I Threw a Stone

By Oscar Sparrow

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A collection of poems from the front-line of urban life, the cabs of lorries and the bluebell woods of mortality. Oscar Sparrow is the Poet Lorry-Park.

Oscar Sparrow was born in 1949 as the sonic boom of jets and babies began to draw a new world map of umbilical vapour trails. He was brought up on cod liver oil and National Health orange juice. As the colour red leached its way out of the map of the British Empire, Oscar attended a die-hard Church school designed to create noble savages to serve what was left of the savage Nobles. The Eleven Plus exam revealed that he could not even count to eleven and he became a mechanic, labourer, truck driver, boxer and poet. He read Wordsworth and Ford Cortina manuals in a lorry cab near both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Eventually he found himself in London where he joined the Metropolitan Police. Car chases and riots followed but he did not take it personally. He spent his spare time touring the Art galleries, singing Piaf and learning French and Italian. Eventually The Authorities fell for the con and gave him a desk job in the Art department of Interpol London at Scotland Yard. Throughout all this time he was a would be poet, short story writer and novelist.

To Oscar, poetry is the spoken word. The audio book is now available on Audible, all poems performed by Oscar.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oscar Sparrow
• Release date: Mar 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463382134

Oscar Sparrow

Oscar Sparrow was born in Winchester UK in 1949, apparently thanks to the American Marshal Aid programme to re-build Europe after the war. As the colour red leached its way out of the map of the British Empire, Oscar attended a die-hard Church school designed to create noble savages to serve what was left of the savage Nobles. The Eleven Plus exam revealed that he could not even count to eleven and he became a mechanic, labourer, truck driver, boxer and poet. He read Wordsworth and Ford Cortina manuals in a lorry cab near both Oxford and Cambridge universities. He married a kind forgiving woman who eventually forgave herself for that one big mistake. He has several wonderful children and hopes that one day they will all meet.At the age of 25 he heard the music of Edith Piaf and learned to sing all her songs. A few years later he realised she was French and that he was an ugly swan not a beautiful duckling. The shock propelled him to London where he joined the Metropolitan Police. Car chases and riots followed but he did not take it personally. He spent his spare time touring the Art galleries, singing Piaf and learning Italian. Eventually The Authorities fell for the con and gave him a desk job in the Art department of Interpol London at Scotland Yard.One day a few years later, the lure of the wild swept him away to the roads of Europe as road gipsy trucker. His love of fried battered fish eventually drew him back to England where he drove sewage tankers and set up a taxi business. Throughout all this time he was a would be poet, short story writer and novelist. He has rejection slips from every great publisher in the world, some actually signed. Now, semi-resident in France he is a Romantic novelist and part time bus driver. The quest never ends.

Book preview

Foreword

Dear Reader, 

During these difficult times where many of you may be in isolation and maybe under financial stress, we at Gallo Romano Media have made all our e book titles by Emma Calin and Oscar Sparrow free. It is a small gesture but perhaps it may help.

https://www.emmacalin.com/coronavirus-lockdown-free-reading

Our love and best wishes to you all.

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Poetry requires no introduction. It is the uninvited guest too polite to intrude. In a room packed with burbling strangers it is no more than the clink of glasses, or the ringing of a distant phone that cannot be for us. Just maybe someone should at least pick up the receiver.

I was flattered and delighted to be asked to edit this small edition. I suspect that left to himself he would have chosen nothing and gone to feed birds in the park. Oscar’s principal theory of writing is that most of it is too long. I have chosen poems from different points in his life but I will not labour the provenance. He has described his poetry as "A whispered truth proclaimed by shouted