Interview with Ted Gooda

Hello Poetry Lovers

And welcome back to the Talk Show Studio!

(Audience cheer ecstatically)

Yes, you should be excited, because our special guest today is unique and prolific poet Ted Gooda!!

(Standing ovation as our esteemed guest glides on)

Great to be here, Heather. Love what you’ve done with the place!

A bit about myself? I began life as ‘Theresa McEvoy’ in North London, but my parents ran pubs and we moved to one in Billingshurst, West Sussex when I was around 11.

Coming from London and stepping off a train into that deserted village on a Sunday afternoon, I thought I’d moved to the end of the world. I rushed back to London as soon as I was old enough.

I studied English & Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths College, by which time most people were calling me ‘Ted’ or ‘Teddy’ instead of Theresa. I trained as a lighting designer, taking 4 shows to the Edinburgh Festival in the late 1990s and working in lots of fringe theatre venues around Central and South East London.

I did plenty of travelling and even lived in Australia for a while, before deciding it was time to curb the wanderlust and be a grown-up: I trained as an English and Drama teacher.

In my late 20s, I realised my parents might have been on to something, and moved right back to that deserted village. I taught for more than 25 years in schools in Surrey and Sussex as well as returning to Australia to teach in Hamilton, Western Victoria.

Before the pandemic, I’d accidentally become a ghostwriter, and as the writing contracts grew, I gradually stepped back from teaching, although I still teach run creative writing workshops from time to time. I made the leap and write full-time, (I’m just on ghostwritten book number 16), plus organise literary festivals.

Poetry has always been there, I think. I wrote terrible poetry in my teens – about the storm of ‘87, the Gulf War, environmental disasters, things that were in the news. Very earnest and very awful. And I taught a lot of poetry over the years.

About 15 years ago I won a writing competition with a poem about becoming a mother, and that encouraged me to think I could do more. I finally published my first collection of poems, Silence & Selvedge, in 2024.

My favourite poem as a child was I Saw a Jolly Hunter by Charles Causley. I learnt it by heart and thought it was hilarious. Another favourite, that I could probably still recite now, was Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth by Pam Ayres.

And I loved all the poems that snuck into Beatrix Potter’s stories.

As a student, I got heavily into Irish poetry (the McEvoy influence perhaps?), especially Yeats and Heaney. But Luke Wright has probably had the single biggest practical influence on my poetry life. I love his poetic word-play and the energy of his live shows.

I met him early on in my teaching career when he did a bunch of school performances and have been a fan ever since.

You know me, Heather, I don’t sit still. After coordinating the Farnham Literary Festival in March, and BilliLit in April, I’m performing in a theatre show at the Brighton Fringe for May. It’s called Mannequim. I co-wrote it with Lexy Medwell and it’s full of poetry, exploring all sorts of gender issues and tackling that question of what it means to be a woman. (Quite timely given last month’s controversial ruling.)

Then The Shrinking Girl, ghostwritten for Louise Allen, comes out in June. I’m directing one of my favourite plays for Billingshurst Dramatic Society, My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley, which will be on in July.

I have a couple of poetry events booked for August and September and then my second poetry pamphlet, The Pull of Water, will be out later in the autumn.

My best poetry gig was for the Shelley Memorial Project in 2024, where my name was on the bill with Louis de Bernières (although he had a longer slot than my 15 minutes). I’ve framed the poster. Will I ever top that?

My worst was around 4 years ago in Steyning, a village which has a rather famous resident. There were about 20 of us in a pub doing a single poem each, which had to be Christmas-themed.

It was almost my turn, when a woman arrived late and squashed in beside me, thereby taking the next slot. She recited, by heart, a beautiful, wholesome poem about a Christmas tree, which had just been published as The Christmas Pine. It was only Julia feckin’ Donaldson – and I had to follow her with my sweary poem about buying crap gifts as Christmas presents. It was mortifying.

Do I really have to end this interview on ‘mortifying’? You’re mean! 😉

Er – well, Dobby sold them to me at a reasonable price and er ….. She’s rumpled us, Dobby. Quick!

(Our guest and Dobby leg it up the lighted stairs)

Do look out for Ted, she’s a wonderful poet. For a copy of Ted’s book Silence & Selvedge, go to Ted’s website to order http://theresagooda.co.uk

Thanks for attending the talk show studio, Poetry Lovers. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon….