November 10th, 2025

The November edition of The 1000 Monkeys fell between Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes night , on the 4th. We didn't set either theme (because we don't set themes for The 1000 Monkeys) but of course some spooks and bonfires did turn up, brought by Christine Vial, Claire Booker, Anne Alexander and Tony Watts. We heard some lyrical autumn landscapes by Marek Urbanowicz and a lovely personification of a river by Susan Jordan, and portraits of people — by Audrey Ardern-Jones, family portraits and an ekphrastic poem; from Judith Wozniak a story from Covid times of 'The Collector' and a suspected changeling; by Susan, a lonely neighbour brought to life. Rosie Barrett told of her son’s struggle with Ewing sarcoma, of which he died on 10th November 23 years ago. A story of young love in the 6th Form, from Beth Brooke, and 'A Measured Approach to Ageing' by David Punter spanned the existential problems of lifetimes. There were many more poems, of course, and our video shows all the contributions to this month's hour of poetry from our talented friends.