Simon Maddrell

@simonmaddrell.bsky.social

662 Followers 449 Following

Poet, Editor, Educator & Performer. Sixth pamphlet ‘Patient L1’ out Feb 2025. Debut collection with Out-Spoken Press, Feb 2026. https://linkin.bio/simonmaddrell

Cover of To Lay Sun Into A Forest - Poems About Grief by Sídhe Press. There is a swirl of a painting, red, yellow, orange, you can see the brushstrokes. On it is the title in a handwriting font.
Picture Jonathan Blake green sepia. White text Patient L1 Online book Launch Monday 24th Feb –– 7.30 to 8.30pm Readings by Simon Maddrell & Jonathan Blake Q&A with Jonathan Blake Polari Press
Quote on multicoloured pastel background “When a fish cries in the water, do you notice?”
Photo of Jonathan Blake with green filter overlaid with the following launch information. Brighton Launch of Patient L1 Lunch Positive Weds 19th Feb –– 7-8pm (Doors 6.45pm) Reading by Jonathan Blake with Simon Maddrell Q&A with Jonathan Blake London Launches of Patient L1 Positive East Friday 21st Feb –– 7.30-8.30pm (Doors 7.00pm) Reading by Jonathan Blake with Simon Maddrell Q&A with Jonathan Blake and Mike Jackson, Co-founder, Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners The Common Press Thursday 20th Feb –– 7 for 7.30pm Reading by Simon Maddrell featuring Robert Hamberger reading Nude Against A Rock And Q&A with Jonathan Blake Online Launch of Patient L1 Monday 24th Feb –– 7.30 to 8.30pm Reading by Simon Maddrell Q&A with Jonathan Blake
“From a nineteen-fifties childhood to activism with Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, via the very darkest days of the epidemic, Maddrell’s sparkling poems tell our ever-shifting queerstory in the most personal of ways.. They are luscious, witty and heart-felt.” Neil Bartlett
Black text on pale green background Jonathan Blake, Patient L1 by Simon Maddrell This compelling verse memoir tells the story of Jonathan Blake. Born in 1949, Jonathan has lived through all the major advances in, and challenges to, LGBTQ+ lives in the UK, including the AIDS global epidemic. Jonathan was one of the first to be diagnosed with HIV in 1982, so early that he was named Patient L1 at London Middlesex Hospital. Jonathan shared 39 years of his life with Nigel Young, both of whom were members of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners — immortalised in the film Pride. Created from dozens of interviews, Simon Maddrell has crafted, in Jonathan's voice, a moving tribute to an extraordinary life.
Photo of Keir Starmer facing a mirror with the text: “Some politicians have become casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law.” Keir Starmer Additional quotations below: Keir Starmer, 2024: “I'm well aware of the definition of genocide, and that is why I've never described (Gaza) as, and referred to (Gaza) as, genocide.” “Because let’s be very clear this was not a defensive action by Iran.” "I think that Israel does have that right (to cut off water and electrify to Gaza)” Keir Starmer, 2015: (The Iraq War was) "not lawful under international law because there was no UN resolution expressly authorising it." Keir Starmer, 2014: Starmer represents Croatia at the genocide hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, arguing that Serbia wanted to seize a third of Croatian territory during the 1990s war and eradicate the Croatian population.