Terrible winter of 1963? Omg, you are almost as old as me! 😲 

Thank you Steve, that was very interesting. 🤓 C'mon folks, spill the beans. 😬 

I shall give it a day or two before I am forced to bore the pants off everyone with my spiel. 😑 😳 

well it started at the age of eight with my first poem, then I tried to write better compositions (because I literally sucked at everything else) eventually they became stories, then at school they had this Mother's day and I had no books of poetry to read a poem and I decided to write one myself I was the last one to read, the applause was huge. I had no idea I was supposed to find a poem by a proper poet, a teacher approached me and asked who wrote this? my reply shocked her and just because it was bloody good I wasn't punished. the rest is history a composition that -as expected - was written as a short story (my protagonist was an ant) about saving money won a prize but I hadn't the ability to comprehend what it means to be writer - it was much later when two young boys that belonged to the youth of the communist party asked me to register "they need pens like yours" what made me understand how writing can make you successful in society.

I declined proudly. Writing is personal business.

and then it was the exams that brought to your language, Proficiency, I could write a short story which became two whole pages and that's probably the reason I got a B, because I wasn't that good at 'grammar in context' perhaps oral speaking did it too, I chose to read The Lord of the Flies and really had a lot to say, I guess that English woman was glad at some point that I had stopped talking in probably Zorba like English about the book. tee hee, a few years later another English man colleague of mine who was a translator of Homer and was married to a Greek woman from Sparta, was reading my poems in Greek and he said "I will translate this one, it would be lovely in English"

what? hey I said to myself I can play with both languages, I was 25 and wrote my first poem directly in english. I wonder if I still have it. Anyway, I started translating other poems and stories too then I had to translate into Greek the ones I had written in English, a mess really, and I can attest: Languages merge and create a different grammar which usually brings more problems.

Let me introduce myself to new members and others who are unfamiliar with my work. I am 85-years old, I was born in Italy and become a UK resident in 1961. I joined UKAuthors in 2003.

Trying to remember how and when I started writing poetry and prose is like attempting to recall what I had for breakfast seventy years ago which is probably the date when I started taking literature seriously.

I had been an avid reader since my younger days and graduated from comics to magazines to books in no time at all. Although my time was filled with other activities such as cartoon-drawings, compiling crosswords, as well as solving them, and amateur dramatics, reading remained my first love.

I came across a publication that invited readers to submit three short stories for a competition offering as prizes books by authors such as Emilio Salgari who was my favourite at the time. Two unfortunate things happened:

I won second prize because I only submitted two entries instead of the required three and I never received my prize because the publishers went bust. The only consolation was that the competition had no entry fee.

I put prose writing on the back burner and turned to writing poems, a good number of which were accepted and printed in other magazines. It was simply a hobby and never envisaged a literary career. This is true even today; I write purely for fun even though occasional financial rewards have come my way.

My biggest achievement was linguistic; when I came to England I didn't have a word of English and yet after six months of intensive study I obtained the Lower Cambridge Certificate in the English Language. It took several years for me to build up enough vocabulary to enable me to start writing in a new language. It was 2003 when I discovered UKAuthors and ABCtales and began contributing to both. I still do.

Interesting history there, Luigi. Compliments on your written English; its standard is far higher than that of some people I know/have known. Not only that but the transition to applying it to poetry and British humour is remarkable. 

Do you talk to anyone in Italian these days?

Your competition suddenly reminded me of a school magazine short story contest in the '60s. I got the most votes for some odd reason and still have the book I won. 

@stevef

Thanks. Anybody else willing to reveal themselves? Come on, folks. "let's be havin' you!" to borrow Delia Smith's message to the Norwich fans.

I think Alison's still busy covering the tracks of her unsavoury past before admitting to anything. I'm not sure how far back the Scottish Statute of Limitations goes. 😯 

@  *evil grin* 😈  

I shall reveal all in due course. Meanwhile I am delighted and uplifted to see the many ways we arrived at this juncture. 

I cannot claim to most of what has been revealed here. My path has been convoluted and interspersed with many hurdles.
Serendipity has been my friend. Taking me from a 'dreamer flibbertigibbet'  (school teacher's opinion) to a deep thinker and being able to combine my two passions to letting loose my creativity for praise or ridicule. 
There is bravery in putting thoughts to words to then posting for the world to see us in our nakedness. For to try to remain partly clothed (to me at least) is mediocre and a useless exercise.