Forever Keele eZine Summer 2020 | Page 24

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you freeze. Lock every joint and limb,
or slur, struggle to dress, shuffle.
Onlookers will mimic your movement,
point and laugh and call you drunk
and you will weep at the injustice.
It is childish I know but I feel a tremor
of excitement as you lever yourself,
ponderously, from a chair, then, as you
near the perpendicular, I drop you back
down.
I love shrinking your hand writing
Eventually, my friend, I will rob you of
your expression as I will rob you of the
ability to write your name.
Rest assured, you will have good days
otherwise, how can you appreciate
the bad. You will hate me as I,
remorselessly, restock my larder and
that, dear boy, is how it should be.
Yours most sincerely,
DPD.
Alumnus releases album of music
Keele alumnus (Music & Psychology,
Class of 1990) Jim Nield, a multiinstrumental
writer/performer and
arranger has released an album of
music, his first one for ten years.
The album is a collection of meditative
acoustic guitar pieces using a range
of alternative and baritone tunings.
Some are spontaneous improvisations.
The original recordings were made ten
years ago and the lockdown provided
Jim the necessary free time to arrange
bass and woodwind parts and finish
the project.
To listen, download and read more:
https://jimnield.bandcamp.com/
releases
Keele alumnus writes two new
books about the future of work
John Howkins (International Relations,
Class 1968) has written two new
books on work: ‘Invisible Work’
published in March, and a short ebook
published a few months later due to
the Covid-19 crisis. Both books can be
purchased online.
In memoriam
Keele pays tribute to alumni and other members of our community who have
sadly passed away
© Photo: Roger Bartley
Audrey Newsome
The warmest tributes have been
paid to Audrey Newsome, founder of
Keele’s student counselling service in
the 1960s which was the first of its kind
in the UK, who has sadly died.
Audrey arrived at Keele in 1962 as
the Assistant Appointments Officer in
the careers department and quickly
recognised the emotional difficulties
students faced during university,
and the lack of formal mental health
provisions in place.
Previous experience of working with
teenagers within youth employment
services armed Audrey with the
knowledge that much of the student
population had nowhere to turn for the
day-to-day problems they encountered.
Audrey found that her professional
responsibility for career guidance could
not be separated from developing an
understanding of their non-academic
lives in which a host of problems -
social, emotional, romantic, familial
and others - could inhibit their ability to
study and learn effectively.
When Audrey was made Head of
the Appointments Service (Careers)
in 1964, she soon set to work on a
proposal for a unified counselling
service, which won enthusiastic
agreement from the Vice-Chancellor at
the time. This service was to be offered
to all students as they adjusted to
campus life, with the aim of eliminating
stigma around mental health.
For over 21 years, Audrey counselled
thousands of students and staff
members, putting Keele at the forefront
of student support and counselling in
the UK. During this time, she published
‘Student Counselling in Practice’,
the first textbook devoted to student
counselling in the UK which went on
to influence the development of similar
services in many other universities.
Audrey was a formative member of the
Association of Student Counsellors
and British Association for Counselling.
She was awarded an honorary degree
by the Open University for services to
education and also made a Fellow of
the British Association for Counselling
and Psychotherapy.
In 2015, Audrey was welcomed back
to Keele for the naming ceremony of
the Newsome building, home to the
University’s Counselling and Emotional
Wellbeing Service.