I return to your site for the first time in a while, and I see our name in lights! Along with a certain Mr. Elcock of these pages, I concentrate on press ‘n’ publicity for Love Southend, and helped the Echo with their two-page spread, inspired by Love Basildon.
Perhaps I coulda worn my Love Southend T-Shirt to Greenbelt…but ya might’ve missed me anyway – I was in the Press Office much of the time, helping to run the Festival’s press operation.
But us Greenbelters ought to stick together!!

Happy reading

I suspect that Basildon Bond writing paper users resent the association with Basildon. I’m sure my late mother would have switched to another brand if she had lived in Chelmsford and discovered the local opinion of Basildon. But then I think those few Basildon residents who can write at all (except for Dave of course) need that strong-lined guide paper.

Aaron, if you want to know what Basildon-style love is like, think “Essex girls”. Not that such things are that different in Chelmsford. Ah, I see you’re American trying to pretend to be Canadian, so maybe you will need some help from Wikipedia to understand this one.

Or “Love: Basildon Style.” What would Basildon-style love be like, anyhow? I’ve only gotten as far as Canterbury.

I can understand Love Southend much better. I really enjoyed living there for 9 months.

My mother, who was ‘new middle-class’, used to write the notes to excuse me from P.E., or ‘Matthew has been ill with malaria’ letters on blue Basildon Bond notepaper. They had the strong-lined guide paper that you put behind the page you wrote on to make sure your writing didn’t drift all over the place like an uneducated person’s writing.

Are all people in Basildon middle-class and good note-writers?

It’s weird, I feel strangely grateful to Basildon Bond for getting me off P.E. so many times. Am I as grateful to my mother, I wonder…