Some of me poetry

Forget the corny comedian: Pam Ayres is a proper poet, whose wistful, funny, and perceptive verse captures both the joy and unfairness of life.

The youngest of a family of six children, Pam Ayres was born at Stanford-in-the- Vale, Berkshire, during the long cold winter of 1947. Educated at Faringdon, she quickly developed a flair for imaginative writing and drawing, and an intense interest in animals. Shortly after leaving school, Pam joined the WRAF in order to see some of the world, and spent four years mostly in the Far East and Germany. During a long spell in Singapore, where she had ‘something to do with aerial photography’, she became active in the local theatre group and developed her love for entertaining others – acting, singing and reciting her poems. Following her return to England, one of her poems ‘The Battery Hen’, was chosen by BBC Radio Oxford for inclusion in one of its programmes.

This achieved instant acclaim and was subsequently repeated on BBC Radio 4 ‘Pick of the Week’, and eventually on the 1974 edition of ‘Pick of the Year’. During this time, Pam made many personal appearances on Radio Oxford and her poems have been broadcast by BBC World Service and CBC Radio Canada. The big break for Pam came on November 24th 1975 when she appeared on Hughie Green’s ‘Opportunity Knocks’ and won the hearts of the viewers who ‘voted’ her back for a total of four appearances. Pam Ayres is a natural storyteller and her poems accurately reflect her personality – they bubble along with an innate sense of humour, sometimes born of sheer fantasy, occasionally sardonic, and always bursting to tell a story. Pam’s intense feeling for both human and other animals is clearly defined. She has a keen eye for detail and an ability to illustrate graphically with everyday words. Even those poems reflecting a resigned acceptance of the status quo demonstrate an enlightened appreciation of the humorous qualities found within the most desperate situations. Pam is a ‘spinster of the parish’ of Witney, in Oxfordshire, where she has lived for the past three years.