English Poet - News

Photo above is looking out across Hudson Bay from Churchill. This is ‘polar bear’ country in the sub-Arctic, northern Manitoba, in late August – where I spent a terrific three weeks exploring and such like…

Since summer 2015 writing reviews for ‘Trip Advisor’ (26 so far); with near 17,000 readers to date. Look for me on ‘sanewtOn’; for information/humour and reflection, on places in the UK and Canada…

February, wrote a short commentary: ‘Confessions’ on some musings from Charles Bukowski (poet from LA, now deceased) – 575 words. Another commentary in March, on the opening nine stanzas of ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ –1,760 words…

Sept/16, got a short article into the Bronte Society Gazette (UK). My file is ‘Haworth’, recounting four days-an-nights, tracking down the famous family at work-an-play, in a small village up in the Yorkshire hills…

Jan/2017, finished a short essay on Annie Pootoogook (1,800 words), a native artist from northern Canada (Cape Dorset) – published by Americana/Mensa in the UK. She died in Sept/2016, in Ottawa, after producing wonderful pictures from ink drawings and coloured crayons…

A new poem about the Bronte family; going into a summer publication of their Gazette – titled, ‘Grand designs: studies of the inner workings in Ars Poetica’. A new story, ‘Julian at Haworth’ follows on from the poem…

August/17, I went to the Yukon Territory, for the history and three famous writers (Robert Service, Jack London, Pierre Berton) and amazing landscapes. I was invited to read at events for Service and Berton, in front of their log-cabins and attended another reading for London’s work. ‘My Yukon Adventure’ is a short file on this holiday, with photos – published in the Klondike Sun newspaper in November…

June/2019 – completed a new essay: ‘Peter Trower Esquire (2010-2017): memories of his last years’ – after befriending him in North Vancouver till he died in November, shortly after I visited him in hospital. I saw a lot of him back then, because we lived so close. SFU library (in BC) accepted this essay for their Special Collections, where Peter’s archives are held…

October/19 – finished a new essay on John Heath Stubbs, a writer in West London. Who lived close by me in Nottinghill (1980-2000) and attended my church, to become friends. He was poet and teacher at Merton College, Oxford…

November – completed a new short exploratory essay on, Literary Theory for the layperson, about 4,000 words – why we read and write?…

May/2020 – finished a new essay, ‘English Education: schools and colleges et al’. It’s over 5,000 words; a personal account from being a student then teacher, writer and reader…

August – published an ebook (by Weslond Books), ‘To the Promised Land: California from the 1960’s towards 1991’. A long novel (108,000 words), about the new counter culture and people involved – first begun in 1976…

March/2021 – new WB production of ‘John Keats (1795-1821): poesy burning bright’; a short essay on three of his popular poems. 109 copies, specially printed/bound in North Vancouver and distributed privately as collector’s item…

December/2022 – completed ‘Mayfair Games’ with twelve chapters, foreword and afterword. I created a coloured front-cover from an ole photo taken in Kensington, behind Sheffield Terrace.
This book is an exploration of casino gambling and forays around the wider city of London…

‘Yorkshire Fair’ — is also complete, set in a northern county, with great history and beautiful countryside. Twelve longish chapters cover all the places we hear about and think to visit – except we can now read about them here…

‘Westward Ho’ – continues past No.15, with a view to more sketches and a framework of ‘foreword’, ‘afterword’ and poems. About the people/exploration of the Western Rockies/USA, after the 1800’s – with Nez Perce Indians and American frontiersmen. This project still evolving…

April/2023 – thirty copies of ‘Mayfair Games’ printed/bound in North Vancouver, to be sold and distributed widely…

Short sketches – continue, like farm scenes in the UK (from the 1960’s); childhood scenes and travel episodes — short essays too (like a file on Hemingway and then Scott Fitzgerald)…

I wait for inspiration and never stare at blank pieces of paper… My interests are far and wide, with my writing ventures following on behind sometimes…

One of My Reader's Comment

I first met Stuart Newton some fifty years ago, after he landed in Vancouver after California; the place where he began his lifelong love affair with literature. I followed the path of literary criticism and university teaching, while he followed the path of creative writing and secondary teaching. His intense linguistic energy was apparent from the beginning. His relentless productivity focused on poetry (The LacBird Poems, Whitlathe Walrus, Souter Steel, Londinium Poeta, and other works); but he also wrote fiction (To the Promised Land, Vedder Crossing Ahead, Tales out of School) and occasional essays on poetics, education and literature. Though primary a lyric poet, who finds depth in surfaces and the extraordinary in the ordinary; he not only evokes youth and romance, but also explores the inner and outer landscape of the Vietnam War and its repercussions, mainly in the context of California and the westcoast. Everything he writes is drawn from his own experience – its elations, frustrations and disappointments – as he keeps going on, striving towards a better life for himself and others. As Coleridge said of Wordsworth, Stuart’s ongoing quest is “to give the charm of novelty to things of every day and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural; by awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes yet see not, ears that hear not and hearts that neither feel nor understand”.

Prof. G. Henderson (emeritus)

English Dept, U. of T.