
		Monday, 6th October 2008

Biography

What next?

After the war Patrick stumbled into his only, "normal" job, acting teacher for a prep school in Tunbridge Wells. He did not do this intentionally and purely as a matter of duty to a friend. Patrick's character obviously infected the atmosphere as he is still friends with many of the boys he taught. They inspired Patrick's one poetic masterpiece....believe it or not this was once published as a serious poem! (see Futility)

Patrick had two academic papers published by the British Astronomical Association (BAA), and in 1957 was invited to write a book about the moon. This led in 1957 to the airing of the very first "Sky at Night" which Patrick has now presented every month since, (with one exception) giving him the world record for the longest-running television programme with the same presenter.

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Futility

The deep futility of ephemeral things;
Which stir the soul to unimagined dreams;
Of Brussels sprouts, and spinach in the snow.
The birds' shrill call in the translucent dawn;
To embryonic beetles, and pale moths;
Which hide their heads in shallow troughs of earth,
Naked and fearful, as the world awakes;
To thought transcendent life, and cosmic death.
The earthworm, crawling to its nameless tomb;
All energy dispersed, to form new creeds;
New auras of the spirits of the wild,
In the deep pool of life, which ceaseless flows;
Through endless time and space, in rhythmic praise;
Of all creative impulses, which dwarf;
The puny concepts of the human mind.
All, all, shall pass into oblivion...

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