[R. S. Gwynn]

I got the following from The Spectator. Can anyone suggest a poetry-related organization (not the Poetry Society)?


Dear Mr Gwynn,

Thank you so much for entering our poetry competition last month. We have picked you as the winner. However, as you appear to be in America it will be rather difficult to send you a prize. Could I therefore ask you to nominate a charity that we could wire some money to on your behalf?


Yours sincerely,



David Blackburn

[Janice D. Soderling]

Haven't they heard of Paypal?

Nice that you won, anyhoo, Sam.

[Ann Drysdale]

What fresh hell is this? I am aware of other prizewinning Merkins who have been properly rewarded hitherto...

[Jayne Osborn]

This is a bit of a cheek.

Suppose it was our dear friend Marion Shore who had won - she does this comp and we won Speccie places together one week - who we all know (from her recent thread) would be both deserving of the prize and needing it! It's presumptious of them to assume the winner doesn't need the money.

Sam, why not give them Marion's address (available from Mary Meriam) and let her have the dosh if you don't need it? Or have them send it to John or me and we'll sort it out.

[Allen Tice]

Wire it to me care of the Classical Association near that British Museum.

[Mary Meriam]

Originally Posted by Jayne Osborn

Sam, why not give them Marion's address (available from Mary Meriam)

Don't think I have Marion's address. Must be someone else.

[Jayne Osborn]

Sorry, Mary, I meant Julie Stoner.

I also have Marion's address btw.

[R. S. Gwynn]

The prize was a bottle of champagne, so I had it sent to Philip Hoy c/o The Waywiser Press. Phil has done a great job of keeping the transAtlantic lines open.

Sam

[John Whitworth]

Congratulations, Sam. What a bloody cheek they have - a charity indeed! Presumably they are talking about the cost of shipping , though why it is impossible to buy you a bottle of champagne in the United Sates bears me. Anyway, your poem was undoubtedly the best of a small field. Mine was the second best.

[R. S. Gwynn]

Yours was better, John, but mine won on the basis of PC. We all know the French are dirty, but we mustn't say so. I did consider having the bottle sent to you, but I thought you might take that as a gesture of condescension. So I sent it to Phil instead. I hope it's Veuve Cliquot.

I didn't post the rest of the letter, which was very nice and not cheeky at all. Actually I was rather charmed by the invite, as I assumed that they thought that I (as a good liberal American) would consider a charity instead of somebody who'd just guzzle the stuff down. I looked for a Gypsy Children's Poetry Fund but couldn't find one, alas.

Sam