Unfinished Business

David taught on VSO in Sri Lanka between studies at Cambridge and Oxford. He then taught in a variety of settings and also worked for four years with homeless people in London before finding his way to 20 years' work as a Class Teacher in Steiner education. David grew up in Painswick and his latest title 'A Painswick Panorama" (Ex-Libris Press 2022) is a sustained poetic celebration sub-titled 'Glimpses into the History of a Cotswold Village' Other collections in preparation include a life of Kaspar Hauser and the final sequence in his 'treasury' series: 'A Treasury of Earth: from Rocks to Crystals'. David has two grown-up sons and lives with his wife in the hilltop village of Orcop overlooking the Black Mountains.

A superb accomplishment…and very much a piece of work that needs to be read as a whole…It deals with big, universal and complex themes and in a way that is accessible to the general reading public. And the basis of the diction is a sort of authoritative folk idiom. Both focus attention on power, its attraction and its tendency to lead to corrupt behaviour. In both there is a very strong sense of of human strengths and weaknesses, the ‘fire’ that prompts an energising will to independence and the determination of those in power to hold on to it whatever the cost. Humans are victims of their own frailties yet there is a continuing spirit for a better way of doing things…The tone you achieve is perfect for your subject. It is not preachy but it is informative and it does have a strong moral purpose. You vary the rhythms from section to section. The imagery you use is illuminating,unifying and vivid. The structure is very tight and effective. I like the Progress and Epilogue sections… the challenges your questions pose for the reader. It is a beautiful and challenging piece of work and I shall enjoy reading and re-reading it.David Curtis