1971 Bridget Lyons
Bridget attended Mayfield from 1966 to 1971 and was known as Margaret Lyons. ‘I started to use my first name Bridget as a bolshie 16 year old when I went to Redbridge Tech (for a term and a half),’ she explained, ‘and have been Bridget ever since, although family still call me by my middle name Margret. (I have to double check the spelling when I send out Christmas cards).
Born into the Irish community in North London, my first job was to make the tea and write a youth column for The Universe, a weekly Catholic newspaper.
I joined the Daily Mirror at the age of twenty and stayed for an unbelievably long time giving welfare advice to readers and replying to the lonely and troubled for agony aunt Marje Proops. I was also a researcher for Paul Foot, the investigative journalist who helped to right so many miscarriages of justice.
After winning $4,000 in an international short story competition, I joined Goldsmiths’ Masters programme in Creative and Life Writing and it was there that ‘A Good Confession’ began to take shape.
A Good Confession
I am delighted to be back at Goldsmiths as a lecturer in the PACE department and I teach on three courses at City Lit, the largest centre for adult education in Europe. I am also Writer in Residence at Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project. This is a charity in the heart of Brighton that offers practical support to the unwaged, low waged and the wider community.
I am very grateful for financial support from the Arts Council. Their grant bought me the time to write. More than that, it was a commitment to my career as a writer that spurred me on every time I faced a blank computer screen.’
We must have been in the same year or there abouts as I left Mayfield at the age of 15 at Easter 1971. I had a friend named Diane Keats. I was rather shy and was a bit of a teachers pet. I remember Mrs Docherty and a couple of other PE/Drama teachers clearing out the underneath of the stage one weekend, or after school, with several girls but can’t remember many names. I Know that there was a set of twins with ginger hair but cannot remember their names.
Hazel Richards (nee Walker)
Hi Margaret
I dont suppose you will remember me, Elaine Hammond. I have a twin sister, Lesley and I was in Mrs Taylors class. I had two friends, Denise Cain, and Pamela Appleby. If you remember me I would love to hear from you. I remember Mrs Webster, she was our RE teacher and Mrs Sheardown, she was our Geography teacher.
The twins who had the ginger hair were Christine and Heather.