The Jake Thackray Project

I wrote yesterday about the Project, and I want to say something about the many good friends I have made there, all of them known personally to me now, but not when we began communicating on the JT Project message board in 2002.

David, the producer, whose heart I won by sending him a bottle of single malt when he was in the last crucifying stages of burning the Project CDs, and who consequently gave me a credit in the tray notes.

Keith, who won my heart by offering me lifts to the various Jakefests around the country, not always on his way, with a commitment to unlimited comfort stops en route.

Ian, whose desire to sing the songs of Georges Brassens in English involved me in translating them from the French, thereby enabling me to renew a skill I'd forgotten I had.

Malcy, who calls me 'Madam', says his legs are as good as mine, and is prepared to carry on playing and singing, no matter what tomfoolery is going on behind his back.

Terry, who sends me rude emails, giving me permission to reply to him in kind, a pleasant indulgence for an otherwise respectable old woman.

And not to have you think I only make friends with men, there is -

Sarah, a professional writer, who exchanged poems with me in the early days of the Project, and then told me I was a writer too.

Pam, whose sense of fun is equal to if not greater than mine, and who bought old postcards on eBay for me of my first home , without being asked, and without letting me pay for them.

Maggie, another funster, who with Pam and myself and other lively members of the Ladies' Magic Circle, enjoys dressing up and playing the fool at our Jakefests, to illustrate Jake's songs.
[The picture, by Fiona Macfarlane, shows Pam, myself and Maggie, left to right.]

[©JudithTaylor2005]