, though. A bench is pictured on the front cover of Lewis’s new collection of poems, State, in an illustration by Lewis’s creative and life partner Saffron Russell. You’ll hear why, and which particular bench that is, in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.

‘I didn’t realise I was living in poverty’

Lewis talks about his work, his journey from sports journalism to poetry, what he came to realise when he moved from Telford to Shrewsbury, and much more.

Poets mentioned in our conversation:

* Kae Tempest

* Ada Limón

* Angela Readman

* Philip Larkin (cheer up, mate, etc etc …)

* Martin Moriarty, author of the poem that includes the line ‘Enough blue in the sky to make a sailor’s jacket’. Listen to find out why that’s significant

How to get into (a) State

Find Lewis Wyn Davies on Instagram, and buy his work from his Etsy store.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Hello You …

… let me know in the comments?

… and why not share it with your friends?

Coming up …

In the next episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, Alison Utting tells the story of a remarkable woman from Shropshire’s past: a contemporary of Jane Austen, a diarist and instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade.

And coming soon: James shares his six years of hell in the grip of crystal meth addiction. It’s one hell of a cautionary tale, that leads from the West Midlands to Spain, Vietnam and Bangkok; from elegant apartments to terrifying gang and drug dens; from a regular life to losing everything, via a compulsive desire for risky ‘chemsex’ and the rush of ‘Tina’. And yes, this is happening in Shropshire.

To make sure you don’t miss any episodes of Hello You the Shropshire podcast, subscribe by hitting the green button. It’s free … but if you’d like to support my work by taking out a paid subscription, I would be hugely, hugely grateful:

(At the moment, my number of subscribers is hovering around a particular number that ends in two zeroes. It keeps edging close to that figure, but clearly as new people sign up, a couple of others jump ship and it never quite tips over the line. Just for my peace of mind - because I’m the sort of person who feels unsettled if the TV or car radio volume is on an odd number - could you recruit a few new subscribers, so I can stop worrying about it? It’s not like I don’t have enough else to worry about, FFS …)

Powerful stories incoming

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had quite a few people getting in touch with stories they think should be told.

Stories about dubious behaviour by officialdom, about difficulties getting the help that’s needed, about certain high-profile organisations not being quite what they appear … and personal stories, like James’s.

I’m working as hard as I can to bring these stories to you. Some of them are going to take quite a bit of digging, legal advice, and I suspect finding people to tell the other sides of some stories could be a challenge. But over the next few weeks I’ll try to provide you with important stories that you’re unlikely to find elsewhere.

In the meantime, if you have something you’d like to talk about on Hello You the Shropshire podcast, a story that needs to be told, and you’d like to add to my forward-planning files, you can contact me discreetly, securely and confidentially on the messaging app Signal, where my username is jimallthetime.69Whatever you feel strongly about, whatever you want more people to know or understand, I’m here to listen to you. It’s what I do. I’m empathetic and compassionate; you’re safe to be your authentic self with me.Signal: jimallthetime.69You might this helpful too: https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/how-to-leak-to-a-journalist/

If you’d rather, and the topic is less sensitive, you can suggest an idea for an episode, a bench I could sit on, a potential guest or a location I should visit by sending me a message:

This is labour-intensive work. You can help make sure I continue to provide intelligent, progressive conversation for Shropshire and wider world, telling stories, raising questions and holding people to account by taking out a paid subscription to Hello You the Shropshire podcast:

Thank you for being there

Take care of yourself. Take care of the people around you, and I hope they’re taking care of you, too.

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