Searching for the sons of poet Leslie Reid

Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping us return Leslie Reid's poetry legacy to his sons over the past 24 hours. Help has come from around the globe including much appreciated backing from poets Judith Taylor and Jane Aldous and from Don Share the editor of Poetry magazine.

 

Leslie Reid in Columbus, Ohio with Bridget Khursheed and Srimati Basu 1990

Although we have had some leads, but we haven't yet found Lez's sons and are relying on your help to do so. Thanks to those of you who have put us in touch with the local Devon press. And as suggested, here is a picture of Leslie Reid the year before he died - probably at a similar age to his sons Joseph Reid and Duncan Reid. Perhaps this will help jog memories.

Poetic inheritance in a Marks and Spencer bag

Can you help restore poetry to its rightful owners?

A friend of ours has been in touch with a bag of poems written by Leslie Trevor Reid (April 11th 1964 - January 30th 1991). Leslie was a warm and gifted poet with a unique voice - compared to John Skelton by American poetry professor David Citino - who grew up in Oxford later working as a bricklayer but also spent time attending classes at Ohio State University, USA. Leslie died tragically young in a car accident. He had just started publishing but, in the days before social media has left little trace except for a poetic inheritance in an M&S bag.

At the time of his death, his two sons Joseph and Duncan were very small and went to live with their mother Kay in Brixham in Devon. All contact was lost and the poems were put into storage in the Scottish Borders. These young boys will now be in their late twenties. And probably have little knowledge of what their Dad wrote or created.

Can you help return the poems - some of which concern them directly - and Lez's picture as shown to its rightful owners? Get in touch in the usual way.

And thanks. It is about time.