Remembering Michael Standen, who died on 1 June, 2008, aged 70
The Flying Pen
As from a vasty height the descending sun's
Choice is seen in some ordinary windowpane
By airline passengers, bright as a star on earth,
So...If we could write as in those days when
Ten thousand metres high in imagination
Was cruising height...Armed to the teeth
With inhibition, camouflaged with doubt,
We nip under the radar of criticism,
Hug low ground, know heroic metaphor
Has died of oxygen starvation.
This poem, taken from Mick's first collection, Time's Fly-Past, reminds us of the very character of this remarkable man. Flambard published this book in 1991; our first book. Five fine novels, published by Heinemann and OUP, had preceded this. Later, in 1994, we published his collection of short stories, Months. Mick's empire, he used to say when he was WEA District Secretary, stretched from sea to sea. As teacher, writer, encourager and scourge of pompous bureaucracies, Mick will be remembered with love and affection by many, many people; from sea to sea, and well beyond.
Michael Standen was born near London in 1937. He attended schools in Essex and Nottingham before being conscripted into the army. After National Service and three years at Cambridge, he began teaching in Further and Adult Education, spending most of his career with the Workers' Educational Association, becoming District Secretary of the Northern District then based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After retiring from paid employment he remained living in Durham City with his wife, the zoologist Dr Valerie Standen, where he was active with Colpitts Poetry, who stage regular high-quality poetry readings.
At the same time as working for the WEA, he was writing: he published his first novel, Start Somewhere, in 1965 and since then William Heinemann have brought out three more of his novels: A Sane and Able Man, Stick-man and The Dreamland Tree. A novel for younger readers, Over the Wet Lawn, was published by OUP in 1977.
Michael Standen was also one of the editors of Other Poetry, published three times a year and now (mid 2008) on its thirty-forth issue. "We believe there are many good poems which may not conform to current trends, and we want to see these poems brought into daylight."
Many tributes have been paid to Mick. Here are a selection:
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